Memoir, from just outside the box

Fifty Shades of Orange

2018 / Year #2 of the Trump Administration

Late on any given sleepless night, I find myself uneasy, restless, talking to the ceiling in the dark, rehashing quotes from recent political analysis.

"Trump has positioned himself as a White Power president."

"Trump's core appeal is his promise to restore white male heterosexual Christian dominance, to displace multicultural pluralism, and to end the need for white male restraint."

"Trump voters are entirely invested in him emotionally. He is their political id, the hubris of dying white Christian patriarchal America."

Trump is our "crackpot racist uncle."

"Trump doesn't just tell lies. He piles them on top of each other in overwhelming profusion. He inhabits them for a while, then casts them away, like a snake shedding its skin."

“Trump's rise and his presidency have brought so many of the cancers of American life to the surface."

kakistocracy government run by the worst, least qualified or most unscrupulous citizens.

The red pill metaphor is taken from the movie The Matrix. "To the Alt-Right, being red-pilled means abandoning liberalism as a lie. It means treating one's own prejudices as intuitions rather than distortions."

"Because the red pill experience is so intense, progressives should think about how to counter dynamics that can make banal right-wing bigotry seem like seductive secret knowledge."

“Trump is the all-consuming maw, an infinite pit of need, a blood-sucking vampire who feeds off those around him to sustain his vanity."

"Trump's tribalism is the evil twin of community. It is based on hatred, us/them thinking, conspiracy mongering and distrust. His tribalism creates belonging, but on vicious grounds."

“Trump and Fox News have turned the Republican base into rage junkies.”

"Trump loves cementing his supporters' adoration while making his foes squirm. He creates a battle that invites his opponents to overreach."

The Republican base embraces Trump, the folk hero, in order to create an explanation for their personal defeat.

Too many males in the Republican base have suffered the moment when they totally lost faith in life. In order to avoid being consumed by self-loathing, they concoct a wild conspiracy narrative that absolves them of all responsibility for their downfall.

It's the blame game, and the wilder the narrative, the more righteous and blind they become. Trump has provided the raw meat for that wild narrative.

I have found that, in any conversation with a member of the Republican base, it is futile to counter, to object to his irrational stance.

I try to draw him out into the open. “Who hurt you?” I want to hear his story.

I no longer have the need to correct his politics or rescue his narrow MAGA soul.

Don't Let the Past Defeat the Future