went up this evening at The Washington Post. It is on the website titled George Conway: Trump went ballistic at me on Twitter. Here’s why he reacts with such rage.
It begins like this:
Americans died from covid-19 at the rate of about one every 42 seconds during the past month. That ought to keep any president awake at night.
Conway lays out how Trump, already upset
at a detailed New York Times article that described how he watches television at all hours
began rage tweeting, eventually exploding at the new ad by the Lincoln Project, of which Conway is a principal, title “Mourning in America” that by now everyone here has probably seen. That set off a further round of rage tweeting, directed specifically at Conway, including the racist labeling of Conway as “Moonface” (a slur at people of Asian background, as is Conway, whose mother was Filipina).
Unfortunately for Trump, Conway is a hell of a writer.
For example, consider these words:
It may strike you as deranged that a sitting president facing a pandemic has busied himself attacking journalists, political opponents, television news hosts and late-night comedians — even deriding a former president who merely called for empathy and unity in response to the virus. It may strike you as nuts that Trump bragged about his supposed Facebook ranking in the middle of a virus task-force briefing, asserted that millions would have died were it not for him, boasted that “the ‘Ratings’ of my News Conferences etc.” were driving “the Lamestream Media . . . CRAZY,” and floated bogus miracle cures, including suggesting that scientists consider injecting humans with household disinfectants such as Clorox.
Conway admits that he was among those who did not listen until it was too late.
I cannot blockquote all of the powerful writing in this op ed, so let me just skip to the end of this superb piece, to the final two paragraphs:
Now it all matters, painfully and concretely. Trump’s lying, his self-regard, his self-soothing, his lack of empathy, his narcissistic rage, his contempt for norms, rules, laws, facts and simple truths — have all come home to roost. Now he sees his poll numbers fall accordingly, and lashes out with ever-increasing anger. For deep in his psyche he knows the truth. Because he fears being revealed as a fake or deranged, he’ll call others fake or deranged. Because he fears losing, he’ll call them losers instead.
And while Trump’s mind roils in rage, too many Americans are losing their lives. That’s the losing that matters, to everyone but him.
Now go read the entire piece. And pass it on widely.