Post-Election Analysis

I've been examining my faith since the election three weeks ago. I went to work the polls beginning at 6am with a positive feeling about our nation's future. I knew from previous elections that my small town in Massachusetts was a Trump town, but surely the country would see through the lies, corruption, and amorality of the Moron of Mar-a-Lago. As the day wore on, and seeing the high percentage of Trump ballots, I started getting worried. I checked the results on social media when I got home for a couple of hours, and I knew that America had made a disastrous mistake. Again. My faith in the innate goodness of my fellow man was profoundly broken that night. Again. In lieu of checking out how my body would respond to a diet of heroin and Fritos, I decided to channel my disillusionment into an essay. I love making lists. What could possess a rational adult to cast a vote for a man with no honor, no integrity, and no qualifications? I came up with thirteen explanations for what millions of Americans did on November 5th. Not every explanation applies to every Trump voter, but every Trump voter subscribed to at least one of these irrationales for their choice of chaos and dementia over progress and sanity.

Misogynoir
The Economy
Daddy Issues
Racism
Snowflakiness
Privilege
Ennui
Memory Issues
Blind Faith
Inferiority Complex
Unrealistic Expectations
Nihilism
Single Issue Militancy

1) Misogynoir – A sexy word for an ugly thing

It’s no secret women are incapable of making rational decisions. They’re way too emotional to run a household, let alone a country. It’s a crime that feminists are trying to force young men to treat women with respect. They can’t even define the word ‘woman’. And this one? Forget about it. She slept her way to the top.

It seems counter-intuitive, but this needs to be said. This one applies to voters of every gender. A significant percentage of adults will never vote for a woman to lead the country. Any woman. A president must be virile1, Christian2, and have an external sex organ. It’s in the Constitution. It’s another sign that the Equality3 mentioned in the Preamble to the Declaration of Independence is an unattainable pipe dream in America.

Some Americans see equality as a noble cause as long as it doesn’t affect their privilege. Do they not care what happens to their mothers, sisters, or daughters? Patriarchy is one of the strongest and most insidious systems of oppression, globally. It’s dismissed by insecure males and ridiculed by the misogynists who profit from it. It’s everywhere. Read the news, and you’ll see it. Consume right-wing media, and you’ll absorb it. Go to church, and you’ll witness it. Stream a podcast bro, and you’ll hear it. Go to a woman’s shelter, and you’ll be disgusted by it.

The thinking goes, men built everything, therefore everything belongs to them. A woman’s role is strictly supportive. If they have something to contribute, they must raise their hand and ask for permission to speak. The ideal woman, according to alpha males4, anticipates and satisfies her man’s needs, and sublimates her own. The irony is that many of these men would die of a food-borne illness or bacterial infection within weeks if they had no woman in their life.

We all know women who dictate everything that happens in their relationships. This situation is equally unjust and heinous. It is not, however, justification for any man treating his domestic partner as a sex slave or punching bag. If a man can’t accept his own life partner5 as a mature and independent adult, how can he accept a woman as Commander-In-Chief, and leader of the free world? If a woman is resigned – and possibly even grateful – to be dependent on and controlled by a man, how can she picture another woman as Commander-In-Chief, and leader of the free world?

Look at the ruling elite of any dictatorship, and you’ll find men who believe they’re ordained to oppress6 women7. Look at atrocities perpetrated throughout history and across the globe, and you’ll find it’s men on both sides who are perpetrating the horrors. Today, pathetic and weak men think they’re losing their God-given right to control others simply because women are justifiably fed up with being treated like property. Trump is the Messiah of this farcical movement of Men’s Rights, and in a few months, you won’t be able to throw a red pill around Washington, D.C. without hitting an incompetent, childish, abusive chauvinist. Don’t fret, fellow men. Aggressively incompetent abusers are still in high demand. Any claim to victimhood is marketing.

1 - Or, at least pretend to be

2 - Or, at least pretend to be

3 - The use of the word ‘men’ wasn’t an oversight on the part of the founding fathers. It was 1776

4 - aka Assholes

5 - Or multiple life partners. Everyone knows men are genetically programmed to impregnate as many women as possible

6 - Also, defile, degrade, and dehumanize

7 - Any powerless or defenseless targets will do

2) C'est l'Économie, Idiot – The free market ain't free

Trump will run the economy better. He is a hugely successful businessman who will force other countries, American corporations, and American small businesses to lower their prices using experience, leadership, and machismo.

I’m not an economist, but I was sentient in 2016. Economic trends that began early in Barack Obama’s administration gave Trump a smooth runway. He took credit for executing a takeoff for a plane that was already in the air. Trump’s only legislative victory in his first term was a tax cut that supposedly spurred investment1. Trump whistled away until he was faced with a real emergency, and his incompetence and narcissism sent us into a nosedive.

