The problem is not TRUMP himself, the mogul is just an infantile, self-absorbed narcissist whose candidacy will ultimately self-destruct in a torrent of insults and tantrums. No, the real problem is the White body politic TRUMP has infected and inflamed like some latent disease waiting for a deadly parasite to embed itself and explode. The TRUMPitis Virus, as we’ll call it, has multiplied and expanded into a festering wound that is uncontrollably secreting venom and hatred.
The diseased body politic is the true danger to the American political system. In recent years, particularly in the post-tea party / post-Obama era, we’ve already seen this emerging movement form its ugly message of open bigotry and unbridled racism. The likes of Sarah Palin, Ted Cruz, Michelle Bachmann, et al, have merely whetted the appetite of the angry masses. Since announcing his candidacy exactly one year ago today, TRUMP has provided the catalyst for the tea party to unabashedly take its so-called outsider message of anti-Black, anti-Latino, anti-Progressive, and all other forms of anti-Other, to the streets, to the rallies, and to the polls.
Now that this seemingly incurable disease has reached an advanced stage, we may wonder what the greater symptomatic effects might be on Life in America. Is this an uncontrollable virus along the likes of say Ebola or Zika? Is it at all possible to treat those who have been infected with TRUMPitis before their minds and bodies ultimately deteriorate in a feverish delirium that destroys whatever small amount of reason they once had? It seems increasingly unlikely that the body politic, entirely oblivious to the effects of the disease, can ever be saved.
Yes, it is a dark moment in American history. But we have to remember not to cast all the blame on TRUMP. He is simply incapable of grasping the seriousness and danger of what he has unwittingly unleashed on America. TRUMP is merely a vessel, a performance machine that learned its tricks from shady real estate transactions, tabloid scandals, celebrity fetish, and reality television. TRUMP has emerged from the dregs of American popular culture, burrowing himself into a body politic that feeds on mindless sensationalism and empty rants. TRUMP does not really exist in the way we think of a typical political candidate, he is in effect, a mirror, a fun house mirror perhaps, providing an image that is nothing more than a reflection of everything that is deadly ill in America.
