Hate

Why do so many people despise Trump with a white-hot hate? Let me count the ways:

He’s a phony, a fraud.
He reminds them of Mussolini.
He named his son Baron.
He is a serial liar
He’s a billionaire.
He has a very attractive wife who has a foreign accent.
He embarrassed the deadbeat NATO members.
He plays too much golf.
He is against late-term abortions.
He does not embrace shit-hole nations.
He fires people who work against him.
He uses locker-room language from time to time.
He is too opinionated and speaks his mind.
He is adored by the smelly shoppers at Walmart.
He fights back against those who are trying to take him down,
He is vainglorious.
He is a global-warming skeptic.
He would like to find common ground with Russia (against China?)
He calls out corruption and incompetence.
He is a racist, misogynistic, anti-Semitic, fascist homophobe.
He likes to get something back for US taxpayer dollars.
He is overweight and has orange hair.
He loves America and wants to make it great again.

Afterward: Yes, even Nancy Pelosi too!

Leadership

"Consensus is the negation of leadership," -- Margaret Thatcher

Strong, effective leaders are rare ... and too often devolve into dictators.  Because Donald Trump is a strong leader who is increasingly effective, many on the Left have taken the illogical leap into calling him a dictator ... a Facist ... and, of course, Mussolini. Now Trump has his flaws .... a serial insulter ... quite vainglorious ... a bit of a Lothario ... and tending toward exaggeration and vacillation.. But, I do believe that he is a patriot and a very fair distance away from being a despot. There are many things he could have done to send up warning flares of autocratic behavior. He has shown very few of such red flags.

Robust leadership is often reflected, for good or evil, in thousands of ways in the daily lives of the people. These people become tiny clones of their leader. Clearly the Trump Derangement Syndrome seems a manifestation of this tendency. Many in the media, politics. sports and entertainment fields have taken on some of Trump's baser tendencies ... without offering the sweetmeats that come with his less tasty gruel. Marco Rubio tried this "go-low" tactic during the presidential debates to his everlasting regret. I suspect that many of the lightweight never-Trumpers mentioned above may suffer the same fate. (Are you listening Schneiderman?)

Quote of the Day

"It's better to live one day as Mussolini than 100 years as Barack Obama." -- Donald Trump

Afterward: In case you haven't seen Donald Trump's original re-tweeted quote: "It's better to live one day as a lion than 100 years as a lamb -- Mussolini  

Throwback

I have been trying to recall where I first saw many of Donald Trump's pursed-lips face and grandiose hand gestures from last night's Republican debate in Cleveland. After much head scratching I finally brought the following historic movie clip to mind: YouTube Video.

And yes, I do believe that President Trump probably would make the trains run on time.

Juxtaposition IV

Keep your chin up ...

Sean Hannity has a great line, "Next time Obama gives a speech I'm going to tug on his pant cuff and say, 'Mr. President, we're down here.'"