Trump’s #1 Legacy Will Be His Subversion of Our Democratic Republic

   A couple weeks ago, I made the point that our Constitution guarantees that the United States will never be a true democracy. Several readers correctly pointed out that the United States is not a democracy but rather a republic. I responded that we are supposed to be a democratic republic, and the Constitution in effect guarantees that can’t happen.

 But moving on, let’s talk about the ongoing subversion of our democratic republic by Donald Trump and his minions. A recent article by Prof. Robert A. Pape of the University of Chicago reported on that university’s Project on Security and Threats, which has been tracking insurrectionist sentiments in U.S. adults. Their latest survey in June 2021 found that 47 million American adults agree with the statement that “the 2020 election was stolen from Donald Trump, and Joe Biden is an illegitimate president.” Since 74 million Americans voted for Donald Trump in 2020, perhaps we can take comfort that only 63% of them accept the “Big Lie,” but still it’s shocking.  More shocking, however, is the 21 million of those Americans who believe the election was stolen agree that “the use of force is justified to restore Donald Trump to the presidency.” Fur-ther, “At least 7 million of them already own a gun, and at least 3 million have served in the U.S. military and so have lethal skills. Of those 21 million, 6 million said they supported right-wing militias and extremist groups, and 1 million said they are themselves or personally know a member of such a group, including the Oath Keepers and Proud Boys.”

I can’t help but thinking that we’re in this situation due only to Donald Trump’s refusal to concede, as Al Gore did when the Supreme Court named George W. Bush the winner of the closer 2000 election. A concession by Trump now could end this nightmare.

We thought the presidency had a lot of power, but this one private citizen is singularly responsible for a massive constitutional crisis, a loss of confidence in the electoral process (that was never doubted previously), and an unprecedented loss of confidence in the mainstream media.

I’m reminded of that famous quote from Trump that he could shoot someone in the middle of 5th Avenue and not lose any voters.  Well, here we are: he has, in broad daylight, shot a possibly fatal bullet into the heart of America, and he’s not losing any (or perhaps enough) voters. That’s what should scare all of us who want to see American democracy live for another day, much less another century.

Here’s an email  typical of ones I get from members of Cult-45. This writer never signs his name. I know him only as nierdav@yahoo.com:

You are horrified by a Ted Koppel segment? You are an idiot. The fake news media will show you what you want to see, lies. However, I am horrified by what you and your fellow “voters,” have done to this country. YOU have fraudulently ‘elected’ a non-human, demented old man, who has no clue where he is, and is handled by the scum of the earth traitors to this country, and are destroying it right before your eyes. And you still spout your filthy lies.

You and your fellow traitors are responsible for this.

And you are a despicable person.

Our grandchildren will have to deal with your deeds to destroy this country, and I’m confident they will.

Also in my inbox from a friend, this quote from Thomas Paine:

“Arguing with a person who has no reason is like giving medicine to a dead person.”

Such is my life nowadays. I’m reminded of my May 24, 2020, column lamenting that Trump supporters are “simply unreachable.” Given how unreachable they are, and despite my love of writing, I have concluded that there is little to gain from continuing this column. I may be inspired to revive it later, but for now I’ve decided to take a break from “talking turkey.”

Thank you, everyone who has supported my writing both financially and emotionally, and especially those who have given me business because of our shared opinions. Writing this column has been a great experience.

All 57 of these columns remain archived at www.TalkingTurkey.online.  I stand by all of them.

 

Here's a Must-Read Email I Got from Dave Nelson, a True-Blue Trumper

 This man emails me at least twice a week to rant about my "Talking Turkey" column.  Usually, he just forwards some anti-Biden trash that he found online or got by email, but this time he used his own words. It's truly disturbing but important to see how these members of Cult-45 have embodied the Trump/MAGA playbook. Here's what I got from Mr. Nelson on Sept. 22nd. As is often the case, it was copied to the letters editor of the Denver Post:

This addresses your weekly column paid for by you about CULT 45! You lie as much as the non-human occupant of the WH.

