Since the indictment of Donald Trump was on the first day of the 2023 Major League Baseball season, it reminds me of a scene from the 1994 movie Little Big Leauge. A 12-year-old is left the owner of the Minnesota Twins following the death of their previous owner, his grandfather. When his manager comes to him about having to release one of his favorite players who isn’t performing the way he should, he denies the player is in the slump. He cheers when he gets a single, but the manager reminds him why he’s getting so excited if he’s supposed to be a major homerun hitter.
People are still looking at Trump as the baseball player who can’t even get a single. He might get a bunt, but it’s by accident. But still, they’re cheering him on saying he’ll get it “next at bat.” The problem is Trump is one of those players who doesn’t even want to step up to the plate.
If you’ve been living under a rock in a cave on Mars with your eyes clothes and your fingers in your ears, on Thursday, March 30, it was announced Trump would be indicted on 30 counts relating to business fraud. Trump is accusing of paying $130,000 as “hush money” to a porno actress, Stormy Daniels, who had a reported sexual history with Trump. While giving money to someone to keep quiet may not be illegal, the alleged way that Trump did it is against the law.
Last week, a shooter killed six people at The Covenant School in Nashville. Three of them were children. On Friday, there was the funeral for Evelyn Dieckhaus, who was 9 like the other two. And despite all this, people still felt the indictment of Trump took priority. I saw people post on social media we should pray for America and I immediately knew they weren’t talking about the people of Nashville. No, that’s old news.
But why do people like Trump? Well, his popularity is waning. The rally that was held at Waco, Texas last week had about 18,000 in attendance. The venue can hold up to 50,000 people. That’s not even half. And there were reports people were leaving early. Maybe they’re tired of hearing the same thing over and over.
Fox News commentator Jesse Watters who looks like the type of person you should never accept any drink unopened commented the indictment and potential arrest is upsetting the 74 million people who voted for Trump. That’s not even a quarter of the population. More people voted for Joe Biden. That’s why he’s President. That’s how elections work.
I don’t know where conservatives get this notion that just because so many people vote for another candidate they aren’t being overlooked. For people who are always complaining about “participation trophies,” their argument is contradictory. Two baseball teams play each other. One scores seven homeruns.The other scores five. So the other team should be crowned the winner because they were close.
With the devestating tornadoes and bad storms in conservative states like Arkansas and Mississippi, the Biden administration isn’t ignoring him. Biden didn’t show up in the ritizy Mississippi towns and toss single roles of Bounty paper towels at people. That’s not how leaders do things. That’s how people like Trump do things.
Politicians are always fawned over by their people. But it seemed to have gotten worse beginning with Ronald Reagan, but that’s any entirely different post. Leslie Stahl said that the media began reporting on Reagan differently. And it’s no surprise CNN and the end of the Fairness Doctrine occured during his administration. But I seriously doubt we’d ever have a show like Family Ties where a teenager gushes over an American president the way they would a rock/pop star ever again.
The ironic part is if we went back to 1985 and told all the people of the era that in 30 years, they would fawn over Trump the way Alex P. Keating does, they’d laugh in our faces. In many ways, social media is to blame more than anything else. You can post anything you feel like and it can be spread faster than a plague in a zombie movie. What does it matter if it’s accurate or not?
Reagan did one thing that has helped the Republican Party. He married Christianity with the GOP. And from there, the idolatry started. It’s surprising since most Christians are taught not to worship false idols. It’s in the scripture. There’s the golden calf mentioned. But Trump is the embodiment of the golden calf. He lived in a penthouse full of gold furnishings. But yet, they didn’t see this.
And the reason is that they saw Trump as the opposite of Barack Obama who had come on right at the time social media exploded. There’s Facebook and MySpace and YouTube and Twitter. It all spread. Trump started a campaign claiming that Obama wasn’t born in America even though his mother, Stanley Ann Dunham, was born in Wichita, Kan., which made him an American. If Dunham had still been around in 2008. these claims wouldn’t have been so easy to debunk. But she had been dead since 1995, so it was only natural of the Republican Party to say she wasn’t born an American. They tried to make voters in the south think John McCain had sex with a black woman and had an illegitimate child. Spitting on a deceased mother for a politician is something they didn’t lose sleep over.
The irony is that Trump didn’t even want to be President. He knew he could make the money off the campaign. He was a game shot host. He didn’t want to be President. Or as we’ve seen, he doesn’t want the responsibility of being President. He likes the power. He likes the way he could make the Secret Service and other officials stay at his hotels and thus Joe Taxpayer had to front the bill.
That’s what he did with his NFT which were sold out in no time. That’s what he did during his first campaign when he claimed to be a billionaire paying his own money to the campaign. That’s what he did during the aftermath of the 2020 election when he told people he needed money to pay for legal expenses to fight the “rigged election.” He was going to do this in 2016 but he actually won.
