What kind of a country do we want to be?

Donald Trump is a phony, a fraud. His promises are as worthless as a degree from Trump University. – Mitt Romney

A long-time friend, who used to be quite an active Kane County Republican, and I were recently discussing the state of the once-proud Party. As we were lamenting that self-inflicted demise, he noted that politics has never been for the faint of heart, but he was shocked by how nasty the local GOP had become.

Perhaps it was inevitable, but we were similarly surprised at how the MAGA mien had trickled down to the county board and city council level. We formerly believed that the more proximate nature of local politics would insulate it from that manner of venom spewing, but it has not.

Look to the Elburn Village Board for all the proof you need. Instead of moving a growing city forward, they’re striking back at phantom migrants and passing ordinances that ban folks from spending more than two hours in their car. Fine Christians all, right?

And that kind of blatant intolerance starts at the top of the ticket. In the last few months Donald Trump has made unabashed references to:

•         A migrant invasion
•         The United States is an occupied country
•         The police should shoot shoplifters
•         Calling for the execution of a former head of the Joint Chiefs of Staff
•         His opponent’s are “vermin” who must be “rooted out,” and;
•         Migrants are “poisoning” the “blood” of this country

Substitute the word “Jews” for “migrants” and we’re right back in 1936 Germany. Trump’s even gone as far as praising the Nazi dictator, claiming he “needs the kind of generals that Hitler had.” The irony there, of course, is those generals regularly disobeyed Der Fuhrer and then they tried to assassinate him.

At his recent Madison Square Garden closing argument event, his faithful minions added the following proclamations:

•         Kamala Harris is the Antichrist and devil
•         Hillary Clinton was to blame for all of our ills
•         “Illegals” and homeless people are to blame for all of our ills
•         Puerto Rico is a “floating island of garbage.”

I suppose we should be thankful that they removed the word “cunt” from one teleprompter screed against Harris.

That Puerto Ric stupidity may well cost Trump the election because Hispanics, who are generally more conservative, are now actively working against his candidacy, particularly the half-a-million in Pennsylvania. The irony there being that if we sent all of the “migrants” packing our economy would completely collapse. Who needs food, right!

At its core MAGAism is nothing more than an excuse for overly entitled white males to resort to their base instincts and then blame everyone else for their failures. It holds selfishness and bigotry out as virtues.

Why? Because Trump is a complete failure who blames everyone else for his consistent setbacks. C’mon! It’s always a “witch hunt,” isn’t it? The only reason he has any money at all is because his father did. Had he put that inheritance in a simple S&P 500 fund, he’d have exponentially more wealth than he does right now. That’s because all of his businesses, particularly the fraudulent efforts, went bankrupt

Then the icing on the cake is he’s cheated on every wife, he steals from his vendors, he’s a pathological liar, a supreme narcissist, and just for good measure, he’s a misogynist felon who never loses an election.

The problem is, Trump isn’t very good at much of anything, but he does know how to tap into that older white male fear of their reign of supremacy coming to an end. If it wasn’t for those (brown) “others,” they’d be successful despite themselves. And the power to absolve people from facing their persistent deficiencies, or ever being wrong for that matter, is far more powerful a drug than Fentanyl.  

Put more simply, Trump makes his rabid supporters feel good about being a fuckup. That’s why no one can convince them of their folly.

There is a smaller, but still significant, MAGA group who, riled by their leader’s incessant bigotry and divide and conquer strategy, believe that Kamala Harris really is the Antichrist and Democrats hate this country. But the folks who buy into that silly us versus them dynamic have always been easy political prey.

Their variety of over self-importance revolves around the belief that everybody who isn’t them is out to get them. The solace there is the MAGA crowd is rapidly dying off, which will eventually end the movement.

So, if there’s no point, then what’s the point of this column? Because as the great Irish statesman, Edmund Burke stipulated, “The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.” And I believe this election hinges upon decent people repudiating this temporary MAGA bout of insanity.

That makes the question, do we want to live in a country that wallows in the kind of boundless narcissism that gives our leaders the power to foist a fetid fiction upon us with the intolerant zeal of a religious crusade? Do we want to fall for a set of lies that will inevitably implode? Or do we want to be the kind of nation that minimally adheres to the real Christian ideal where our leaders encourage us to embrace the best of what we and America can be?

No candidate is perfect, but there is a very distinct choice in this election. So, your answer to my question is to vote accordingly.