It's Not TDS

It's nostalgia, remembering a time when you didn't want to throw things

Mary Trump writes tonight:

Here’s all you need to know about tomorrow night’s State of the Union:

Donald is going to lie brazenly, egregiously, desperately, and often.

Don’t watch it.

The instinct is not to watch: why waste over an hour of my time watching a malignant narcissist, the world’s biggest attention whore, lie to Congress and the American people? Because he will lie: lies to him are as oxygen to the rest of us, the only way he can feed the bottomless need for applause and approbation. He will lie; he will do “the weave” (as he calls it); he will lie some more, weave some more, and — finally — conclude, having convinced himself that he has stuck the landing, that there has never been — in all of recorded history! — anyone as brilliant, as successful, as admired as he.

On one of these three points, he might be provisionally correct: nobody, in recorded history, has so successfully sold his lies. To himself, certainly; to his core followers, most probably. Whether his staff actually believes the nonsense they peddle, day after day after day, is open to question. Does Howard Nutlick actually believe his statement that his boss has more awareness, more energy, more stamina, than a man twenty years younger? Either Howard is a fool — and should, therefore, not be Secretary of Commerce — or, having seen his boss drifting off to sleep even while standing on the dais, he is lying — and should, therefore, be barred from any position of influence, power, or trust (for example: Secretary of Commerce).

Speaking only for myself (and acknowledging that nobody, truly, can ever do more): listening to Trump makes me want to throw things, At the TV, at the laptop, at the car radio. At the people who cling to their delusion that he is on their side and will fight for them. But make no mistake, Donald Trump is belligerent, loud, and obnoxious; he projects confidence and self-assurance; but this, too, is a lie. Because the truth is, Donald Trump is not a fighter; and he is not, at bottom, self-confident. He lives in a world of his own creation, where nobody has ever been more learned or more intelligent than he. Really? Leonardo? Gallileo? Plato? Socrates? Aristotle? Erasmus? Washington, Adams, Jefferson, Madison, Lincoln, Hamilton, Hancock? Salk, Curie, Jarvik? These are all people of great accomplishment, and I have omitted, for brevity, many more. On this continent alone: TR, FDR, LBJ, MLK. Perhaps not all “very stable geniuses,” but leaders: men who knew how to inspire, and how to get people to think and act far beyond their own parochial interests.

It is often said that the United States of America is an idea. It requires work; it requires sacrifice; it requires dedication. And it requires empathy, education, curiosity, courage, and a true moral compass. Right now that idea is not working, for too many people; it is failing its promise of a more perfect union; the rule of law — which we claim is King in this country — is under sustained attack.

All of this brings me back to tonights constitutionally-mandated State of the Union address to Congress and the nation. I won’t be watching, because I don’t want to throw things. I don’t want to raise my blood pressure. I don’t want to shout and sputter at an eclipsing dotard, an authoritarian whose only desire is to enrich and aggrandize himself, whose grift and greed and grab-em-by-the___ are bottomless.

Instead, I’m watching the State of the Swamp event. It is angry, sure; but it is also joyful, and hopeful, and inspirational. It’s the best kind of alternative programming: one with actual facts, and not the other way around.

Thank you, Defiance.org.