In 2021, a Democratic administration had to clean up for a Republican one. Again. Under Biden/Harris, the American economy recovered from Covid faster and stronger than every other country, and we are back to pre-pandemic levels of traveling, gambling, and wasting money on loud exhaust systems, inflatable holiday figures2, and guns.

Trump delayed and botched the response to Covid in this country, leading directly to thousands of unnecessary deaths. The world’s economy was in a tailspin. Capitalism was infected. Did Republican voters think we’d return to normal in a week? Did they believe sprinkling hydroxychloroquine on the supply chain would solve everything? What actually happened is that every supplier in the chain passed on their higher costs3 to the next link in the chain until the consumer ultimately paid for it all. And we all know that the price is set by what the market will bear. If you think a Big Mac meal is more than $10 because of Biden, you’re sadly mistaken. Corporations are to blame for price gouging, not the president.

It’s impossible to use statistics to convince a right-wing disinformation addict of anything. They don’t trust numbers because they are the Devil’s playthings. Right about the time Trump was inciting an insurrection by lying about the 2020 election being stolen, Fox News and their ilk began a four-year long chant claiming Biden was responsible for high unemployment and high inflation. As the months went by and the economy improved, they grew shriller and more dishonest. A soaring stock market? Unemployment dropping? Inflation decreasing? Wages increasing? No credit where credit is due, just misplaced blame. Right-wing media claimed Biden was a disaster for the economy. Just look at the prohibitive cost of pancakes!

In a repeat of last time, there is no doubt Trump will take credit for the positive trends, and the prices of gas, groceries, and health care will be dictated by the market as they always are. Trump won’t lower prices, but addicts will fondly remember November 2024 as the good old days and give the credit to their beneficent Messiah. The hard times we’re going to go through as a direct result of Trump’s tariffs and another tax cut for the super wealthy won’t be transitory. It will last for a long time. You and I will feel the pain. Trump Inc. won’t.

1 - It didn’t. It never does.

2 - $100 for an inflatable North Pole. Do you know how many eggs that will buy?

3 - Not only their supplier’s bump. Every link took an additional tiny bite and blamed it on their supplier. It’s capitalism in action.

3) Daddy Issues – Please, please, please, protect me from the powerless and vulnerable

We’re being overrun by millions of murderers, rapists, and thieves because the border is wide open. Plus, no way Harris would be able to stand up to Putin or the Chinese guy. And what about men taking over women’s sports? Trump will put an end to that, first day.

Unfortunately, the debates over immigration, trans rights, abortion, etc… are never discussed honestly, or honorably. Trump’s lies are gospel to his followers. Statistics are dismissed as fake. Experts are con artists or paid shills. Anyone contradicting Trump’s venomous spittle is a communist and/or a pedophile. When a populace falls for a leader telling them to fear for their lives, they will look to that leader for protection.

Half the nation is suffering from Strongman Syndrome. You might think that Americans would be able to see through the act of a dementia-riddled, racist, incompetent boob, but you’d be wrong. Our strongman in the White House will be beholden to autocratic foreign leaders and domestic oligarchs. He can barely walk, let alone stand up for all Americans. He doesn’t even try to hide his intentions to direct vendettas against his sworn enemies1 in politics, business, and the media.

For all the tough guy talk from Trump’s supporters, they seem to be afraid of everything. The very real2 threat of individual criminals who are in the country illegally is blown up into an invasion. Isolated acts of arson turn into cities burning to the ground. A trans woman swimming at the collegiate level leads to the unbelievable claim that kids are coming home from school with gender affirmation surgery3. The cretinous failure who was our 45th president repeats the racist slogan that immigrants are poisoning the blood of America, inciting multiple simple-minded fools to bring their guns to public places and open fire on defenseless people.

This guy isn’t a strongman. It’s patently absurd. He’s a puppet of oligarchs, both foreign and domestic. He’s bought and paid for. Even a dweeb like Elon Musk can make him dance like a corpulent marionette. Still, millions have built him up into a mythic figure, pumping testosterone into every HVAC system in America. Look at him. Look at him as if you haven’t already debased yourself by worshipping his bloated ass. Look at him as if you had never joined his cult.

Trump is weak; in mind and body. He’s incapable of protecting a poinsettia. After watching his decline for the last nine years, it would be astonishing for him to be able carry out Presidential duties past 2025. The upshot of this deterioration will be a President Vance. Trump is an imbecilic fascist. JD Vance will be a more competent, and therefore more dangerous, fascist than the senile sack of salmonella in a suit that is Trump.

1 - Those enemies include your run-of-the-mill average liberal like me

2 - And rare

3 - A mentally competent human being could not possibly believe this nonsense from Trump. The cult does.

4) Judged By the Melanin Content of Their Skin – I’m not racist. You are.

If people would just stop talking about it, everything would be better. Anyway, this country is more divided now because Obama made racism worse with his CTE and REI and SJC. I have a Black friend, and I think he agrees with me. He’s one of the good ones.

