Motivation

I don’t understand. But yeah, I do. There’s a rationale behind our president’s behavior. Twisted? Yes. Ugly? Yes. Unpatriotic? Yes. Un-Christian. Yes. Effective? We’ll see.

Take last week, for example. The stock market took a breather from its plummet, stabilized, and rose a little. There was much oohing and aahing.

What did our president do?

He announced plans to apply additional tariffs against China. Seems they started the Covid-19 Virus in a lab and sent it here to hurt his, the president’s, reputation, standing, and re-election chances. Let’s beat them up for it with tariffs. I know. I know. It’s lunacy, reminiscent of the scene from the movie Blazing Saddles where the new sheriff thwarted the angry crowd by threatening to “Shoot the …” Well, you remember. We also remember one of the more famous quotes from my generation’s war, “It became necessary to destroy the [village] to save it.” So the prez threatened to start another trade war right in the middle of a global epidemic in order to save us.

What did the market do?

Plummeted. There was much gasping and wonderment.

Here’s the deal. Somewhere along the line, the president and his followers discovered the power of hate. The idea probably grew from the success of the so-called “Southern Strategy.” It’s like this: Haters gotta hate. It doesn’t always matter whom or what they hate. It may be minorities. It may be immigrants. Hell, it may even be the idea of health care for everyone. It’s hate that is the sine qua non. That’s all you need to control the crowd.

Hate gets them moving toward a goal, gets them going. It may be to the state capitol with rifles strapped in front of them for maximum show. It may be to sit in front of the Fox channel to get a fresh infusion of rage. It may be to the streets in an effort to scare people.

Heaven help us if it is ever to the town square with their “penis-elongating” rifles, this time in their brown uniforms, hats, and faux military insignia to complete they fantasy.

Yep, it’s hate. Get people hating hard enough and all you have to do is provide the object of the hate and yell, in Southern parlance, “Sic ‘em.”

The hate is what makes their system work. The objects of the hate are interchangeable. Right now, they’ve decided that it’s China. Look for it to focus here in America as November approaches. Sadly, many of us see lots of target groups ahead of us and figure we’ll be okay as long as the trains run on … uh … as long as the barber shops stay open. Indifference is a major catalyst for hate.

I guess it’s time for each of us to start figuring out how far we are down on the list.

Funny in a movie.
Hell of a way to run a country.