Small Hands and a Swift Descent

What else can I say about what happened during the Democratic Convention, but “Wow!”? It feels like we have been in a dystopian coma for years, and someone applied a defibrillator and we were jolted back to life. We are feeling the “joy” of being set free. As the electric crowd at the DNC convention has chanted: “Thank you Joe Biden.” As Michelle Obama said: “Hope is back!” As Kamala Harris and Tim Walz (and many others)  chanted” We are not going back!”

There were so many memorable moments at the convention. Here are my favorites:

Michelle Obama: “For years, Donald Trump did everything in his power to try to make people fear us,” she said, adding that “his limited, narrow view of the world made him feel threatened by the existence of two hardworking, highly educated, successful people who happen to be Black. “Who’s going to tell him that the job he’s currently seeking might just be one of those ‘Black jobs’?” Given The Don’s disdain for Black women, it would be the ultimate humiliation for him to be defeated by Kamala Harris. 

The Big Gretch (Gretchen Whitmer): “You think he understands that when your car breaks down, you can’t get to work? No! His first word was probably “chauffeur.” You think he’s ever had to take items out of the cart before checking out? Hell, you think he’s even been to a grocery store? That’s what the chauffeur is for.” That’s a reminder that the ‘champion” of the white working class shits on a golden toilet.

When Tim Walz was delivering his acceptance speech, his son Gus was so overwhelmed with emotion and with tears of joy in his eyes exclaimed “That’s my dad.” On cue, Republicans attacked Gus and his dad as weird. In the Republican Party, “the party of family,” the expression of love by a son for his father is grounds for derision?

Barack Obama: “Here’s a 78-year-old billionaire who has not stopped whining about his problems since he rode down his golden escalator nine years ago. It has been a constant stream of gripes and grievances that’s actually getting worse now that he’s afraid of losing to Kamala. There’s the childish nicknames, the crazy conspiracy theories, this weird obsession with crowd sizes.” Immediately after saying this, he put his hands together to indicate “small,” which was a throwback to the “small hand” comments during the 2016 race, and by association, his small penis. Didn’t think Obama would go there, but small is small.

The appearance of members of Tim Walz’s football team players. Who ever thought the Democrats could be the party of football?

The appearance of four of the men known as the “Central Park Five”, who were falsely accused of raping a runner in Central Park and collectively spent over 40 years in prison. The relevance of their appearance relates to the fact that The Don paid for a full page ad in the N.Y. Post demanding the death penalty. Even after the conviction was overturned (the real perpetrator finally admitted to the heinous act), The Don has never acknowledged their innocence and holds to his position. Yuseff Salem, who is now a city councilman, was passionate and eloquent about his false conviction and had this to say about The Don: “45 didn’t want us alive.” referring to The Don, the 45th president.

Steve Kerr imitated the great Steph Curry when referring to beating The Don and finally putting him to bed forever when he put his hands together.placed them softly on his cheek, tilting his head saying: “Night, night.”

And of course Stevie Wonder’s performance.

Finally, the Democrats are drinking the Kool-Aid and it feels sooo good; but Michelle and Barack have warned us that this election will be very close, and boy is it going to get ugly. So let’s enjoy the effects of the “electric” Kool-Aid, let the glow flow through us, but make no mistake, the Republicans are prepared to throw acid rain on Kamala and company.

Despite the fact that I have been writing about The Don and politics since 2015, I am still astounded that after all that has happened that his malignant narcissist could become president again. Just want everyone to remember this: In 2020, the Don received 70 million votes! Biden’s victory was razor thin in all the battleground states. He won Georgia by a mere 10,000 votes. 

Since the election in 2020, The Don has started an insurrection to stop the peaceful transfer of power, has been convicted by a jury of his peers of rape, has been convicted of 34 felonies in the Stormy Daniels election interference case, and convicted of tax fraud and as a result owes NYS 500 million dollars. The documents case in Florida is on appeal, and the election interference case in Georgia (“Just need 11,800 votes!”) are looming as is Jack Smith’s January 6th case. 