Yes, Trump has a documented history of words and deeds that are unambiguously explained by the fact that he believes other races are inferior to his. His utter contempt for minorities is cleverly camouflaged by the fact that he has barely less contempt for poor1 White folks. The jury has returned a verdict. He’s a racist.

America is a melting pot of races, cultures, and stereotypes. Trump used our differences to pit cultures and races against each other, while at the same time embracing White Supremacy and ethno-nationalism. Nazis and White Power militias rejoiced when Trump was elected in 2016, thinking their time had come. It’s not just the disaffected and deranged RWNJs. Project 2025 is a guidebook for bringing segregation back. They want to repeal and obliterate anything related to social justice. It’s no longer being done covertly. They are screaming it - loud and proud.

And it’s not just the racists in Trump’s circle. Incredibly, many average Republican voters still recite the canard that Democrats were the party of slavery and the Klan in 1865, proving therefore they can claim superiority and immunity from accusations of racism. I don’t follow the logic because I’m not an idiot, but apparently this means Democrats are the ones who are racist. This will come as a shock to them but, in 2024, White Supremacists, Nazis, and far-right sociopaths vote for the party of Lincoln.

Just look at the hysteria over DEI and CRE. Teaching all Americans about the contributions of fellow non-White Americans throughout our country’s history is triggering. Heaven forbid we recognize that there are still structural systems in place that maintain racial inequities. To some Trump voters, this is tantamount to a slave rebellion, and they fear for their lives.

There is a segment of the population which reasonably posits that Democrats have taken minorities for granted, and they will only pay lip service to their concerns every election cycle for their vote. It is every bit as valid a criticism to say the same thing about the Republican Party. The difference is that Republicans no longer give a damn about justice, equality, or fairness, and they’re proud of it. They will pervert the law and rig the system to delay and, ultimately, avoid justice for their corruption2.

In 2016, the blacklash to Obama’s successful presidency was a major factor in Trump’s victory. In 2024, those of his supporters who are racist weren’t going to let America get away with electing someone who is Black and Indian on their watch. One per century is enough. Much has been made of exit polls showing Trump’s support growing among certain minority segments of the population. None of it nullifies the reality that racism was a major factor in the Presidential election of 2024.

1 - Poor = Not super-wealthy

2 - Donald Trump holds the title of the most amoral and criminally corrupt president in American history

5) Snowflakery – We’re not triggered! They are!

I love making liberals cry. All I have to do is say something offensive, and they come out of the woodwork to call me a bigoted jerkoff for being a bigoted jerkoff. It’s hilarious how snowflakes are so sensitive. Trump should throw all woke people in jail.

Woke is defined in Merriam-Webster’s Dictionary, as:

chiefly US slang

1 a: Not an asshole

When did recognizing and appreciating humanity in our fellow citizens become a character flaw?

In Triggered - How the Left Thrives On Hate and Wants To Silence Us, someone commissioned by Donald Trump, Jr, contends that the Left1, uses bullying tactics to attack and intimidate conservatives. They purport to provide their readers with the tools to fight back. They cite examples like those nasty advocates of justice and Democracy who tried to hold Don’s father accountable for the many crimes of which he is guilty. Then there is poor Don Jr, himself, who claimed he’s no longer able to have an opinion because he’s the son of a rich White guy.

Political correctness is a tired excuse for whining about one’s own bad behavior. What happens is, Person A offends Persons B through Z, and when faced with backlash, they are triggered to hire another person, call them Person G2, to write a book about their embarrassment. Person A has been triggered by the ones he or she triggered. It’s a symbiotic relationship. The troll becomes the triggered. The snowflakes call out the snowflake. It’s quite stupid, and it’s an excellent way to keep the plebs distracted while the elite vacuum up all the wealth. The fight over the moral high ground takes place in a mosh pit.

One of the criticisms of Harris’ campaign was a supposed focus on trans issues. There was virtually no focus on this issue from Harris3. The only serious emphasis on trans issues came from Trump and his media empire. If you’re the average conservative cultist, you think that thousands of people are going through the everyday pain and anguish associated with transitioning in order to use a different public restroom.

The Right has been manufacturing outrage for decades. Conservatives have a collective breakdown every time a celebrity points out the genocide taking place in Gaza. They’re triggered by M&Ms and kneeling during the National Anthem. Apparently, saying Happy Holidays should be a capital offense. In reality, those who find liberal tears delicious are the ones thriving on hate. Look at the subset of Americans who use Twitter. We are witnessing a mass exodus of the decent people, leaving behind a toxic sludge crawling with the dregs of humanity. By Trump’s second inauguration, the only people on Twitter will be trolls with Pepe the Frog avatars, bitcoin bots, and Catturd chubby chasers.

1 - Non-assholes

2 - G for Ghostwriter

3 - Aside from including trans people in her desire for America to evolve into a safer and more inclusive country for every segment of the population.

