Yes, Donald Trump is an "American monster": But he wasn't built by a mad scientist

[marmar]

Yes, Donald Trump is an "American monster": But he wasn't built by a mad scientist
Maureen Dowd's description overlooks a crucial point: It took decades of America's decay to birth this monster

By CHAUNCEY DEVEGA
PUBLISHED JUNE 17, 2022 6:30AM


(Salon) In a recent New York Times column, Maureen Dowd describes Donald Trump as an "American monster." This is an entirely reasonable view, but American society is mired in such a state of malignant normality that this monster has tens of millions of followers, who worship his greed, criminality and cruelty.

Dowd contrasts Trump to the monster in Mary Shelley's "Frankenstein," who begins with "elegance of mind and sweetness of temperament, reading Goethe's 'The Sorrows of Young Werther' and gathering firewood for a poor family." But then his creator, Victor Frankenstein, abandons and rejects him, refusing to make him a mate:

The creature finds no one who does not recoil in fear and disgust from his stitched-together appearance, his yellow skin and eyes, and black lips. Embittered, he seeks revenge on his creator and the world.

"Every where I see bliss, from which I alone am irrevocably excluded," he laments. "I was benevolent and good; misery made me a fiend."

Before he disappears into the Arctic at the end of the book, he muses that once he had "high thoughts of honour," until his "frightful catalogue" of malignant deeds piled up.

Shelley's monster, unlike ours, has self-awareness, and a reason to wreak havoc. He knows how to feel guilty and when to leave the stage. Our monster's malignity stems from pure narcissistic psychopathy — and he refuses to leave the stage or cease his vile mendacity.

....(snip)....

But who created this American monster? Donald Trump was not built by a deranged scientist in a secret lab. He is not an orphan, and did not emerge out of nowhere. He was the almost inevitable result of a decades-long assault by the "conservative" movement aimed at ending American democracy (especially multiracial democracy) and replacing it with a pseudo-democratic authoritarian state, perhaps organized under the system political theorist Sheldon Wolin described as "inverted totalitarianism."

As part of that long-term assault, most or all the historic victories of the civil rights movement, the women's rights movement, the gay rights movement, the labor and environmental movements and other struggles for human dignity and a more just society are being rolled back. If this project succeeds, America's already threadbare social safety net will be virtually eliminated. White Christian fascists and corporate plutocrats will forge a ruling coalition with near-total dominion over American life and society. The separation of church and state, along with the guarantee of free speech and most of the Bill of Rights, will disappear.

There is no longer a "normal" or "traditional" version of the Republican Party for so-called conservatives to return to. Even those conservatives who have disavowed or denounced the Trump movement are implicated in his rise. They are like political Dr. Frankensteins, horrified by what they have created but unable to kill it. Over the course of decades, they painstakingly built the monster and created the blueprint for American fascism. .........(more)

https://www.salon.com/2022/06/17/yes-donald-is-an-american-monster-but-he-wasnt-built-by-a-mad-scientist/

[FalloutShelter]

1. Welcome to the party, Mo.

For years We have been saying the monster has escaped the lab, as it were.

What she misses is the complicity of all of those “Never Trumpers” who are now so filled with virtue and insight, when in actuality they were the GRAVE ROBBERS who delivered the body parts to the lab over the years, in order to build the monster.

Now they want to act like they did not contribute to this mess.

[The Magistrate]

2. While Just Who Remains Unclear, Sir

The what and how seems pretty well nailed down....

[dalton99a]

5. +1

[House of Roberts]

3. What the internal Trump administration referred to as Team Normal,

I refer to as Team Chickenshit. Too willing to go along to keep their cushy positions, and since Trump would not heed their advice, too chickenshit to resign and disavow his actions to save their honor, if any Republican can claim any honor at all.

Republicans like Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger are not willing to be members of Team Chickenshit.

[agingdem]

4. the Nixon pardon was a lesson-learned

for the Republicans..no consequences for the BIG GUY... yes, Nixon resigned in humiliation but he was deep into his second term...the "little guys" were tucked away in prison and Gerald Ford pronounced "our long national nightmare is over"..he was wrong..Trump is that "national nightmare", a monster created for and by the Republican Party

[musclecar6]

6. Yes

TFFG has no redeeming qualities. None. Monster is as accurate a term as any that depicts who he is, was and always will be. What is worse ( hard to imagine something worse) is the republican party, supposedly of sound mind, has endorsed and supported this awful despicable person. Yes a modern day out of control would be evil totalitarian dictator has emerged and the safe guard of our major republican party can't kiss his ass enough. THEY are the ones who deserve our contempt for not controlling this person.

[cbabe]

7. Not a lone wolf. No such thing as a lone wolf.

[2live is 2fly]

9. Q:"What is a lone wolf?"

A:"Over-size Coyote"

[2live is 2fly]

8. JOKE Question:"What Do You Get When An Abortion Doesn't Take, i.e. an M.D. Botches Abortion?"

PUNCHLINE= Answer:"Trump"