Orion's Cold Fire

Donald Trump is a very old man.  He’s seventy-eight or thereabouts.  And, sure, he’s wealthy so he doesn’t have to worry about his kids or grandkids starving.  So why is he doing all this?  Some people say it’s for pride.  He wants to be remembered as a great man.  Maybe.  But would he be going through everything he’s been through for the last ten years just for pride?  I tend to doubt it.  Now, I don’t doubt that part of it is associated with pride.  I think he felt disrespected by the Democratic elite that mocked at the idea of him running for president.  And I’m sure he wants revenge on the people who have made his life miserable since he became president in 2017.  I think he’d love to punish as many of them, as severely as he possibly can, for all the dirty tricks and harm they’ve caused him and his friends and family.

But I still don’t think that’s the whole reason.  I think it’s because he’s an American and it angers him to see this country lose the characteristics that made it a great country.  He doesn’t want his descendants to live in a banana republic.  He doesn’t want them to live in fear of the secret police.  Basically, he wants them to be free.

And I believe this because that’s the same thing that motivates me to rail against the Deep State and the Fake News and root for Donald Trump and his insane crusade to “Make America Great Again.”  I’m not blind.  I know Trump is a huckster.  He runs casinos, sells steaks or bibles or golden sneakers or whatever the rubes will buy.  He’s PT Barnum with a hair transplant and a permanent tan.  But I believe down to my feet that he is just as angry about what the people in charge have done to this country as I am.  I know that he sells snake oil to the suckers but I think it angers him to see these regular people getting shafted by the likes of Barack Obama, George Bush, Bill Clinton and Mitt Romney.  Maybe he feels that these people are his marks and he has the right to cheat them a little bit but in return they shouldn’t be impoverished, dispossessed and replaced by whoever can be loaded on a boat, marched across the border and put to work in a Tyson chicken processing plant.  In other words, he thinks the American dirt people are still Americans and deserve at least the right to exist.

Of course I can’t prove any of this.  Maybe I’m wrong.  Maybe he’s just crazy and he’s just doing this to satisfy some megalomaniacal craving for the spotlight.

But it doesn’t matter.  Because for whatever reason Donald Trump is fulfilling the wishes of me and about a hundred million other Americans who’ve watched this country systematically degraded and reduced to an anarcho-tyrannical police state where criminals run amok and law-abiding people have to keep their mouths shut to avoid being sent to a gulag.  He’s figured out how the system works and he’s single-mindedly taking it apart piece by bloody piece.  And it’s beautiful.

So, I can’t prove what I think about Trump but along with everyone else on my side we’re watching this spectacle in the way I imagine the fundamentalist brethren would feel if the rapture suddenly came upon them; shocked but ecstatic.  When all of the things you’ve been hoping for years would happen suddenly do, it makes you giddy.  And that’s how it’s been since January 20^th.  And if he can keep this up for a few more months I’m starting to believe he can actually beat the Deep State and fix this country permanently (or at least for the foreseeable future).  So, keep breaking stuff Mr. Trump.  Reduce Washington DC to rubble and send the managerial state to the unemployment line.  Maybe they can work for Tyson Chicken.

So today was my scheduled zoom call with the guys.  It’s a group of eight former employees of the old firm who formerly used to take the (very) long walk every morning (and sometimes afternoon) down to the cafeteria and back to talk about “work.”  None of us was truly Left and most of was were decidedly Right but we tolerated a certain amount of centrism on some topics.  During the early years of the millennium, we were mostly hawkish and after Obama got in, we became increasingly angry over social issues like race and sexuality.

But one thing always seemed true.  We were disgruntled.  Now back in 2016 I famously championed Donald Trump and took a lot of grief because of this.  I made a small bet with one of my fellow coffee-walkers and when he had to pay up, he magnanimously framed the bill and hanged it on my wall for all to see.  Out of fear of the cleaning staff stealing the cash I replaced it with a Donald Trump million-dollar bill.  But the victory was very sweet.

Over the four years of Trump’s first presidency the tenor of our discussions varied but until 2020 they were generally on the optimistic side.  But once George Floyd and then COVID laid waste to the country we slid into disgust and the November fake election was the last straw.  Now whenever we got together (and after COVID it had to be remote) we uniformly despaired for the future of the country.  I guess you could say the Biden presidency was the term of our “resistance.”  Personally, we had our good and bad days.  And also, we one by one left the old firm.  But we valued the Wednesday zoom call and the solidarity it provided.  Interestingly the most left-winged of our number had a quasi-conversion and in 2024 voted for Trump!  Which we all considered a minor miracle.

But over the course of 2024 it was easy to see that our optimism for the political future was increasing drastically.  After the debate it was almost comical how excited everyone had become.  And after the election it was something like the scene in the “Wizard of Oz” when all the munchkins are dancing around singing about how “the wicked old witch at last is dead.”  And so as with everyone else on the Right we’re almost ecstatic with the activity and results we’re seeing in Washington as Trump and his merry band rip up all the floor boards in the deep state’s hideout and dig up the pots of gold they’ve stolen from the American people.

And now it’s gotten to the point where we’re so jaded that even revolutionary change is not enough and instead, we’re talking about ludicrous phantasmagorical things like eliminating the IRS and making the income tax a middle school math calculation like everyone pays 8% of their income or making it just a sales tax.  Next, we’ll be expecting Trump to announce that dunk tank with Democrats like Pelosi, Schumer and AOC in it that we can all get a chance at dunking.

So, yeah, it’s getting out of hand and that means we’re about to hit a wall and will have to come back down to Earth.  And that’s fine.  Life is mostly a serious matter and we shouldn’t be walking around laughing like idiots for more than a few weeks anyway.

But even if we calm down, let’s look at what we’ve gotten.  We’ve gotten back our hopes.  We’re looking at actual good news.  There is a way to course-correct and shrink down the federal bureaucracy and eliminate the deficit and defang the security state.  These are all wonderful things and way beyond what we expected from Trump just a scant few weeks ago.  Trump has gotten the upper hand on the establishment uni-party.  McConnell is a ghost of his former self and the Democrats have become a laughing stock without a path forward or a strategy for dealing with Trump other than hoping for some disaster to strike.  They’re probably praying to Gaia for COVID25 or something equally injurious.

So, at the call today we all acknowledged that the morale boost from all this winning is an enormous positive result above and beyond any and all of the actual policy changes that we enjoy.  Joy has a value.  Emotionally, psychologically and maybe even spiritually it enhances our lives and makes every part of our lives better.  I go to sleep easier.  I wake up more rested and I look at the world as a much better place.  Even the bad things are better because I feel more in control of the world and more confident that I can repair whatever needs fixing.

The Trump bump is real.