6) The Privilege Collection – I’ve got mine. Isn’t life grand?

What about the poor that can’t afford housing or food? They can pull themselves up by their bootstraps just like my great-great-grandfather did. Huh? Yeah, sure, I have relatives that have had abortions, but pregnant women can just give theirs up for adoption if they can’t afford to have a baby.

White privilege, male privilege, socioeconomic privilege. There are hundreds1 more. Why do people pretend these don’t exist? The simple answer is they don’t want to give up any of it. Privilege is power. A national Privilege test would be a great tool to open Americans’ eyes. If someone recognizes all the advantages they had while growing up (and continue to have), they are bound to recognize the disadvantages faced by others. Right? How would that affect their political leanings2?

With thousands of organized religions to choose from, Americans can easily find someone else to provide services to the poor and disadvantaged with a weekly contribution to the collection plate. Every organized religion has these three legs for their stool.

Our guy, texts, places, and objects are sacred
Do unto others, blah-blah-blah
We need your money

All the best religions have charity infrastructure that will do the work for us. We can feel good about ourselves without actually interacting with our neighbors in need. The problem is, soup kitchens and toys at Christmas don’t solve the underlying problems. Billions of dollars and countless hours are donated to organizations, yet societal ills only get worse. The first step is to realize that bootstraps are very rare and very expensive. Secondly, poverty is like quicksand. It's dirty, and it sucks.

Trump appeals to those who are afraid of losing what they have to the people who have nothing. America is for hard-working people with pickup trucks, not people escaping from poverty and violence in a third-world country. Trump Inc. pushes every button that could trigger this fear, regardless of whether the danger even exists.

If one looks at everything that would need to break right for an immigrant, for example, to achieve quasi-equality with a ‘real’ American, they’d see how it’s virtually impossible. A young single mother with two young children who walks for hundreds of miles seeking safety and a job arrives at our southern border. She doesn’t have the generational family support, the education, the money, or the skin color to access the American dream on Day One, let alone Day One Thousand. She doesn’t have the privileges we take for granted.

Trump and his ilk say, ‘They should have just stayed in Guatemala and died. Oh well, we’ll take the children and put them up for adoption, and we’ll deport the mother.’ With Trump, this is by design. The Right is fine with donating to charity, but the aim isn’t to erase the barriers to a better life. They have just enough humanity to give to charity, but not to affect permanent change. They need a permanent class of enemies. That’s why caravans of criminals always appear during election season.

‘Walk a mile in their shoes', is an applicable idiom here. It means we should try to understand someone’s motive before criticizing, or abusing, or deporting them. We all have some advantages over our neighbors. Whether it’s by virtue of race, gender, class, size, ability, intellect, geography, or ass shape and size, it’s up to all of us to recognize them. For Trump voters, admitting privilege exists would be a good first step.

1 - Maybe not hundreds

2 - Not much it turns out

Editor’s note: The author benefits from many of these privileges, and he freely admits he could be doing more to use these advantages to advance society and promote the greater good

7) Ennui – The Power of Positive Laziness

What difference does it make? They’re both the same, anyway. I’ve been too busy to pay attention for the last ten years. My Dad is voting for Trump so I guess I will too. He watches Fox News every single night, so he has his finger on the pulse.

We’ve all seen the clips of clueless American citizens allowing themselves to be recorded, opining on a topic they know absolutely nothing about. How is it possible that people who can operate a motor vehicle and manipulate a hand-held computer at the same time, also think a piece of shit like Donald Trump is their lord and savior’s chosen vessel? Are they intellectually limited? No, they’re just too lazy to do the research1.

For the perpetually online, politics has become a 24x7, 365 day a year pastime. For years, millions of people had given it very little thought2 outside of limited election seasons. The conservative media machine kept pumping bigotry and propaganda into the ears of the supposed real Americans, and democracy sputtered along. The rich and powerful always had ways of coercing politicians into ceding them more money and power. When corrupt Supreme Court justices made their Citizens United decision in 2010, politicians could be bought legally. Bribery became free speech and media companies decided to make politics a daily soap opera for ratings and the big bucks.

The mainstream media is controlled by like six corporations. Those on the Right would have us believe that there is a left-wing bias infecting and influencing the media. It’s bullshit, but millions of people trust news outlets that lie to them on a daily basis. They set up their tv trays every night and lap up processed food and right-wing propaganda. They swallow disinformation like it’s a main course of comfort food, followed by a dessert of conspiracy theory frosted with deceit.

Giving credit where credit is due, Trump sells hatred and vitriol because his cult is buying it. In the run-up to the election, the Trump Show was on every night. It was must-see TV, like Deplorable Jeopardy. At every rally, he spewed the same garbage that painted America as Middle Earth if Frodo hadn’t destroyed the One Ring. For the indolent, Trump confirmed a vague set of fears that, while they may not be terrifyingly real to them personally, are definitely hurting somebody like them. Not only did they fall for his evil twin version of reality, they gave him their hard-earned money, thereby turning their weekly egg purchase into a financial hardship.

