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Fear and Illusions
Jan. 25th, 2019 08:33 amI've been watching the latest budget snafu in Washington with growing irritation. It seems to me that, for many people, the process is being driven by fear and illusions.
The fear is from various sources. Ardent Trump supporters are fearful of the other, in this case illegal immigrants. It's an irrational fear. Having just came from Honduras, source of the many convoys that the bed-wetter crowd led by Trump are fearful of, I have a personal understanding of the matter.
Simply put, the people who come to the US from Honduras are the ambitious people. They're the hard workers, the strivers, the risk-takers. It's way easier to just sit in your hovel in Honduras and say "tomorrow" than to hike down to town and thence to America. We have nothing to fear from these immigrants.
The Republicans who refuse to vote and potentially override a veto are fearful. They are fearful of the same people who are fearful of the other. They are fearful of getting voted out.
The other problem is illusions. The ardent Trump supporters have convinced themselves that Trump is not a second-rate crook and idiot who has surrounded himself with third-rate crooks. They think that he is a brave and wise man and that he will somehow by force of will accomplish his stated goals. Some of them are hoping that he will use military force to rule the country.
To those suffering from the illusion of a competent Trump, he can do no wrong. Every time one of his fellow crooks is arrested, it is seen not as a hit on Trump but as "the swamp" fighting back. His State of the Union loss is thus seen as a win. I have to hope that at some point this illusion will break, but I am not optimistic.
The fear is from various sources. Ardent Trump supporters are fearful of the other, in this case illegal immigrants. It's an irrational fear. Having just came from Honduras, source of the many convoys that the bed-wetter crowd led by Trump are fearful of, I have a personal understanding of the matter.
Simply put, the people who come to the US from Honduras are the ambitious people. They're the hard workers, the strivers, the risk-takers. It's way easier to just sit in your hovel in Honduras and say "tomorrow" than to hike down to town and thence to America. We have nothing to fear from these immigrants.
The Republicans who refuse to vote and potentially override a veto are fearful. They are fearful of the same people who are fearful of the other. They are fearful of getting voted out.
The other problem is illusions. The ardent Trump supporters have convinced themselves that Trump is not a second-rate crook and idiot who has surrounded himself with third-rate crooks. They think that he is a brave and wise man and that he will somehow by force of will accomplish his stated goals. Some of them are hoping that he will use military force to rule the country.
To those suffering from the illusion of a competent Trump, he can do no wrong. Every time one of his fellow crooks is arrested, it is seen not as a hit on Trump but as "the swamp" fighting back. His State of the Union loss is thus seen as a win. I have to hope that at some point this illusion will break, but I am not optimistic.
