By Hubie and Bertie
We cats spent about five hours driving around rural upstate New York and southern Vermont today. Both are deep-blue states — but we saw plenty of tumbledown houses with Trump flags, Gadsden flags, "blue lives" flags, ad nauseum. But mostly Trump flags and yard signs.
Then we went to a diner, and the guy at the next table was right out of Central Casting: tall, thin, white as the driven snow, and wearing a Trump camo hat and a sweatshirt that said, "One Nation, Under God."
We know these people are a minority of the country. That they're all losers from Loserville. And while we've been known to leave a bumper sticker on well past Election Day, the Trumpsters' over-the-top displays are something else. Yes, it's 10 months after their guy got his ass handed to him, and they look like sad idiots. But they're also disturbing.
That's because Trump fealty is completely opposite every understanding we've ever had of our country. Americans pledge no loyalty to a person, but to the republic. It's the system of self-government that we hold dear. The US has had charismatic Presidents before (JFK, Obama) — but this Trumpy Dear Leader phenomenon is new. And it's not just destructive to democracy: It's keeping those who believe in it from taking life-saving measures like getting vaccinated and wearing masks.
We can only hope that enough Trumpsters commit suicide by COVID before 2024 that they balance out the damage that Republicans are doing across the country by restricting the vote. In the meantime, though, the Benedict Donald fandom we saw displayed today will be enough to give us a few bad dreams tonight. We cats HISS.
(IMAGE: Not what we saw today, but close.)
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