MAGA has been steeping in a marinade of hate for years. They are the followers of right-wing radio and evangelical con artists. Trump’s base sees themselves as protectors of freedom and the American way of life. Their chancrous champion will put America first3. With yet another collection of idiots and criminals in his cabinet, bigotry as policy with no chance of successful implementation, and the severe degeneration of the degenerate’s cognitive function, the next few years should be a shitshow. We’ll see if his cult likes higher prices, global instability, financial insecurity, and poisoned food, air, and water. Maybe, just maybe, it will shake them out of their stupor.

1 - Research tip: If the first 50 sources returned are all RWNJ websites, you’re looking at misinformation, at best. More likely it’s a bald-faced lie.

2 - Those people don’t have time to use critical thinking skills. They’re busy blaming Democrats for their own life choices

3 - I’m joking. He’ll put himself and his family first, of course. Then comes Putin. Then comes the billionaires. Then comes the sycophants. Then comes the Saudis. Then comes the defense contractors. Then comes the oil and gas executives. Then comes Big Pharma. Then comes the individual millionaire donors. Then comes Kid Rock. You get the picture.

8) Faulty Memory – Those were the days. I think.

Everything was going great four years ago until Biden opened the border and shut down the pipeline. My grandfather died because Biden shut everything down. If they had only focused on Hunter Biden more instead of fake investigations into all of Trump’s crimes, we wouldn’t have to re-elect him. He would already have made himself Emperor.

People have short memories. They can remember significant dates, but things like chronology and context get murky as time passes. For example, these days it’s taken as gospel, on the Right, that the charge of Russian collusion in the run-up to the 2016 presidential election was a hoax. Now, Donald Trump, Jr. admitted1 to arranging a meeting with a Russian operative with the expressed and acknowledged intention of getting dirt on Hillary Clinton that would influence the election. This meeting took place in Trump Tower in New York on June 9, 2016, and his father was well aware of it. Jared Kushner and Paul Manafort, Trump’s campaign manager at the time, were there, as well. This was undeniably collusion, so you can shove that hoax up your ass.

Here's another example. On January 29, 2017, a few days into his first administration, Trump authorized a military operation in Yemen to target an Al-Qaeda leader and gather intelligence on the group. Trump’s prime motivation was to be seen as a tough guy and manly man instead of a doughy, perverted business failure. This raid was chosen out of many pre-planned possible operations. The raid was a failure from the start. Three Navy Seals were injured, and one killed. An Osprey aircraft crashed and had to be destroyed to prevent recovery by the enemy. American forces killed multiple civilians, including children. The intended target was not killed or captured2, and no significant intelligence was recovered. As if the loss of life for no gain wasn’t awful enough, Trump spoke before Congress on February 28th, and used Ryan Owens’ widow, Carryn Owens, as a political prop. He knew full well that it was his vanity and moronic decision-making to approve the pointless raid that resulted in Owens’ entirely unnecessary death. Regardless, he shamelessly basked in the applause and respect that was owed to the real hero and his bereaved family. This example of Trump’s profound callousness and perfidy has been forgotten by much of America.

There are many3 other examples of American people’s memory lapses from the last decade. Trump’s reign of terror is rife with verifiable and undeniable acts of stupidity, cruelty, incompetence, and treason. How can millions of people forget that he hid the lethality of Covid from us all for months? He hid news of a coming pandemic because it might affect his re-election chances4. These people lost relatives because he is a deeply amoral asshole. He incited a riot to block the transfer of power because he couldn’t stop himself from telling the lie that the 2020 election was stolen. It was less than five years ago. You can be forgiven if you don’t remember that he raped his then wife Ivana in the 90s. He’s been such a prolific abuser, these events all blend together. But, let’s all stop pretending he isn’t an insurrectionist. We all saw it.

When historians discuss the trainwreck that was the Donald Trump presidency, they use words and phrases like ‘failure’, ‘bottomless lake of depravity’, ‘destruction not seen since Godzilla’s trampling of Tokyo’, and ‘jagoffery’. These historians will be dismissed because they look like prototypes of Muppets that were never used and they use big words, but current events are documented. This isn’t Black Death, no indoor plumbing, surviving on turnips, medieval Europe. We record images and we write things down. It’s impossible to forget anymore.

The trick the right-wing media uses for memory wiping Republican voters is called5 Cognitive Overload Neutering. By swamping the brain with a torrent of repetitive lies, nonsense, and jargon, they have been successful in burying the fact that Donald Trump dodged the draft by claiming to have bone spurs. They have replaced the memory of the time Trump proudly claimed to be able to sexually assault any woman he chose with the lie that his wife is not visibly repulsed by his touch. His followers have forgotten that he held an event while ill with Covid and infected many of his inner circle. Their only memories from the Covid pandemic were a stimulus check with his name on it and conspiracy theories about vaccines. The reality of how worse off we were four years ago, when the number of Covid deaths was skyrocketing, is lost on them.