Let's look... Thank you for calling me part of CULT-45. Yes, we are a cult. A cult of sensible patriots ready to FIGHT to save this country. Your fools support 'BLM', not a cult- a terrorist organization!

You blame this CULT-45 movement on "culprits" like Tucker, Hannity, Ingraham, FOX, etc. You even name OAN, and Newsmax... but you say you have never watched OAM and Newsmax. Sounds about right. You have never watched them, but you know they are "nurturing" CULT-45. You must have seen that on cnn, msdnc, abc, cbs, nbc, and brian williams, lemooooon, anderson, tapper. Need I go on. ALL of those idiots are liars! JUST LIKE YOU!

Some of your readers have told you that they don't support President Trump anymore. Well, that is 3 out of 75 million! Not a good barometer.

You call President Trump an "insecure, monomaniacal, psychopathic man". I would choose that man everyday over a dementia-riddled, 78 yr old, 45 year career politician-who accomplished zero, can't remember his name most of the time, is afraid of his staff, and lies at every turn, although I believe he doesn't know he is lying... because he doesn't know-(anything).

You talk about 'unaffiliated' voters. I changed my registration to that so I could vote in the dems primary, and try to get the worst candidate into the race, I know thousands of us did the same.

I could go on and on, as you do-when you say nothing of any value-and lies... but I will end with the most blatant treasonous act of you and the person your occupant of the WH appointed attorney general. Garland told all lawyers in the country to ignore the supreme court's decision and to go after-(block)-any landlord who evicts a tenant. Just ignore the highest court in the land. And this comes from the leader of the department of justice!

Then you show your true colors-pun intended. You said, "America needs to come to terms with the kind of racism"-(a word that means nothing anymore)-"epitomized by"-(PRESIDENT)-"Donald Trump's immigration policy. We need to appreciate those who walk hundreds of miles or more to enter America to make a living and support our economy."

So your idea of America is to have open borders, let everyone come in from shithole countries, get free everything, and have us-(Trumpers)- pay for it. So you just want to ignore immigration law, and the US Constitution, because you are such a caring soul. That sounds about like your kind... TRAITORS who need a one-way ticket to one of those shithole countries!

You are THE idiot, not the Governor of Florida.

 

It's All About 'Ownership' -- How Much of America Do You 'Own"

  I’ve always been a person who hated litter. When I find litter on a trail, I will pick it up and usually carry a bag for that purpose. When I walk my dog, I always carry extra poop bags so I can pick up the poop other dog owners have failed to pick up.

I don’t say this to garner praise, but to make a point. It started with a thought I had as a teenager about people who throw litter from their cars. It’s the following: I believe that people who throw trash from their car hate litter as much as I do. They don’t want litter in their car, which they own. They simply don’t have a sense of ownership that extends beyond their personal property. Myself, I have that sense of “ownership” of the world around me, and I want to keep it as litter free as my car or home.

Think of it, if you prefer, as “citizen-ship.” I’m a citizen of Golden, but I’m also a citizen of Colorado, of the United States and, yes, of the planet. I want to keep Golden, Colorado and my planet clean, healthy, and sustainable.

As a citizen of the planet, I worry about plastics and microplastics in our oceans, about air and water pollution, and about climate change. I take seriously what scientists tell me, whether it’s about viruses, vaccines, or our climate. Fortunately, most of my fellow citizens feel as I do. The entire world listened to scientists 40 years ago, when they told us CFCs were creating an “ozone hole” endangering human health. The world responded by banning CFCs, and the ozone hole has now closed, according to the European Environment Agency. 

The entire world also listened in 2016 when it passed the Paris Climate Accord, but one nation — the United States — withdrew from that accord when a person without our world view became president.

