“I wish you all had one neck” (Gaius Caligula)
Massive election loss finally forced Donald Trump to show his true colours. What had been an article of faith to many for a long time has finally become a fact so glaringly obvious that it can only missed by those with their vision impaired by having upended buckets on their heads.
At at the end of World War Two, Hitler imposed a “scorched earth” policy of the land that would soon be conquered by the allies. To this end, crops were burned, bridges and factories blown up. When Hitler’s generals told him that this would result in mass starvation and amount to genocide of his own people, Hitler’s reply was that the German people had proved insufficiently strong and that they deserved whatever they got. Some weeks later when even Hitler’s superhuman powers of denying the obvious failed, fate forced the nasty creature’s hand, and, while the Soviets were kicking in the front door of the bunker, Hitler hid in his office and summoned up the courage to finally let go of his delusions.
The similarities between this story and the current disgrace playing out in American politics are, to my mind, lambently obvious. In the same way that Donald Trump won the last election by “A lot” (of imaginary votes), Hitler believed till the very end that imaginary troops could turn the Russian advance from the very gates of Berlin and throw them back across the Vistula. To achieve anything, you have to have a strong will. Sometimes the line between will and septic fantasy is as thin as the paper with an “enabling Act” drafted onto it.
It is worth remembering that Hitler was a democratically elected leader and simply manoeuvred himself into the position of dictator with luck and the right help from his super-rich backers in exactly the way that Trump could be seen to be setting himself up for – but with markedly less success. But now that the penny has finally dropped in Trump’s head, he’s happy to leave the American people – who did not vote for him, ”enough” to die of a virus which he appears to have only just noticed. And since he refuses to sign the assistance package – gives them the option to starve to death first.
Seem familiar?
stop press Trump has signed the bill, which is, in my opinion, roughly equivalent to Hitler poisoning his dog Blondie; we must now wait for his final concession to reality. The speech where he finally takes the metaphorical bullet and concedes to Joe Biden, admitting to what just about everyone else has known for many months, that he is politics personified all bluster and lies, held together by a skin of vindictive self-interest in an unsightly ambulatory body disguised in an expensive suit paid for with other people’s money.
(c) Alex Rieneck Dec 2020 All Rights Reserved