1 - Admitted, after lying about it

2 - The target wasn’t even there

3 - Who can forget Hillary Clinton kicking him in the balls and lighting his corpse on fire when they debated in 2016? MAGA can.

4 - It did affect his chances. Rightly. He lost because he completely f-ed up one of his main roles; keep us safe

5 - By me

9) Blind Faith – This time it will work

The problem is we didn’t give the tax breaks enough time to trickle down. And if you ban abortions, women won’t have the option to have one. Problem solved. And don’t get me started on the border. Trump only had four years to solve the crisis. He’ll get it done this time.

Since the Cretaceous Age, the Tyrannosauri of the world have proposed to the plant-eaters that they should just allow themselves to be torn up and consumed. Well-fed carnivores are job creators. Herbivore intellectuals quickly dismissed this as pseudo-science and dino-shit. Jesus also ridiculed this notion in his most famous album, Meet the Beatitudes. The third cut, his biggest hit I think, was called Don’t Stop Believin’.

Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth

Pretty powerful stuff.

Still, this absurd nonsense lives on, passed down by carnivore capitalists, megalomaniac warlords, and deceitful politicians throughout history. The rich and powerful hoard. They have always hoarded. They will always hoard. They say a rising tide lifts all boats. Buoyancy in seawater is irrelevant. Money, privilege, power are never shared unless the sharer gets something in return, and that return better be much more than the investment. While they’re sailing yachts, our dinghies are grounded in a puddle. Look up statistics on income inequality in the United States. It’s disgusting.

It’s no secret that we have more billionaires in this country than ever before. For every billionaire douchebag buying elections like Elon Musk, there are a dozen more who hide from notice, plotting ways to avoid paying taxes, influence legislation to help them add billions more, and insulate themselves from the rest of us. They aren’t scheming ways to house the homeless or end wars. Instead, some of them run real estate empires that make housing unaffordable. Others consider war to be profitable business opportunities. Selling salvation is big business too. While Mega-Pastors are swimming in cash, they’re telling you to have faith. Your rent may be unaffordable, and your health may be failing, but Heaven is the real prize. All it takes is a weekly tithe. Believe! It will be glorious.

This is a trap that Trump voters constantly fall into. No one actually wants to admit they’re worshipping a con artist, but it cannot be more obvious. Trump sells snake oil. Some of his promises this time include making health insurance unaffordable, repealing regulations safeguarding our clean air, water, and food, and putting our financial stability in the hands of thieves and gamblers. There are more. Raising the prices of food, goods, and services, deporting whoever he hates, building more ineffectual wall at the border, putting hundreds of thousands of people out of work, exploding the deficit, forcing Ukraine to surrender, and making it easier for the super-rich hoarders to hoard. These, and much more half-baked Project 2025 nonsense, will either be impossible, unworkable, damaging, or some combination of these three outcomes.

Trump voters do not take the threat of the Republicans’ playbook seriously. They have too much of their self-worth tied up in their delusion. When Trump, Inc. starts to crater the economy and vaccine-preventable diseases start killing our kids, a new conspiracy theory will take hold, like blaming the Green New Deal. The powers behind Trump already have solutions ready for the fallout because the calamities were by design. The remedies2 will be implemented by private for-profit firms owned by, guess who, the same people who triggered the problem. Oligarchs never let a good disaster go to waste; especially the ones they cause.

1 - Income inequality does not mean everyone earns the same income

2 - Step 1 – Let poor people suffer and die

Step 2 – Plunder and pillage

10) Inferiority Complex – It’s my time now. Those brainiacs are gonna pay.

I’m so sick of those intellectually superior elitists. They’re like those nerds in elementary school that I used to beat up. Trump is just like me. He knows what it’s like to misunderstand complex issues and come to illogical and dangerous conclusions. Smart people should keep their ideas to themselves.

One thing Trump excels at, is projecting an air of arrogant, joyful ignorance. Listen to him talking about policy even before he reached Stage 4 dementia, and you could tell what a ding-a-ling he is. Now, when he speaks, he’s not even sure where he is or to whom he is talking. The final stops of his campaign consisted of him mumbling and bumbling through a senseless weave of lies. At one rally, he cut his rant short in order to sway spasmodically to music and flash his trademark dopey grin. This decline into a shambling, stammering cadaver somehow only makes him more endearing to his followers.

Donald Trump was not a good student. His privilege allowed him to attend colleges where he ‘earned’ a degree. He’s sued to keep his grades secret, so when he calls someone else low IQ, he’s actually projecting. He doesn’t read. He needs his advisors to draw him pictures. Luckily, his voters don’t value book learning highly either. One of the many reasons given for some people’s dislike for Kamala Harris was their perception that she was talking down to them. There’s no way to tell how much of that perception was due to Harris’ tone or demeanor, and how much can be attributed to the average Trump fan’s animosity toward anyone who uses big words.

