" . . . more than brains, more than drive and more than energy"

 Terre Haute Tribune Star,  Oct. 31, 2020

To the Editor:

"I could stand in the middle of 5th Avenue and shoot somebody and I wouldn't lose voters." – Donald  J. Trump

Putting aside his unbridled inclination to flip flop in his policy pronouncements and expound bald-faced lies with impunity, Trump’s insistence on undivided, unquestioned loyalty is another key to his character and leadership style. He leans heavily on this element in his cabinet choices and White House staff.  The ever-changing personnel he rings himself with are expected to wash out his personal dirty linen, spin dry his alarming tweets, soak his daily lies into gray drain water. All this without objection, with nodding heads of loyal affirmation.   

In the churning laundromat of the White House this wash tub duty has taken a fierce toll. The front door spins and former loyalists are ejected with The Leader’s disdain or slip away with a sigh of relief.  These escapees enter into the private sphere to find lucrative jobs with corporations, fulfill personal  fantasies in the whirl of “Dancing With the Stars,” or, free from Trump’s bullying, opt for Truth and write books that in other times, with other presidents, would shock and create an indelible stain of disgust.  Now numbering in the dozens, these books are all dismissed by the non-reader, Trump, as lies.  (And forget all that stuff he said on tape to Bob Woodward.  As he assures the loyal, it’s all a “hit job.”)  

Loyalty to the max is also expected from another group, the security blanket of Trump voters collectively called “his base.”  This cadre of loyalists are expected to rationalize away the outlandish and illegal behavior of  past and present Trump. They feel obligated to step forward to  provide excuses and/or a covering veneer for his daily gush of garbled and deranged tweets.  Their online comments on forums and letters in newspapers are designed to disappear the lies Trump blurts out on Fox News and the inconsistencies in his crudely altered decisions.  

It’s at personal pep rallies we find Trump’s most fervent faithful. Loyalists are harvested and used to bolster his gluttonous appetite for adulation.  These mobilizations are filled with chest beating self-aggrandizement, a litany of rambling fears and threats, magical chants are raised on cue. Who attends these rallies?  One report from Minnesota states that Trump’s loyal aides decided not to relay the news to him of Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s passing. They feared that if the President told his audience “the crowd would cheer.”

No one denies the importance, the historical significance of the 2020 presidential election. In 2007,  Donald J. Trump and Bill Zanker published the advice book “Think BIG and Kick Ass in Business and Life.”  In that book you find this pure Trumpism: “I value loyalty above everything else—more than brains, more than drive and more than energy.” The 2020 election is a  test of  everyone’s brains, drive and energy.  Especially the Trump voters from 2016.

Gary Daily