12/13/2024

THE PERILS OF SUCCESS
* What if Trump's victories, not his misdeeds, advance his downfall?
* Plus: Where have our heroes gone?

WHAT IF WE’VE HAD IT ALL WRONG?
     In looking for Donald Trump’s downfall, we’ve been expecting that a heinous self-inflicted episode would be his undoing – that elusive “He’s gone too far” moment:  his salacious “Access Hollywood” tape comments;” his traitorous role in the Jan. 6 insurrection; his slurs against military veterans.
     But what if it’s success that finally undercuts him?
     I’ve been thinking about that possibility since Trump’s stunning victory on Nov. 5, when he won not only the Electoral College count, but the most votes overall – and he didn’t even have to lie about it.
     To say nothing of the fact that his MAGA thugs gained control of the Senate and held onto the House.
     Too much winning.
     I mean, what happens when your luck – which never is  an infinite commodity - runs out? What goes up, must go down. The bigger they are, the harder they fall.
     Take what happened Dec. 12. The president-elect had what the New York Times postulated as possibly “Donald Trump’s Perfect Day.”
     He simultaneously was named Time magazine’s “Person of the  Year,” and was given the “honor” of ringing the opening bell at the New York Stock Exchange, as cries of “USA,” “USA” sang out.
     But what if his Perfect Day was actually Peak Trump?
     Could this have been the moment when there was no more “up,” and from now on,  Trump’s public and private life would be relentlessly downhill and not in a pleasant way.
     I’m a believer in life’s perverse physics.
     It works this way: things are actually the opposite of what they seem. A victory turns out to be the beginning of the end. Losing is the opening chapter in a story about a promising future.
     Understanding that Trump’s lizard brain is uniquely unknowable, I wonder if this is something that troubles him.
     Does his massive, far-reaching winning streak - so relentless, so expansive, so unfair, so undeserved and so perverse - begin to prey on  him? Does he ruminate in the wee hours,  wondering that maybe his number is up,  that he’s exhausted his personal supply of close calls, chance escapes and unexpected victories?
     Does he worry that, having dodged a literal bullet, he’s now threatened by a virtual one?

             WHERE HAVE ALL THE HEROES GONE? PART 1
ONE OF THE LETDOWNS of the current Trump phenomenon is its disappointing dearth of heroes on what has become a bleak and troubled political and cultural landscape.
     Christopher Wray did not have to announce his resignation as FBI director, timed to Trump’s assumption of the presidency on Jan. 20.
     Wray actually has three years left on his official stint as head of the nation’s premier law enforcement agency. The 10-year term was deliberately set to straddle presidential administrations, an attempt to insulate the FBI from political influence and whim.
      A president has a right to fire the FBI chief, and Trump had vowed to do so if Wray had decided not step aside. And there’s little doubt that Trump would do what he said.
     But by forcing Trump’s hand, Wray would have stood tall for the FBI, demonstrating that the agency is not a president’s plaything, forcing Trump to challenge its independent traditions.
     Wray, at least from the outside view, has been a credible leader, with little to apologize for. He could have let his record speak for itself and the credibility of the agency.
      Now, Trump has an unobstructed course in putting a patsy in charge, most likely his designated director, Kash Patel, who is sure to work diligently to corrupt the agency with political investigations and policies.

          WHERE HAVE ALL THE HEROES GONE? PART 2
U.S. SEN. JONI ERNST, an Iowa Republican, seemed to have had reservations about a particularly noxious Trump appointment, Pete Hegseth, whom the president-elect nominated as secretary of defense.
     Hegseth has said in the past  that women shouldn’t serve in combat, and he’s been investigated for, but not charged with, sexual assault.
      Ernst is a combat veteran and a sexual assault survivor.
      But after she wondered about Hegseth’s qualifications, she was subject to intense MAGA pressure, with threats of being challenged in a primary in 2026.
     Later, while not endorsing him, Ernst said she had had an “encouraging” meeting with Hegseth, and that she looked forward to supporting Pete the Creep through a “fair hearing.”

           WHERE HAVE ALL THE HEROES GONE? PART 3
IT'S NOT TRUE THAT AMERICA is without modern heroes.
     At least we have Luigi Mangione. He’s the suspected assassin of Brian Thompson, the UnitedHealthcare CEO  who was gunned down in New York City on Dec. 4.
     The killer left behind shells inscribed with “deny,” “defend” and “depose,” part of the vocabulary health insurers use in deflecting patients’ coverage.
      Instantly, sympathy bent toward the alleged murderer.
     “He took action against private health insurance corporations,” wrote one admirer on the social platform X. “In this house, Luigi Mangione is a hero, end of story!”
      The real villain? The Pennsylvania McDonald’s restaurant , where folks told the cops that a man who looked like the fugitive’s photos was eating. Mangione’s arrest prompted online negative reviews of the fast-food outlet, forcing Google to take down the phony notices.
                                                                              * * *
     A FBI chief caves.
     A combat veteran retreats.
     An accused murderer is lionized.
     And 37 days from now, Donald John Trump, a crook, a liar, an abuser of women, an insurrectionist and a bully, will be sworn in as our country’s role-model-in-chief .

---