Diversity (the acceptance of equal rights and respect for people unlike yourself) goes hand-in-hand with global citizenship. Racism is a logical extension of that narrow world view. “America First” is the antithesis of that sense of ownership or citizenship of the planet. Make America Great Again, as I have written before, is demonstrably the same as “Make America White Again.”

There’s a theme of self-centeredness among those who have gravitated toward our supremely narcissistic, even psychopathic, former president and his worldview. Self-centered people are people who might litter, might not care about recycling, and think we can keep exploiting the earth’s resources without worrying about the consequences. They might not be as compassionate toward the suffering of immigrants or the homeless or the unemployed. They would definitely favor tax cuts for themselves over improved social services for those less blessed than themselves.

Is this a theme that resonates with you? If not, perhaps you agree with this unsigned letter I received from a reader last week:

“I see you are still writing your hysteria and paranoid rants against the great Donald J. Trump. What kind of businessman pisses off half of his possible clientele? What kind of fool pays the Post for an opportunity to put his head up his ass on a weekly basis?

“In case you haven’t noticed, the idiot in charge in a five-star cluster fuck of epic proportions.

“On every social and foreign policy question, Trump was absolutely correct. Learn how to deal with it, ass-hole.”

This reader needn’t worry about me “pissing off half my possible clientele” by speaking the truth about Donald J. Trump. Frankly, I wouldn't want to do business with a Trumper, and I’m being rewarded by other readers with the best year of my career, receiving so many leads that I have to enlist my broker associates to serve them all.

  More typical is the following email message I got from David M.:

“Donald Trump did not make America great again. Trump made America far less great, more divided, and far less honest. To this day, I continue to be so amazed at the folks who believe Trump made America better and I’m even more flabbergasted at the Republicans who are in denial and continue to be so.”

  More typical is the following email message I got from David M.:

“Donald Trump did not make America great again. Trump made America far less great, more divided, and far less honest. To this day, I continue to be so amazed at the folks who believe Trump made America better and I’m even more flabbergasted at the Republicans who are in denial and continue to be so.”

 

A Reader Asks: Why Do I Keep Writing About Donald Trump? He’s Gone!

Good question. The answer is that his spirit lingers among those I call Trumpers. Cult-45 is very real, and the disgraced ex-president holds his diminished fan base like no other cult leader in our history.

The real culprits in nurturing Cult-45 are Tucker Carlson, Sean Hannity and Laura Ingraham at Fox News plus those two far right networks supporting Trump’s “Big Lie,” One America News Network (OAN) and Newsmax, although I have never watched those. However, the audience for these conspiracy mongers and promoters are Trump’s base, and there’s no better term for them than Trumpers. (Can you make such a term from those other names?  Tuckerers?)

We know Trump’s base, loud though it may be, is diminished by the size of the crowds at his rally, but I see its reduction myself in readers who were Trump supporters in 2020 but don’t identify themselves with him any more.  “Not all Republicans support Trump, including me,” more than a few readers have told me. “Stop attacking all Republicans,” they beg, and I concur. Not all Republicans, thank God, are Trumpers. Many want the Party to move on from him and are as upset as the rest of us that the majority of the party rank-and-file, according to polls, have been convinced by Trump’s Big Lie and still like him. That’s the power of a cult.

A friend driving north from Castle Rock on I-25 last week told me that she saw some flag waving Trumpers on an overpass, a couple of them displaying banners that read “Trump Won.” Really? These cult followers are really deep into it. They, not Trump, are the target of our anger and disgust — but they also reflect for us all how one insecure, monomaniacal and psychopathic man has infected a statistically significant percentage of the population with democracy-destroying beliefs that our electoral system is corrupt. It is not.

Equally disturbing, however, is the fact that because a large percentage of the Republican rank and file still likes Donald Trump, the Republican members of Congress feel that telling the truth about Trump could cost them something they hold more dear than the flag they pretend allegiance to — their own political survival.

