I’ve been pondering the fact that nearly half of the voters in this country seemed prepared to vote for Donald Trump, a man who will destroy our nation.
I naively thought that when it became obvious that Trump is a delusional narcissist, pathological liar, business cheat, and authoritarian demagogue it would serve as a tipping point. I was wrong.
[pullquote align=”right” cite=”” link=”” color=”” class=”” size=””]No doubt the “high” is glorious, but as with meth addiction, there will be a terrible price to pay.[/pullquote]
Oh, his supporters know that Trump is a delusional narcissist, pathological liar, thief and fascist. They simply can’t give him up. To his supporters, Trump is like meth and they are in the grip of addiction.
Methamphetamine is a highly addictive stimulant that it used and abused recreationally.
How do people get started on meth?
Methamphetamine increases the amount of the neurotransmitter dopamine, leading to high levels of that chemical in the brain. Dopamine is involved in reward, motivation, the experience of pleasure, and motor function. Methamphetamine’s ability to release dopamine rapidly in reward regions of the brain produces the euphoric “rush” or “flash” that many users experience.
It is extremely addictive:
Repeated methamphetamine use can easily lead to addiction—a chronic, relapsing disease characterized by compulsive drug seeking and use.
Donald Trump is like meth. For his supporters, his ugly, bigoted pathological behavior appears to produce something like a dopamine rush leading to the experience of pleasure.
It’s easy to understand the pleasure that bigots get from Trump. He has made America free again — free for racism, sexism and homophobia. Hate can once again come out to play and that’s an amazing rush for the white supremacists and their ilk.
But what about the rest of his supporters? They get a rush from Trump, too.
According to The New York Times:
Most voters consider Donald J. Trump a risky choice for president, saying he lacks the right temperament and values, but he is seen as more transformative …
Several Trump supporters said in follow-up interviews that they believed he was worth the risk, given the economic and security challenges facing the nation. Forty-eight percent of voters think Mr. Trump could bring real change to Washington …
“The risky part with Trump is the fact of his rhetoric, how he says things,” said Patrick Kellegher, 52, a political independent and a retired deputy sheriff from Anaconda, Mont. “But I think he is outside the known government circles.” He added, “I think Trump will bring about real change because he’s looking at it through a different scope.”
What do Trump supporters mean when they invoke “real change?” It can’t be change in their personal circumstances. Everyone knows that Trump stands only for Trump and will use the presidency as an opportunity to plunder the country on behalf of himself and his children just like an other tinpot dictator.
They mean he will be a kick in the teeth to the despised elites of this country. What a rush to those who viewed themselves as demeaned and discarded by those same elites. Sweet justice!
No doubt the “high” is glorious, but as with meth addiction, there will be a terrible price to pay.
… In studies of chronic methamphetamine users, severe structural and functional changes have been found in areas of the brain associated with emotion and memory, which may account for many of the emotional and cognitive problems observed in these individuals.
Long-term methamphetamine use has many negative consequences for physical health, including extreme weight loss, severe dental problems (“meth mouth”), and skin sores …
The addiction to Trump will also have serious long term consequences including destruction of our standing in the world and erosion of our freedoms.
It also explains why journalists and political operatives have been powerless to stop Trump’s rise. Reasoning with a Trump supporter is like reasoning with a meth addict. They know you’re right, but they are helpless to stop themselves from destruction. The high has become everything to them.
However Trump is different from meth in a critical way: the high he offers is not physically addictive, which leaves some hope that those in the grip of Trump addiction can understand what the future portends. In exchange for the temporary rush of payback to the elites, Trump supporters will face the same ugly consequences as the rest of us: the plundering of our country, the destruction of the rule of law and the betrayal of our ideals.
Trump supporters need to ask themselves if it will be worth it.
See, this here is why in the UK we have the Official Monster Raving Loony Party; so people who are fed up with the business as usual political system, who think all the mainstream parties are as bad as each other and who want to ‘send a message’ to those in power can do so in a fairly harmless way.
Funny you should mention meth, because http://gawker.com/rumor-doctor-prescribes-donald-trump-cheap-speed-1782901680
More indepth info from a link in that page http://gawker.com/the-best-theory-of-1992-donald-trump-took-amphetamine-1755299885
My mother was an immigrant. As, obviously, her mother before her. My Nana survived war-torn Malta during World War II. While my parents worked to pay the bills, this woman raised me in all the time between. Her stories were not Dr. Seuss’ ABC’s. She didn’t read to me the Very Hungry Caterpillar. She could barely read at all. She didn’t drive. She spoke English, quite well – and that was her gift to me.
She told me the stories. Horrible, horrible stories of the War. I will forever be grateful.
Malta was bombed more than London itself. Their strategic position in the Mediterranean and allegiance to the United Kingdom made them a prime target for Mussolini. The stories she recounted were genuine and important. I promised her as a six year old that I would write the story of her life.
This is hardly that fulfillment. I’m still working on it. Between all the spaces in my life, I promise. My Nana was a Catholic, no Jew. But even still. She hid in caves, with shaved head, scared, starving, bombed every day. War touches us all, and I think we should remember that this voting season.