Throughout Trump’s run as leader of the Republican Party, he has exploited his followers’ gullibility to convince them to be afraid of everything. When they are confronted with the incongruities, illogic, and irrationality of his statements, they will admit that not everything makes sense, but they swear by the feeling that he’s right. It sticks to their psyche like glue. They retain the themes1 he harps on, even while dismissing his exaggerations, embellishments, gaffes, and lies.

This phenomenon was not unique to the recent election. Realizing decades ago, that the Republican Party platform was as appealing to the average American as leg irons, conservative strategists came up with plans to dumb down their message and use guys you’d want to have a beer with to connect with the salt-of-the-Earth voter2. And who better to deliver that simple message of ‘Hate your neighbor’ than a con artist without a single qualification? After all, it’s not like we are electing someone to take up the awesome responsibilities of the leader of the free world.

It doesn’t matter that the Republican Party is owned by billionaire elitists who wouldn’t be caught dead in Smalltown, Iowa. The charade doesn’t have to be perfect. The victimization themes are reinforced through the church Republican voters attend, through the media they consume, and through the patriarchal social systems they cling to. When they constantly hear that Venezuelan gang members are comin’ to get them, they will blame the border czar that let them enter the country3, and vote for the snake oil salesman who vows to protect them.

The irony is that Republicans are the ones who look down on and exploit their base. Sadly, this strategy has been very successful, and Democrats are the suckers who purport to want to unify the country. It will not happen as long as half of the populace feels like they’re being belittled and laughed at. It’s weird how both halves of the populace feel like that, while the actual elitists giggle hysterically at us wearing our wool blindfolds.

1 - Partial list:

The 2020 election was stolen
All immigrants are rapists and killers, and they are invading/poisoning/replacing you
Leftists burned cities to the ground
Climate change is a hoax
He was responsible for an unprecedented economic boom

2 - This is how we got stuck with Reagan

3 - Kamala Harris was not the border czar, and the border is not wide open

Editor’s note: The author is of average intelligence, and he freely admits that a college degree is not an indicator or metric that should be used to determine a person’s value to his family, community, or society as a whole.

11) The Unrealistic Expectations Trap – When do we want it? Now!

Trends? You’re talking about trends? Remember Operation Lightspeed? Trump got those vaccines out there in weeks. They were useless and killed some people, but it only took weeks. He would have lowered prices on day one of his second term if the 2020 election wasn’t stolen!

Donald Trump buried the competence bar for an American president far underground. His first four years of lying, blackmail, nepotism, incompetence, fraud, disgrace, oath-breaking, treason, and insurrection dishonored America. There are pigeons more qualified to lead the country than Trump. Still, the last four years of recovery and progress under the Biden Administration was not enough break through the shield of cult programming. MAGA’s deluded mythos surrounding Trump’s kakistocracy was preferable over the boring reality of steady and incremental, albeit slow, improvement we all experienced.

Inflation was a prime reason for some people’s dissatisfaction with the Biden Administration. Fine. No one wants their household budget shranked1 by high prices on gas, groceries, utilities, housing, and medicine. When Trump asks the question about whether we are better off than four years ago, the only correct answer is ‘Yes’. Ignore the thousands of monthly deaths from Covid we were dealing with. The economy today is undeniably better than four years ago, than three years ago, than two years ago, than last year. The hardships we were facing at the time of the 2020 election have eased2.

So, why do Republicans accuse the current administration of destroying the economy? The answer is, because they are shameless liars. The U.S. had the fastest recovery from Covid in the world. If Republican voters weren’t so gullible, they’d look at trends and listen to economists. Instead, they blame the President of the United States for being gouged, instead of blaming the corporations all over the world who are still capitalizing on the pandemic. When inflation takes off again in 2025 and we go into a recession, the likelihood that they will condemn Trump is zero. We all want 1950 prices in 2024, but that’s naive, and anyone claiming to be able to lower prices across the board is full of shit.

If they’re expecting a guy whose prime ambition is to golf all day to put together an administration of serious people to implement plans that will lower the price of flour, they’re going to be shocked. Trump said he’d surround himself with the best people, but we now know he’s not just a terrible judge of people. He seeks out villains. His first cabinet was a rogue’s gallery of idiots, psychopathic criminals, and cronies. We’ll be longing for a somnolent dope like Ben Carson when the clown show he’s putting together now begins to lay waste to our way of life.

MAGA could have read Project 2025. They could have looked at unbiased analyses of his proposed policies. They could have taken an objective look at his first administration’s track record. They could look at the unholy vermin he associates with. Their dashed expectations are going to make them regret their vote. Privately, of course. They will never admit it or vote differently.