But Republicans alone can’t win elections without their disaffected members and, more importantly, independent voters. Here in Colorado, the biggest voter registration is “unaffiliated.” It’s they who win elections in most races, and having only 80% of the Republican Party without a majority of independents will not do it for Trumpers except in the very reddest of districts.  The rest of the electorate is appalled at what incumbent supporters of Trump have done. Painting the Jan. 6th insurrection as “noisy tourists” does not bode well for their all-important survival. At least it shouldn’t, and if those Republicans, especially Lauren Bobert, win re-election over a good, centrist Democratic candidate, our country is going to look a lot like our climate — beyond the tipping point into irreversible self-destruction.

How Did You Feel When a Friend, Partner, Employer/Employee Lied to You?

  When someone has lied to you, you probably started to question your relationship and whether they are lying to you again, right?

When a spouse cheated on you, were you able to forgive and forget? Or did it cause you to question when he or she was “working late” or going on a business trip without you?

When an employee or employer lied to you, did you “let it slide,” or did you begin to question future communications with him/her?

What’s most surprising about Trump supporters is that they know he is a habitual liar, yet they “let it slide” again and again and fall in line with his next set of lies. Here are some of the lies that surely they know were lies:

>  He said he didn’t have sex with porn star Stormy Daniels, but Michael Cohen pleaded guilty to paying for her silence and went to prison for it.

>  He excused his Access Hollywood  genital grabbing language as “locker room talk,” then claimed it wasn’t his voice.

>  He described the Jan. 6 insurrection as a “love fest.” I think we know better.

>  It rained on his inauguration, but he claimed the sun came out when he spoke. He claimed his inaugural crowd was bigger than Barack Obama’s despite photos proving otherwise.

>  He said that Covid-19 was a Chinese hoax, intended to help the Democrats.

>  He accidentally said that Alabama was at risk from Hurricane Dorian, but because he can’t ever admit he was wrong, he not only lied about it with a Sharpie, but he pressured government agencies to confirm his lie.

>  He said the head of the Boy Scouts called him to say his political speech at the 2017 Jamboree was “the greatest speech ever made to them,” but a Scouts spokesman said no such call had been made — Scouts honor!

A Trumper might still believe one or two of that short list of Trump’s lies, but my own experience as a human being is that it only takes one lie from someone to make me question everything that person says in the future. I suspect that’s true for Trumpers — except when it comes to Donald Trump.

That’s very cult-like. “Cult-45.”

So, how do you explain that behavior by Trump supporters, if not by saying it’s a cult?

I think it’s largely racial. Trump has been successful by playing on voter’s racial fears — fears triggered by the U.S. Census reporting that we’re approaching a time when white Americans will be in the minority. He compounded that by claiming that Mexican immigrants were criminals and rapists, or worse — a claim that no amount of factchecking would fix, since it played to what his base wanted to believe.

In the 2020 election, Trump pleaded with suburban women that they should love him, because Democrats would end single-family zoning, bringing inner city crime to the suburbs. Again, the race card. But suburban women didn’t buy it in enough numbers to carry the day for Trump in 2020.

So now we come to the Big Lie — that the election which Biden won resoundingly was “stolen” through fraud. Again, the truth doesn’t matter to Trump supporters. Lesson number one from Hitler, Stalin, Mussolini, and other autocrats: repeat a lie often enough and it will be taken as truth.

Trump supporters ultimately should realize they’ve been conned by Trump except for one big thing: he speaks to their fears. They are less wedded to Trump himself than to his philosophy. Tucker Carlson is banking on that.

The one lie which strikes closest to home for me as a journalist, and now a columnist, is that the mainstream media are puppets of the liberal left. I don’t expect any Trumper reading this to be convinced otherwise, and that’s the problem — how to change minds.

The Trump GOP thrives on playing to the fears of its base, but now it’s filling us non-Trumpers with fear that they could succeed, that they could take control of the Congress in 2022 and the White House again in 2024.