He has claimed on day one he will be a dictator (somehow me thinks there will be a day 2, a day 3-you get the point.) He has threatened to execute some of his detractors (after all, he felt Mike Pence ’s hanging would be justified because he didn’t do what he wanted.) He has threatened to round up millions of undocumented immigrants and put them in internment camps to be deported. He continues his vile, vituperative assaults on anyone who is in opposition to him and promises retribution. He continues his racist and misogynist remarks. He is an amoral, know nothing, bloviating narcissist who couldn’t give a shit about “his evangelicals,” the white working class, or even the millions who serve in the military, referring to those who serve as “suckers and losers.” Yet, he is supported by millions, buoyed by cowardly sycophants who live in fear of him and have the spines of invertebrates. (Clue: Invertebrates don’t have spines!)

If asked “would you consider voting for a presidential candidate who owns the above resume, how many people would say yes? My guess is that it would be a far cry from 70 million. But when you insert The Don as the candidate, suddenly, there is a communal “meh” and the answer is “heck yeah.” 

Deconstructing the above disconnect requires a deeper dive than I will address here. What I will say is that The Don, through his cult of personality, has duped millions into believing he will address their grievances and that he alone can fix it. They have drunk the Kool-Aid and they have become devotees of the church of The Don.

For the longest time, The Don has controlled the political narrative whether he’s recommending people drink bleach to kill the Covid virus, exchanging  love letters with Kim Jong Un, telling Vladimir Putin that he can do whatever he wants, saying John McCain is a “loser,” and mocking a disabled reporter, he has made us gasp with disbelief; but we were always talking about him. He is the politically bogey man who seeps into our consciousness that we can’t shake. He has created a dystopian world in which we continuously conjure up dread. 

Every time we engage him in his crazy comments he grows stronger. There was a Star Trek episode where there was an invisible monster on the Starship Enterprise that fed on the crew’s fear. No one could figure out what was going on, and the level of fear increased making the monster more powerful. My point here is that every time we engage him in his crazy comments he grows stronger. It makes him feel he is powerful and controlling you. But finally, The Democrats are starting to figure it out. They have realized that their most powerful tool is to shrug their shoulders when he says outrageous things, casting him as whacky and thus, neutering him. By doing that they deprive the monster of the response he needs to get more powerful. 

At his psychic core, The Don has been defending against his “smallness” his entire life. He needs to be grand; he needs to be the center of all things. By treating him like he is “weird” and not engaging him because he is just a whacky guy, they are puncturing his armor. The more they treat him as an “unserious” person (while never losing sight of how seriously dangerous he is!), the more desperate and angry he becomes, the more incoherent he is, and the smaller and smaller he feels. There is lots of talk about inflation, but regarding The Don the Democrats strategy is one of deflation of The Don. 

The Don’ s desperation to have the attention swing to him and once again control the narrative can be exemplified by his desire for Taylor Swift’s endorsement. (Please, pretty please, pick me, pick me.)

Recently, Donald Trump has falsely implied that he has Taylor Swift’s endorsement, posting fake images on social media of the singer and her fans supporting him.

The Don then responded to AI generated fake news by saying: “I accept!” Is the man desperate or what? How small must you feel to create a false endorsement and then say you accept it?

In her 2020 documentary, “Miss Americana,” Swift said:“I need to be on the right side of history,” Swift told her publicist that she does not care if she faces backlash for coming out against Trump. “I don’t care. If I get bad press for saying, “Don’t put a homophobic racist in office.”

Let me remind The Don what Swift has said about her beliefs and what she feels about The Don. “The change we need most is to elect a president who recognizes that people of color deserve to feel safe and represented, that women deserve the right to choose what happens to their bodies, and that the LGBTQIA+ community deserves to be acknowledged and included.”  

In 2020, she endorsed Joe Biden. The idea that she would consider endorsing The Don is about as possible as him growing larger hands.