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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsStephen King on the coming election.
Ill call her Annie. Thats not her name, but it will do. In September 2016, she worked at a convenience store not far from where I live in western Maine. I still gas up there, but I dont see her around these days. In the summer, she was always inside, busy ringing up the purchases of the summer people: six-packs of beer, canisters of Blue Rhino for the barbecue, chips and dip, lottery tickets. After Labor Day, though, the summer people go home, and more often than not, Annie would be leaning against the side of the building in her apple-red smock, having a smoke. Id put her age back then as 60, or maybe a hard-living 50. Deep lines on her face, smokers rasp, Maine Yankee from her brassy blond home-dyed hair to the soles of her red sneakers.
One day that early fall, I joined her at her smokers post to scratch a five-dollar lottery ticket with my lucky dime, and asked who she was voting for in the presidential. I expected her to say Hillary Clinton, because I stupidly assumed that, as a woman, Annie would love to see a woman president, but also because the polls, in Maine and in the other 49, made it clear that Donald Trump was going down, buried under a landslide.
Trump, she said.
I was shocked. I think I said, Youre joking.
She gave me a look that said, Surprised you, didnt I.
But why? I asked, and then used a descriptor Joe Biden would use in a debate with Trump almost exactly four years further down the timeline: Hes a clown.
I like him, Annie said. Hes not like the other ones. He says whats on his mind, and if you dont like it, you can stick it. And this time her glance said, That goes for you, too, Writer Boy.
I pointed out that Trump had no experience. Annie nodded as if it were her point. I like that. Hes a business guy. Hell shake things up, kick over a few apple carts.
Four years later, here we are. America is more set against itself than at any time since the Civil War, and Trump is the cause. Hes not just an apple-cart kicker; he is that dangerous combination of low pressure and warm water around which hurricanes form. The polls say he wont win, but they said it wouldnt happen in 2016. A good many mainstream Republicans have deserted Trump and will either sit this one out or will vote, quietly, for Biden. Yet Trumps core support has shrunk very little and it has hardened. The MAGA contingent is an apolitical rock packed into a Republican snowball.
The list of Trumps rebellions against normal political and presidential behavior his apple-cart kicking is long (books have been written about it, thick ones), and each of them makes his core supporters rejoice.
Because hes not like the other ones. Hes sticking it to the man.
And, of course, hes for America. There are photos of him to prove it, one showing him holding up a Bible and another where hes hugging an American flag with an ecstatic (and, to my eye, at least, spurious) smile on his face.
Trump has succeeded in making a direct connection with the American id. He has crystallized formerly vaporous conspiracy theories such as QAnon and the supposed deep state. He has given voice to prejudices that our logical thinking our better nature, if you like tells us are damaging and addictive. We understand what the scientists are saying about protecting ourselves from covid-19 and flattening the curve, but those things are plodding and prosaic. The online rumors (vaccines cause brain damage, global warming is a hoax, Democrats molest children and then eat them) are much more attractive. The id is hateful; its also fearful. Trump, a rainmaker who takes credit for rain even as the drought continues, has based both of his presidential campaigns on a series of dark myths. He really isnt like the others.
As Americans prepare to go to the polls, they are facing a crossroads moment like no other in the nations history. One fork leads to Trump and a validation of the id and all the dark beliefs it harbors. The other fork leads to Biden. A vote for Biden isnt a vote for the superego Biden is not blameless but its at least a vote for the ego: the part of us that is rational and willing to take responsibility (however reluctantly) for individual actions and societal ills.
It took me four years, but I get where Annie was coming from in 2016, and I get where all those yelling, unmasked, red-hatted partisans at Trumps rallies are coming from. I understand the desire to kick over the apple cart and then just walk away. But I also understand the need to move forward in a rational, if sometimes plodding and painful, manner. Trump kicked over the cart. Millions of American voters helped him. Biden is promising to right it again
but well all have to pick up the apples.
More:
https://www.eschatonblog.com/2020/10/friday-evening_30.html#comment-5131650963
Wounded Bear
(58,656 posts)Ferrets are Cool
(21,106 posts)ecstatic
(32,704 posts)not_the_one
(2,227 posts)I just hope we all WILL assist in picking up the apples. Otherwise they just rot on the ground.
