Here We Go Again

In most countries other than the U.S., ex-president Donald Trump would be wearing an orange jumpsuit and would have been locked up by now. The key would have conveniently been thrown away.

Not so for some. Like more than 3 million Americans, I sat glued to the boob tube for more than an hour watching the ex-president remind us of what it was like to have him in the Oval Office,

The New Hampshire Town Hall was the other night for twice impeached (not convicted); found guilty by a jury of his peers (assessed five million dollars in damages); charged with an assortment of frauds and accompanying misdemeanors (case to be heard later this year); likely defendant in Georgia case for various crimes in connection with efforts to ‘find’ votes needed to change the outcome of the 2020 presidential election (awaiting formal charges in Georgia); under investigation for unlawful possession of government documents and on and on and on, ex-president Donald J Trump, was as sickeningly repetitious as this endless list of charges against him.

But in the U.S. the law actually does trump sentiment. And the very fact that the ex-president is not only a candidate for the Republican nomination to be president once more but was given a generous platform from which to present his less than fact-checked arguments, is to be applauded.

Less than fact-checked, it certainly was.

The cable news network, CNN sponsored a prime time ‘town hall’ format program with the very competent veteran anchor and White House correspondent Kaitlin Collins as moderator. Trump wasn’t very happy with her unwillingness to accept his lies as truth. “You’re a nasty person,” Mr. Trump said to her at one point.
The audience of Republican and independent voters certainly were fans of the ex-president. They laughed and applauded his put-downs of Ms. Collins and sided with him even when she called out his lies.

Perhaps their cheers revealed the current psyche of the Republican base. Confrontation with the press, with Democrats, with anyone standing in the way of Republicans taking power is acceptable.

If they were reflective of the nation’s voters, MAGA hats will certainly be in fashion.
Decidedly ‘softball’ questions for Mr. Trump came from chosen audience members and tougher ones from the moderator. It would be fair to say that to tell the truth was not in Mr. Trump’s repertory.

Lauding each question from an audience member (They will never forget that the president complimented them on the quality of the question) Trump adroitly changed the subject if the question was embarrassing.

Trump’s taking bows for having placed three right-wing Justices on the Supreme Court and thereby causing the court to throw out Roe V. Wade and the right to abortion earned cheers from the audience but when pressed by Ms. Collins as to whether he would sign into law a federal bill outlawing abortion he evaded giving an affirmative answer.

Was it worth spending more than an hour watching?

If you are a ‘Trumpite’ the answer is definitely ‘yes’. As one of his team said: “It was an hour infomercial for the president”.

That infomercials appeal to Donald Trump voters is a given. But will anyone slightly higher on the demographic table – voters Trump will need to win back the presidency – find the hour well spent?

One of them, President Joe Biden, tweeted wryly what many viewers must have felt: “It’s simple, folks. Do you want four more years of that?