Replies to post #299445 on Tornado Alley (PROG)

[BOREALIS]

Donald Trump is a crook and a liar ... but that's not the real problem

Mark Sumner
Daily Kos Staff
Wednesday January 30, 2019 · 1:49 PM CST

Whether or not the United States can make it through February without another government shutdown may come down to a critical distinction: Is Donald Trump dishonest, or delusional? Neither one is exactly a thrilling property in someone who has a big “does not summon a Diet Coke” button on their desk, but one of them—dishonest Trump—represents someone whose positions may all be lies, but whose interests still fall within reality. The other one—delusional Trump—can’t be reasoned with, for the very simple reason that he lacks reason.

As the Los Angeles Times has noted, Donald Trump has a habit of making up imaginary friends. ...
https://www.latimes.com/politics/la-na-pol-trump-imaginary-friends-20190130-story.html ...
Sometimes these friends are generic, such as the “everyone” who told him that he won the debates against Hillary Clinton, or the “many” who say he’s accomplished more than George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, and God. Other times, Trump’s imagination conjures up more specific figures, such as “Jim,” his friend who used-to-love-France and now-hates-France. A near relative of Jim would be the “tough, tough” guy who broke down in awestruck tears at all Trump was doing to save the country.

Lately, Trump’s imaginary retinue has collected a set of friends who occupy a kind of intermediate position: unknown members of a known group. For example, there were the “presidents” who told Trump they should have built a wall, a position denied by every member of this group who lives outside of Trump’s tie closet. But the real dividing line, the liar vs. lunatic pivot, falls over another group: Democrats who support the wall.

Trump: I see a lot of the Democrats, almost all of them, are breaking and saying, ‘Look, walls are good, walls are good.’ Big difference from what you had two or three weeks ago.

If these Democrats are more real than the New Jersey Muslims who danced through Trump’s imagination following 9/11, then perhaps he’ll get his wall. Only … this doesn’t seem to be the case. Like the shoulda-coulda presidents, the membership of wall-loving Democrats appears to be absolutely zero. Instead, Democrats remain united behind the concrete—or steel—fact that the wall is a profoundly silly and wasteful idea, a lingering monument to Trump’s ego and the ability to whip people into mindless responses through fear.

As the Times article pointed out, just one day after Trump made his comment about “almost all Democrats” breaking his way, not one Democrat actually voted to give him money for his wall. It’s not that there wasn’t a break—it was just all away from Trump.

In less than three weeks, a conference committee tasked with finding a border security funding solution is going to emerge from its chambers and put an answer on Trump’s desk. That answer is not going to be “here’s a wall, no questions asked.” In fact, since Trump has insisted that he won’t deal on DACA, and the time period involved isn’t really amenable to a more comprehensive solution on immigration, it’s doubtful that the answer coming from the committee will be much different than it was going in, which was “No.”

There may be a nice new coat of paint, or some funds for some wall-related and yet still not completely stupid policies. What there will not be is $5.7 billion, with blanket permission to spend it putting up fences, wall, slats, or chickenwire along the entire U.S. border. “Almost all” of Democrats who support Trump’s wall will hurry back to the land they share with the Franco-phobic Jim and those rooftop Muslims.
And women with blue tape on their mouths … though that is another part of Trump’s imaginary landscape.
https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2019/1/17/1827021/-Donald-Trump-has-developed-a-weird-obsession-with-women-with-tape-on-their-mouths

And then what?

A simply dishonest Trump might decide to cut his losses. He could claim some sort of technical victory, toss a few “virtual” or “smart” or “next generations” in front of the word wall, and it might well sound pretty good. Who wouldn’t want a next generation virtual smart wall standing guard over the border? It almost sounds like it could be operated by new ICE administrator Jean-Luc Picard.

Unfortunately, the answer is more likely that Trump is dishonest and delusional. Even when he loses the fight by 110 percent, he’ll still march out to explain how he knows everyone is behind him. And then he’ll take the country into a shutdown, where he can talk about imaginary federal workers who completely support his position to bankrupt their families and force their kids onto the street.

Because Trump is delusional enough that he really believes his supporters will stick with him through anything—except, of course, a bad word from Rush Limbaugh or Ann Coulter.

https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2019/1/30/1830963/-Donald-Trump-is-a-crook-and-a-liar-but-that-s-not-the-real-problem