This week America tallied the 75,000th official death from COVID-19—the real number won’t be known until after the crisis has passed and will be much higher.
Last week the 30 millionth unemployment claim was submitted.
Amidst this death and destruction the president of the United States has been spending his days pecking around on his iPhone, tweeting that certain cable TV hosts are
murderers and
dogs and that the husband of his top strategist is a “
moonface” loser. Oh, and he claimed—again—that the opposition party and the American media are
“The Enemy of the People!”
It is impossible to imagine a circumstance in which such behavior would be viewed as acceptable in normal life. Imagine sitting at a funeral service and seeing somebody standing a short distance away yelling and caterwauling about how the mourners or the priest were “dogs” and “The Enemy of the People!”
Would you think that man was in full control of his faculties?
Or what if you’re working over at Initech and your friend Don from accounting started shitposting on social media about one of your company’s competitors, Intertrode?
Would this strike you as professional behavior for an adult in the workplace?
Hell: What if the principal at your kid’s school started ranting and raving publicly about parents he didn’t like.
Would the PTA shrug? Or would they ride his ass out on a rail?
We sit at the most consequential moment in a generation and it is now clear that it is not the case that President Trump doesn’t want to change his behavior. It’s that he is congenitally incapable to moderate it even for a single day.
The malignant self-obsession and childish vitriol only scratches the surface of the man’s flaws. His compulsions aren’t hidden or covered up. They are broadcast for the entire country to see, for hours on end, every day, late into the night.
Here is where the final corruption takes place. Trump’s behavior is so far outside the realm of acceptable that even his supporters have been forced to concede it.
And so, because they are unwilling to abandon Trump, they have chosen to embrace his vile abnormality and wear it as a badge of honor, turning it into a rallying cry to attack anyone who is bothered by the behavior.