1 - Is it a word? It feels like it to me

2 - Life here in the good old US of A has improved continually since Biden’s election

12) Nihilism – Burn it all down

Trump is going to cut, cut, cut. Last time? Oh, the Deep State stopped him. Not this time though. FBI, CIA, FDA, Education, Congress, Supreme Court, all gone. I don’t even care if they get rid of Space Force. We need to go back to when America was great like the wild West, but with toilets that flush.

Philosophers throughout history have wrestled with the meaning of life and whether it’s even worth the man-hours. For the most part, they were unemployed dope smokers. Most of us have better things to do. Modern philosophers1 – lonely, unemployed, and fed up with the systems and structure of modern society – have given it a lot of thought. Thanks to QANON, Republican politicians, and right-wing radio hosts, they’ve decided the American way of life is under attack2. For a patsy, they settled on a mythical cabal of government officials as the source of an illness corrupting apple-pie America and targeting Trump voters. This Deep State employs thousands of red tape bureaucrats to oppress and hamstring us and the private companies we work for.

They believe that liberalism, wokeism, cancel culture, communism, and sexual deviancy are running rampant today. Democratic politicians and their minions, funded by George Soros, provide cover for nefarious actions like regulations protecting our food and laws holding insurrectionists accountable. If it wasn’t so silly, it would make a good Bond film.

The sequel, Trump II – Stupid Strikes Again, promises to be an even bigger flop than the original. We’re promised a more streamlined3 government. Instead of being thwarted by nerds in cubicles, Trump will bring a Musk to bear on his enemies. The usual common sense blueprint for a company with efficiency problems is to cut labor costs and do more with less. Those hoping for the wholesale elimination of agencies will be disappointed though. Instead we will see crippling cuts designed to kneecap agencies that protect us. We’ll see capable, hard-working civil servants replaced by nepo-idiots, business school dropouts, and Joe Rogan fans. CEOs will gleefully destroy the environment. We’ll see another recession caused by deregulation of financial institutions. Our educational systems will become a joke. We’ll see the price of everything skyrocket and unemployment rise. Bootstraps will become impossible to find.

It doesn’t take a genius to find inefficiencies and waste in government. There’s no doubt there are lazy, corrupt, and/or redundant government employees. No one wants their taxes funding pointless, unnecessary, and/or obsolete programs. Biden/Harris faced the same challenges as Trump I, and Obama, and What’s-His-Name before him. Every administration looks to eliminate what makes sense, but the nihilists want to throw the bureau out with the bathwater4. Again, we must ask, how does becoming an oligarchy ruled by narcissistic cretins, sociopathic villains, and End Times fanatics make America great again?

1 - Men who pine for the good old days before fire was invented

2 - It’s so not. These people need to stop snorting bath salts.

3 - i.e. Fascist

4 - And let the bodies hit the floor

13) Single Issue Syndrome – All it takes is one reason

She wants to let women kill their babies after they’re born. She’s committing genocide. She will try to take my guns. She’s putting immigrants in four-star hotels, and I can’t afford to buy eggs when I go to the store to get my lottery tickets.

One of the best running jokes in the run-up to any presidential election is the gag where undecided voters are asked what is driving their childish, petulant wavering. It is definitely true that one’s personal decision on who should lead our great country is a solemn duty and should not be taken lightly. But, come on. Who is out there still making Pros and Cons lists in September? Give the indecisive some credit though. At least they are considering all angles. They may be wishy-washy, but they’re thorough.

You might think that innovations like social media and search engines would provide all the facts and figures a voter would need to make an informed electoral decision1. What really happens in some minds (on both sides of the political spectrum), is that a decision is based solely on a candidate's position on one singular, all-important issue. Single Issue Voting is a cancer. That one issue could be the only one on the Con side of the ledger. There is no number or combination of Pros that can offset that Con. This is a handy chart showing some issues that might prevent people from voting for a candidate (or voting at all).

Right Wing Dealbreakers	Left Wing
They are pro-choice	They are pro-genocide
They called me deplorable (or garbage)	They mistreated Bernie
They are female	They are a fascist and/or a Republican
They are sensible about Covid/vaccines
They want gun control
They are elitist
They are not White
They are Communist or Socialist
They accept the gays
They are a pedophile
They aren’t Donald Trump

This makes voting for President as simple as plunging your entire head into a toilet. A candidate must satisfy your prime criterion, or he or she will not get your vote. For example, a lazy, deeply corrupt, amoral, twice-impeached, senile, fascistic rapist who incited an insurrection can get your vote as long as he makes it harder for a woman to get an abortion2.

This kind of thinking is what leads to mistrust of government. When you give power to fascists, incompetents, thieves, perverts, and other deviants, you give them permission to hire even more vermin. You didn’t get rid of the deep state. What you actually voted for is corruption, misery, wars, pandemics, and apocalypses.

1 - You fool

2 - If you think Donald Trump has never paid for an abortion, you may have Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease. See a doctor.

Post-Election Analysis - 2024