Cancel This Unreality Show

The utter stupidity, depravity and incompetence of the Trump administration could drive anyone to drink.

With Independence Day here once again, the temptation may be even stronger to tackle a few brewskis and try to forget about the mess were in. Try to stay reasonably clear-headed, though, as Trump will take any opportunity he can to bamboozle us. It’ll be hard to celebrate freedom, liberty and democracy in the future if Trump succeeds, as he is trying desperately to do, in completely dismantling the rule of law.

Need I remind you that Trump’s complete blundering of the COVID-19 threat has already denied us, this year, of our beloved Fourth of July parade? And the great local fireworks? You just wait: If there is, God forbid, a second Trump term, Martin Luther King Day will be off the calendar via executive order, to be replaced by a Trump’s birthday holiday in June.

Have you ever watched a reality show? Any reality show? Tell me, please, what’s “real” about any of them? Does “real life” include plucking “tribes” of otherwise reasonably normal people out of civilization, then throwing them into artificially contrived “wilderness” habitats so they can beat the snot out of each other for money? As a matter of course do we send teams of mismatched squabblers scurrying around the world chasing inane clues to see who can find the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow first?

Do sane people really hire the likes of Gary Busey, Rod Blagojevich, or Omarosa Manigault? Do normal people set themselves up to crawl into a boardroom begging not to be fired? By a mad king who literally sits on a dais above them like an emperor to be worshiped?

I should hope that none of that’s “reality.”

Yet, for Donald Trump, all of that is reality. He has never lived, worked or functioned in the real world that the rest of us live in. He was born with a stolen silver spoon in his mouth and taught from birth how to lie, cheat and steal his way to the top of the heap that became his world.

Remember: This is the guy who once told reporters that everyone has to have proper identification to go to the grocery store — a place which I would bet you just about any amount of money he’s never set foot in.

Trump’s ability to think and learn normal behaviors was truncated sometime in the 1970s, and he’s never been able to get beyond those days. He’s lived in a bubble ever since, and he’s created his own reality based on his twisted sense of what the world should be like if he were to run it.

Unfortunately, due to a series of bad choices by otherwise sensible voters and a quirk of the Electoral College, he’s been given the chance to do just that and thereby mismanage a huge and critically important part of the world. This is a situation we must correct this coming November.

The reality Trump has created for himself does not change, and that is because he, unlike most erudite and competent managers, has forgotten (or never knew) the one most important rule for competent and successful leaders: Do not be afraid to hire harder-working and more intelligent subordinates than yourself. They will always be loyal, and they will make you look good.

For Trump, having smart and capable people around him only threatens him, because no one is more intelligent, more successful or better looking than he is.

With Trump, every slight must be challenged. The latest example: The video showing him timidly walking down a slightly elevated ramp at West Point after his speech to the Cadets of the Class of 2020. Instead of laughing it off, which he could have easily done to his advantage, the ramp was suddenly “wet” on a perfectly dry and sunny day. He was wearing shoes that had “slippery” leather soles.

In truth, he hasn’t seen his shoes in a very long time, given that ever-expanding waistline, and had he tried to take a peek at his feet, he probably would have toppled over on his face. It is sad and unhealthy to devote so much time and energy to what, in reality, truly is a mere “nothing-burger.”

In contrast, Trump has given up on trying to handle the most important challenge to his administration, as well as to all of us: the pandemic. It’s not that there aren’t strategies that could be employed or measures that could be taken to manage the crisis until a vaccine comes along. It is more that there are no steps that Trump likes or wants to take.

For example: Testing is a “bust” because Trump and his people bungled testing from the get-go, and to step up testing now only highlights the earlier failures. Keeping the country shut down, at least to a sensible degree, works, but that won’t be supported because it flies in the face of pumping up Trump’s “braggadocious” economy. Masks and social distancing are not for “real men” (or women).

The sad truth here is that Trump doesn’t care. He is willing to accept whatever lives are lost, no matter the number, until a cure or vaccine comes around — which he will then find a way to brag about. The casualties are meaningless to him, as long as they don’t include him (and maybe his immediate family).

He can blame China. He can blame the CDC. He can blame Democratic governors and blue states. With Trump, there’s always someone else to blame. “I take no responsibility at all,” he famously said. Maybe that should be the new campaign slogan he’s been looking to employ.

It’s beyond time to bring the Trump reality show to a close. It’s high time for a real Independence Day (from Trump) — and you know, of course, that I am mostly right.