Thursday, January 4, 2024

Let’s turn up the heat – time for the Bake.

Last Monday, New Year’s Day 2024, the Bakersfield Californian Opinion section featured an article by David Keranen, titled “Can we keep our republic?” Mr.Keranen, a retired draftsman/educator/serviceman, states in this article that “Donald Trump claims that the flood of immigrants from Central and South America are (sic) poisoning the blood of our country: they’re destroying our country.”  The words that Mr. Keranen  attributes to Trump come from a September 27 2023 interview of Trump by Raheem Kassam, editor in chief of The National Pulse, a conservative British news website.While some of the remarks that the former President made during this interview could be construed in a couple of ways, given the context and Mr.Trump’s normal patterns of speech, they are not as inflammatory as Keranen makes them out to be.

Mr. Trump’s remarks surfaced a couple weeks later during a Snopes analysis of that same interview, which brought up an October 4 2023 Tweet by MSNBC’s Mehdi Hasan which reads as follows: “I had missed this: among the many crazy and offensive Trump statements in recent days, he also told a right-wing website  [ The National Pulse ] that undocumented immigrants are ‘poisoning the blood of our country’, which is a straight-up white supremacist/neo-Nazi talking point.” Wow, right-wing white supremacist/neo-Nazi – I’m guessing this guy’s no fan of Donald Trump either, even though our 45th President was apparently ensconced rent-free in Mr.Hasan’s talking head. Hasan will probably have to start charging the former president something, since MSNBC canceled his show this past December 4. Live by the cancellation sword… 

To quote Mr. Keranen again, this time from paragraph three of the aforementioned article,

“Trump also said that ‘we will root out the communists, the Marxists, fascists and the radical left thugs that live like vermin within the confines of our country, that lie and steal and cheat on elections’. (Humm, who is trying to restrict the vote of minorities today?)”

Correct me if I’m wrong, but communists, Marxists, fascists, and radical left thugs are not implied minorities by Mr.Trump’s words, even if they…”’ live like vermin within the confines of our country, that lie and steal and cheat on elections.”” Vitriolic? Yeah, pretty much, but racist? Not on Trump’s part, although Mr. Keranen’s interpretation of our former President’s statements does smack of a none-too-original liberal narrative.. Keranen then goes on to say that Ivana Trump “…alleg[ing] that he (Trump) kept a book of Adolph Hitler’s speeches in his bedside cabinet”. Now, many people understand that one of the attributes of a good effective leader is that he studies, and comes to understand, powerful villains like Hitler – who, by historical standards is lauded as a powerful and effective speaker, in spite of of the horror that this psychopath and his Nazi regime unleashed upon the world during the first half of the last century.

“What are we to make of this?” Kerenan asks, referring to Trump later in his article. “Does this show a tendency toward fascism? And what about Trump’s ranting and raving? Does this, along with other aspects of [Trump’s] personality, indicate sociopathy?” The retired educator doth protest too much, methinks. Let’s couch Keranen’s amateur psychological suspicions in the admittedly pugnacious nature of Donald Trump on a point by point basis. “1.) Trump doesn’t conform to social norms.” Accurate.” 2.) Trump is deceitful, and  manipulative.” Manipulative, accurate, but no go on deceitful, Trump is far too transparent. “3.) Trump is impulsive.” In speech and Tweets, absolutely, but when it came to important executive decisions, considerate.”4.) Trump is aggressive.” That he is, undeniably and unapologetically so. “5.) Trump disregards the safety of self or others.” Really? This guy has routinely and effectively kept real psychopaths like Putin and Xi Xing Ping from spreading their tyranny beyond the borders of their respective countries -which is something that our current Commander-in-Chief, even in his most delusional moments, will never be able to claim . “6.) Trump is irresponsible.” The man assiduously kept a vast majority of the promises he made to America as President.How is that irresponsible. “7.) Trump lacks remorse.” Given his track record of success – while not perfect – Donald Trump has little reason to don a hair shirt for his presidency.

Do these “aspects” of Donald Trump’s personality “indicate sociopathy?” If so, so what? Find me a powerful, effective leader who doesn’t possess many, if not all of these personality “aspects”. How do you think they became leaders? And any lame attempts to equate the sociopathic characteristics of a successful, determined leader with fascist tendencies is nothing more than dogged adherence to a narrative that appeals to those who consider themselves informed and involved because they gather together and scream “racist” when they disagree with the words and actions of someone they’ve been taught to disdain.

Thank you for your service to our country, Mr. Keranen. And keep up the good work, Mr. President. They doth protest too much, methinks. Probably because the election is eleven months away, and you’re already circling the target. 

I’m Jim Robinson, and it’s January 4, 2024. God bless, and good night.