Election 2024

One of the articles discussing Trump's win caught my eye, because it was pointing out how many Americans voted for things like an increase in minimum wage or ensuring abortion remained legal - and yet (although it's hard to say how many of those voters did this) also voted for Trump, who stands for the exact opposite of all that. 

It got me thinking about how, amongst his supporters at least, the image they have of him seems to bear no relation to reality. 

I was even talking to a lady today who was on disability and hoped he'd make it better. 

... 

Hoped Trump would make disability better. 

She also brought up how Trump donated his salary. 

Anyways, it got me thinking about how perception and image works. And it reminds me of when he first became president. 

Back then I tried to give him the benefit of the doubt, and one story I recall - which got a lot of press at the time - was how he went to Carrier in Indianapolis and got them to save jobs. 

Here's an article discussing what actually came of that. 

It was little things like that which made me decide that he was a con artist, promising things he couldn't deliver.

I know that marketing, misinformation, disinformation, etc are powerful forces. More powerful than I want to believe.

Yet I still thought that, as Abraham Lincoln said, “You can fool all the people some of the time and some of the people all the time, but you cannot fool all the people all the time.”

And I especially thought, after all the time we've had to see him in action, that others could also see that.

Sure, I've seen some of the practically blasphemous memes shared on social media. I personally find them disgusting. I mean, Jesus was all about 'love your neighbor' and learning to be more forgiving and compassionate. And the good Samaritan was partly a story about someone who back then would have been considered a foreigner or outsider. 

You might even say - an immigrant. 

And Trump is very much the opposite of that. 

Even aside from his breaking his oath of office and taking a wrecking ball to the American ship of state, he preaches hate and fear and brings out the worst in everyone. 

I don't know what they're smoking to adulate him so much. 

Anyways, I think that is perhaps part of the problem. 

He has developed an image at complete odds with the reality. 

Now, he's old and not really in the best of health so maybe he won't be as much of a wrecking ball... But he's also destroyed a lot of guardrails and surrounded himself with some pretty terrible enablers. 

But it does seem like many people voted for that image rather than the reality. 

I don't know if, when, or how they'll realize that but it'll probably be a mess when they do. 

Hopefully it'll be before he swings that wrecking ball too many times.