Trump Fatigue
If you read my disclaimer, I promised to stay away from politics for a week. And I did- sort of. But now all bets are off (pun intended), and we have to face the literal elephant in the room. The problem is, though, where to begin. It’s all so mind-numbingly infuriating and dangerous. Which, I guess, is really just the point.
I’ve been wondering for a while now just how there could still be people who support this. What goes through their minds as they defy the physical laws of rhetoric to contort their thinking into defending the indefensible? I have friends, smart friends, who would still vote for Trump if they held the election today. How is this possible? How could they have gone through the same past ten years as I have and arrived at such vastly different conclusions? Yes, I have considered this from every possible vantage point, and I have deduced that it all comes to one thing: fatigue.
“But, Steven,” you suggest, “haven’t they seen the vast corruption and graft this administration has engaged in?” Of course they have. Who hasn’t noted that the same dude who started a fake university to bilk thousands of unwitting prospective students and then used his own “philanthropic” foundation as a personal slush fund for gold-plated toilet seats is the first President to try to capitalize on the office by hawking more useless shit than a Moroccan holiday bazaar? It’s not like folks are unaware that Trump is being gifted luxurious planes by nations trying to curry influence in his policy making or that nine connected but purely anonymous Polymarket accounts raked in $2.4 million in wagers on the Iran War that hit with a 98% accuracy rate. It’s just that we’ve seen it so many times that some people manage to shake it off and keep moving on.
“But, Steven,” you suggest, “surely they have seen the profoundly impactful elimination of personal freedoms. Aren’t these the same people that are supposed to care so much about the individual liberties guaranteed to us in the Constitution?” Oh, but silly, they only care about THEIR freedoms. They don’t care about the rights of immigrants or women or the LGBTQ community. It’s fine if the Supreme Court tramples on the very principles of separation of church and state or checks and balances, as long as they allow rednecks to carry firearms wherever they go and then push religion down everyone else’s throats.
“But Steven,” you rejoin, “they have to be aware of the authoritarian, anti-Democratic leanings Trump puts on full display in everything from trying to eliminate mail-in voting to fomenting a traitorous insurrection intended to overturn the legitimate results of a free and fair election.” Yeah, democracy, schmocracy. As long as these folks get to keep Der Fuhrer in power, they don’t give a damn about the damage done to Democratic institutions and norms. So when the Supreme Court paves the way for the shredding of the Voting Rights Act and newfound depths of premeditated gerrymandering, the audible sound you hear is the collective groan of a group of people who just don’t give a shit how the game is played as long as they get dealt a winning hand.
“But Steven,” you mutter, now weary from the assault, “the MAGA crowd must see the blatant hypocrisy and bullshit.” I’m guessing they do. They watch as Trump uses the DOJ as his own personal retribution machine to go after political rivals like James Comey for things as preposterously benign as a subversive message made from seashells at the same time that he strikes a deal with his own DOJ to use $1.8 billion of tax payer money to create a fund for Jan. 6th’ers convicted of real crimes like killing Capitol police officers and threatening to hang Mike Pence with an actual noose (which I do believe is somewhat more menacing than seashells). They’ve seen the neverending stream of lies and falsehoods. But that’s just it. After a while, they all start to blend together, and you lose your ability to give a damn anymore.
“But Steven,” you gasp in doomed resignation, “the MAGA folks that voted for Trump because he ran on the idea of no new foreign wars must notice that we are, in fact, in a costly war with no seeming endgame or strategy.” Yeah, but half these folks are testosterone monkeys like Pete Hegseth anyway. They wanted an excuse for war in the first place. Who cares if we just end up with the same Obama-negotiated Iranian nuclear disarmament plan Trump tore up back in 2018? We got to blow some stuff up and remind those towel-heads who’s boss, well, sort of.
But therein also lies the hope. Because people can look over all of that. After years of profiting off investments in fossil fuels and regenerative AI, we have become masters of resolving cognitive dissonance. What we cannot overlook, however, is the bottom line we see when we go to the grocery store. Or the gas pump. Or try to take a vacation. In the end, what Americans really care about is the economy, stupid. It’s what got Trump into office in the first place. But with the economy on the verge of collapse and everyday Americans struggling with dramatically rising expenses that leave them unable to afford even basic necessities, it also might be what costs Trump and the Republican Party come this November.
Steven Craig is the author of the best-selling novel WAITING FOR TODAY, as well as numerous published poems, short stories, and dramatic works. Read his blog TRUTH: in 1000 Words or Less every THURSDAY at www.waitingfortoday.com
