1/18/24

TRUMP TO HIS FANS:
I DON'T CARE IF YOU DIE -
JUST VOTE FOR ME FIRST

 MEMO to would-be Trump voters:
      Donald John Trump does not care about you.
      He does not care if you are “sick as a dog.”
      He doesn’t care if you drive in dangerous weather.
      He doesn't care if you live. Or if you die.
      Well, that last one needs some explanation:
      It’s okay with Trump if you die, as long as  you voted for him first.
      I know that you don’t want to hear this. Because if you care for him so much, it makes sense that he feels the same about you.
      I also know that if  you and I were discussing this face-to-face, you’d tell me straight out that I’m a liar or, even worse, a sourpuss who never gets the joke.
      Maybe you heard or read about this at the time  that Trump explained it.
      But I’d like to go through it again, because I think it tells  you and the rest of us all that we need to know about Donald Trump.
      
IT’S THE DAY before the Jan. 15 Iowa caucuses, and Trump is in a place called Indianola, at a rally attended by 500 people, a bigger crowd than his opponents can even dream about
      The weather has turned savage. It’s been snowing heavily; temperatures are below zero; windchills are way below that.
      People are worried about driving to schools, libraries and other caucus locations. Trump is worried, too. What if the weather keeps some people home?
      “If  you want to save America from crooked Joe Biden, you must go caucus tomorrow,” he says, exhorting his people to hit the road – not because the race is tight, but because it isn’t.
      “We got to do it big,” he explains.
      “You can’t sit home. If you’re as sick as a dog ...,” Trump says, imagining a kitchen-table discussion in which the husband tells his wife that he’s going to caucus, ill health or not.
      Then Trump knocks it out of the park:
      “Even if you vote and then pass away, it’s worth it.”
      Laughter can be heard in the background of a C-Span video of the rally. Trump is such a funny guy, which is one of the thousand reasons that people love him so much
      What could be more hilarious than his suggestion that his supporters risk their lives, or the lives of people that they love,  to ensure that he wins by a huge margin.
      There are whoops and cheers as Trump continues his imagined wife-and-husband exchange, this time reversing the couple’s roles.
      Now, it’s the husband’s turn to play the wimp, using his illness as an excuse to stay home, like a kid with a stomach ache trying to skip school.
      “If  you’re sick, if  you’re just so sick, you can’t...,” Trump says, imitating the whiny husband making excuses to his spouse: ‘Dar,’ I don’t think....’”

    But she’s a tough one, and  she's having none of it.
      “Get up; get up,” the wife bellows. “You get up. You vote.”
      “Yes, Darling,” the  husband replies meekly.
      Aware of, but not directly discussing the treacherous driving conditions, Trump promises that all will be well.
      “You’re going to be safe,” he assures the crowd. “And, again, all indoors. It’s going to be all indoors.”
      “But you got to get up,” he insists. “You got to vote, because it has nothing to do with anything but taking our nation back, and that’s the biggest thing there is.”  

  IN HIS OWN WORDS...
   Here's a recording of Trump's instructions to his followers to ignore treacherous  driving conditions and attend the Iowa caucuses. This is copied from a C-SPAN video.

 INDEED, TRUMP WON the caucuses and won big, with 51 percent of the vote.
      Turnout was low, maybe because of the harsh winter, maybe because people were sick as dogs, or maybe because they wanted to watch football on TV.
      News reports said that 108,000 people participated overall, compared to 187,000 in 2016.
      We also don’t know if anyone was hurt or killed going to a caucus or coming home from one
      Most reporters didn’t stick around to find out, since the press pack had quickly headed for New Hampshire, the next non-event in the non-race for the GOP nomination.
      As for Trump, he’d already said his piece. He didn’t care.