I’ve often said there are three types of voters. You have the voters who always or almost always vote in all election. Then, there are the voters who hardly ever vote or not at all. Then, you have the people who should never vote. Trump was mostly elected by the voters who should never vote. Why? Because they have little to no understanding of the election process. They got Cs or Ds in social studies classes. They also live in their own bubbles. They only see Trump signs or flags. In their opinion, Trump is the perfect person and everyone else hates America and them.
The misconception is that most of them are poor or poorly educated. This is not true. A lot of them come from affluent neighborhoods and towns in America. The problem is Trump and Trumpism has tapped into what they want – a return to an era that never really existed. No matter how much people want to romanticize the 1950s, it wasn’t a perfect era. My mother grew up in a house that didn’t have electricity. Growing up in the Appalachians and now living in the Ozarks, I’ve often heard stories about how people would sleep on their back porches at night because it was so cool. They didn’t have air conditioning.
And despite what people will tell you, a lot of women worked. If you came from a low-income family, you had to work. Black and brown-skinned people had to work. Some towns would make sure they were working. It wasn’t the perfect time. But Trump, who was barely a kid himself, played into this notion that we can go back to the 1950s or at least the 1980s, which weren’t as great as people think, despite what Stranger Things shows you.
In Trump’s mind, this is actually the best thing for him right now. His endorsements of candidates in 2022 affected the “Red Wave.” Democrats have control of the Senate and Republicans barely control the House. It wasn’t the win they wanted and they’ve lost the last three general elections. Yet, no matter how they try to build up Ron DeSantis, they still got to get Trump off everyone’s mind.
And he will probably use this indictment as a way to raise more funds for his legal defense as well as his presidential campaign. He gets to play the martyr. He gets to play the victim as well. Trump is all about playing the victim and convincing people that he is the victim. They will donate money to him, even if it’s money they can’t afford to send. I wouldn’t be surprised with it being Palm Sunday this weekend and Easter next weekend, some of the pastors work it into their sermons.
Maybe some elected officials like Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) are worried Trump has a bargaining chip to present to the Manhattan D.A.’s office. This is probably what the Republican Party fears. Trump is a Mafia-style person, but he’s quick to drop on a dime on someone to save his own ass. This might be why Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis has said that his office will not cooperate with the prosecutors. If you’re dealing with a man whose name is Trump, he does have some trump cards he’ll play.
These indictments might add some fuel to the investigation in Fulton County, Georgia, where Trump is accused of trying to interfere with the election and racketeering. Since the Georgia State Legislature is trying to replace prosecutors for whatever reason they see fit as the governor is still a Republican, it might speed things up. Right now, I think everyone is looking to see who is the first one to go after him.
As the Dominion lawsuit looks to hurt Fox News, it’s shown that a lot of the people at the station are tired of Trump. Brian Kilmeade, co-host of Fox and Friends, tried to encourage Florida people to throw their support to DeSantis but most of them, who are over the age of 60, were in support of Trump. Trump might be good for ratings but at the end, he’s bad news elsewhere. But if Dominion wins, it might be the first in many legal cases.
If Georgia does go after Trump, it could hurt him more. But it might be a necessary evil the people of Georgia may have to deal with. The longer they continue to associate with Trump, the more dangerous things will be in the end as many more Boomers vote for Trump than other age ranges. And after the recent protest against the Tennessee legislature with many Gen Zers and Millennials in attendance, the Republic Party is running scared.
That’s why it’s dangerous to start focusing on DeSantis. He’s the big fish in the small pond. He doesn’t have what attracted people to Trump even though he’s trying to pay into the MAGA crowd. They say Trump wasn’t a politcian and they’re correct. He was an opportunist. Politicians like DeSantis won’t play to people in Iowa or Texas.He also doesn’t have the idolatry Trump has. DeSantis is seen nothing more as someone riding Trump’s rails.
When they heard about his history with Daniels, they tried to say that Trump was actually talking with her over the Bible and trying to make her give her life to Christ. Then, when people were shown the Access Hollywood tape where Trump says, “Grab ’em by the pussy,” people defended him by saying that Trump wouldn’t have said it if he knew he was being recorded. He wouldn’t have talked about sexually assaulting women if he knew he was being record?
We’ve all heard this before. But usually, it’s when someone’s child is in the principal’s office for bullying, hazing or beating up a child. The parent says, “My child would never do that.” What they mean is, “I can’t believe my child was caught.” Trump has been caught. The Manhattan D.A. could encourage the Fulton County D.A. And after that, look for the Justice Department to look into the alleged stolen documents or the incidents of Jan. 6, 2021.
Personally, I think people have been fooled so much by him that they can’t do anything else right now except to continue to support him.
What do you think? Please comment.
Zane Says 