When Hillary Clinton caught such flak for calling half of trump supporters deplorable, I thought, only half? What he stood for was obvious early enough. The only excuses you can have of voting for him and not counting as deplorable in my eyes is if waking up from a coma on the eve of the election, or suffering an inability to make long term memories. Also, maybe not understanding the words in the sentence, “mexico is sending us rapists and murderers.”
How else can it not be deplorable to vote for this man?
Irony seems too mild a word.
P.S., in the real world, Mexico “sent” me a perfectly lovely (and male) ob.
Is this what it felt like to be living in Germany when the Nazi party started gathering steam?
I have to admit – I have not always voted because the popular vote doesn’t seem to matter all that much in the presidential election.
Wild horses couldn’t keep me from the voting booth this year.
You and a lot of other people. I was asked to be an election judge this year (newly retired, time on my hands). Per our county clerk, they were asked to recruit and train 500 new election judges; twice the normal number.
They want “change” what ever the hell that is supposed to mean. They don’t really care what the change is. And if the change is damaging to the economy and to human rights, disability, minority rights, women’s rights, LGBTQ rights, well that’s ok with them because they aren’t soceity’s vulnerable population and they (Trump voters) won’t be the one first adversely affected. And if I have to hear one more person say “They are the same” :Lesser of two evils” I think my head is going to explode. And for the people who think it won’t make any difference in the long run who wins; that’s how we got 8 years of W…
The anti-intellectualism that seems to be occurring in the U.S. nowadays seems to feed into this ‘change’ idea. “We need people who will shake up the establishment.” Well, okay, I want change too. But those ‘establishment’ people – they KNOW how it works. They know how to get things done. It doesn’t mean they will – I mean, just witness all those Tea Party Republicans who got elected because they would ‘change’ things – but they did NOTHING, except shut down the government, hold up votes or refuse to vote, try to repeal established laws….Then those same people complain that Congress doesn’t do anything, get anything passed…they literally can’t, because of the same people who were voted in to ‘shake up the establishment’ and change things.
I shouldn’t be surprised but I am always caught off guard by the vitriol that even the simplest comment draws from a Trump supporter. They almost seem to feel that they now have permission to be as ugly as they want. It seems fueled by years of being left behind or abused. They all seem to be playing the victim.
If their lives and their status are not what they want it to be, why not hike themselves up by their bootstraps and do something about it rather than be so hateful?
They are also the ones who say ” Keep your government hands off my Medicare, off my Social Security, off my part D prescription drug money.” Oh you mean those flawed but very helpful socialist government programs…
Case in point both my parents, who loved all those government programs that helped them but heaven forbid anyone else needs help now. My parents were both from poor families that benefited at various times from unemployment insurance, disability insurance, social security, VA and FHA loans, the GI Bill, Medicare, Medicaid. But to hear them talk, they deserved/EARNED all that but the people who need those things now don’t deserve them…they would have voted for Trump but they both passed away late last year…My dad LOVED Trump. It really made talking to him difficult.
mine did too, which disturbed me; he died in December, so he knew DT was a candidate. I seriously doubt my mother would have. She was a Democrat, even working on campaigns when we were younger. My republican spouse can’t bring himself to vote for Clinton so he’s voting libertarian
My dad died in October last year and my mom on Christmas Eve. I loved them but they had always been pretty racist (in the NorthEast “civilized” we don’t use the N word way, that is worse in some ways, if you are going to be a racist then own it) and tipped from Dem to Republican during the Reagan years. Obama winning just pushed them over the line into Peak wingnut Tea Partier….Hillary became a caricature to them early on. Fun random fact the Clintons actually lived in my home town briefly when they were at Yale.
Dad joked he hated everybody equally. He really was a bit misanthropic.
I’m a nutmegger, too. My family’s from Wethersfield originally, though I grew up near UConn.
From Milford originally though I ve lived on both coasts plus Florida, Hawaii and Guam. Yeah my dad had the sarcastic snarky persona down pat but actually loved having an audience. Strangely three of my parents four children are liberals..weird.
My hardcore conservative parents went 5 for 5 on raising liberals. I’m still not quite sure how. I’m pretty sure they are both voting for Trump. My dad has said some absolutely horrible things in support of Trump while talking to me or my siblings. It’s honestly horrifying. I would generally consider my mom the more staunchly Republican of the two of them, but she seems only just barely willing to vote for Trump while my dad seems to relish it in some way.
You will never find a Republican spouse with more loathing for Trump than my husband. I wouldn’t be surprised if he tattooed HRC on his own forehead the way he hates him.
I really don’t get it. It’s like every old white person I know, including my parents and in laws, have all gone collectively senile at the same time. It’s like, weren’t you all out smoking weed and protesting the war, and now you’re parroting this line of shit? Where did all the flower people go? My parents have done well in life, but to hear them talk, we are apparently living in some sort of hell on earth after 8 years of Obama. The sad thing is I am a centrist at best, certainly not liberal, but even I can point out that they live in a nice house, been to Europe twice, go golfing daily, have Medicare and their pension and their lifelong health insurance from the state – really? This is hell on earth? Seems OK to me.