Have not posted much lately, perhaps too stunned by the day to day news flow. Struggling to understand what is going on with the 40% who still support Trump. Cannot grasp how deeply in denial the MAGAs are.
Read about the many ways we play psychological tricks on ourselves, but reading isn’t knowing, isn’t feeling. Don’t have an emotional grip on it.
My latest interpretation seems too simple, really just a cliche, a meme that has been around so long, it must have some validity.
The Triumph of Hope over Experience. Choose the reality that makes you feel good. Take the easy way, the path of least resistance, follow the road that’s smooth, avoid bumps that might rattle your brain, make you change your mind about who you are and what you believe.
When I assembled the Barack & Michelle collage (above), it was late 2016, maybe January 2017, just weeks before the inauguration. Looking backward at eight years of the Obamas, thinking Trump couldn’t possibly be as bad as he presented on the campaign. Hoping he would rise to the occasion of being presidential. Focused on the reassuring past, discounting & disbelieving the impending future. A brief triumph of hope over experience.
Behold the MAGA. Your guy won against all odds, against all predictions, overturned conventional wisdom. Then he took the oath, took the White House, followed his instincts and kept his promise to shake up the establishment, really tried to Make America Great Again. His struggle became your struggle. Those opposing Trump were opposing America, opposing you and all you had come to believe about yourself. You shared his vision for two years, then the 2018 Blue Wave rolled in and took the House. One year later, that new House impeached your guy.
But your guy wasn’t removed from the White House, didn’t resign. He held on, fought on, was turning things around, going for a second term. Then this so-called Corona Virus appeared and ruined everything: crashed the economy, took your job, your freedom. But you still had your belief in your guy, who promised the virus would disappear, like magic. But why didn’t it go away? Maybe it did. Maybe it was never real. Just a hoax. Your guy said so. You believed him.
And then your guy, your president, Trump, got sick, got the virus, which wasn’t a hoax after all.
Experience, reality, is chipping away at you, your beliefs, your guy, your hope.
-30-
VOTE FOR JOE - IF YOU WANT TO LIVE
Vote like your life depends on it.
cafepress.com/voteforjoe2020