My first Stephen King book was The Stand. If you have never read him, that would be a good starter. But he rights LOOOOOOONNNNNGGGG books. You have to commit yourself.
dchill
(38,493 posts)I've been reading it again for a couple months. It's a true masterpiece.
regnaD kciN
(26,044 posts)As I have often put it, "Trump is the 'shoulder devil'." You remember all those old cartoons where the protagonist was facing an ethical dilemma, and suddenly a tiny angel would appear on one shoulder and a tiny devil on the other, the former piously urging the protagonist to "be good," while the latter would mockingly tell them they'd be able to get away with it, so why not do what they really want, and let standards be damned? Those who remember those cartoons know that, more often than not, the devil would be the one to whom the protagonist listened.
Trump is Americans' own shoulder devil, letting people know they can do whatever they really want with no consequences. Hate that minority group! Grab that pussy! Trigger those "snowflakes!" Tell whatever lies you need to get what you want! Bully anyone weaker than you! If you desire something, and moral standards prevent you from having it, screw those moral standards. If you have even a degree of power and privilege over others, be it from the color of your skin or a y-chromosome in your genes, be unashamed to use it. After all, that's the way Trump himself has been living his entire life, and you can well see that he's been able to get away with it every time. So why not do the same?
This is why Trump is such a potent force for so many. It doesn't matter that he's what most people would consider a terrible human being -- they love him for it. It doesn't even matter that he's made a hash of the country (COVID included). Because, in the end, it isn't what he has accomplished, it's what he represents -- total freedom with no consequences. That's what they want, too, and why they'll never desert him, despise anyone who opposes him and, should he lose, go looking for a new shoulder devil to follow (and you know that there will be many chomping at the bit to provide them with one). Because, if the "other side" wins, it's a triumph for standards and responsibilities, and means they'd have to start living by them as well. And that, for them, would be a fate worse than death.
Hyper_Eye
(675 posts)BarbD
(1,193 posts)This is my son-in-law. Never takes responsibility for his actions -- or non actions. Nothing is ever his fault. Everything that is wrong in his life he blames on Obama.
thenelm1
(854 posts)But these idiots who cling to being terminally adolescent really need to grow the ef up. There is a reason one has to be 18 to vote, 21 to legally purchase alcohol and so on and so forth. The assumption being that one will reach a certain level of maturity to be productive, responsible and thoughtful citizens. Both your and SK's pieces do get to the crux of the matter. Many of these people simply refuse to look at the world beyond that perpetual adolescent point of view. That is a gross oversimplification of their worldview I know, but 'pwning the libs' or other like attitudes fit that description to a tee. It is not a reasonable way of running a government or a country. It's nuts. I'm at a total loss as to how to make more sense out of that attitude. Heck, I'm in my mid-60s and still feel that rebellious streak in myself in many ways, but I hope that when it comes to making my decisions, whether financial, civic or whatever, I think them through rationally and respond as a thoughtful, responsible adult versus that 'screw'em all' attitude of my 16-year old self. (This screed probably didn't come out all that well, but hopefully one can get the gist.)
SheltieLover
(57,073 posts)This is what I hear from repukes in my area. Ty for posting, Kpete.
Wednesdays
(17,374 posts)Mr.Bill
(24,292 posts)He burned the apple orchard to the ground.
raccoon
(31,111 posts)Bernardo de La Paz
(49,002 posts)Aristus
(66,369 posts)Trump would be kicking over.
And her lament would no doubt sound a lot like that of the Trumpster woman who complained "He ain't hurtin' th'people he posed ta be hurtin'!"
Please don't beg me to feel sorry for these morons...
Harker
(14,018 posts)that really means something.
dchill
(38,493 posts)BobTheSubgenius
(11,563 posts)He should keep at it.
RicROC
(1,204 posts)So the REpubs want someone to kick over the apple cart? (Instead we go the bull in the china shop)
Many Dems are afraid of monumental reorganization but will settle for incremental change.
No wonder people both Repubs and Dems are fed up with the political class.
Stargleamer
(1,989 posts)this is what I knew in September 2016 about him that I would have told her: numerous women have come forth with creditable claims he sexually harassed/raped them, he bankrupted numerous casinos, he called for the execution of four or five men that were later exonerated, his university was a fraud that stole from many. His lack of experience was pretty low on my list.
czarjak
(11,277 posts)Smarter than the writer? Im sick of Annie thinking shes winning!
raccoon
(31,111 posts)But thanks for posting.