Trump is an asshole. There's no doubt about that, and everyone knows it.
Toward the end of January, in a variation on an old joke, newspapers noticed that if you searched for "asshole" on Twitter, @realDonaldTrump popped up. (See article here: ) You must be a Grade-A Jumbo asshole if even a computer algorithm can see it.
But, all joking aside, you only have to watch Trump for a minute or so to get the idea that he's a master of assholery. No surprise here.
But how does a major-league asshole like Trump become president? There's only one answer, and it should worry all decent Americans: almost half the voting public are assholes too.
Think about it. First, all of Trump’s hard-core supporters are real assholes, just because they admire a major asshole. Now, die-hard Trump supporters are almost all identity Republicans, who are assholes just because of their intransigent adherence to a "philosophy" of government based on greed, selfishness, belligerence, and winning at all costs. That's about 35% of voters.
Second, those who made up the difference that got Trump to 47% of the vote—barely enough to win the electoral college technicality—are also assholes. There is no way they could miss the fact that Trump was a flaming asshole throughout the election process—but they voted for him anyway.
It doesn't matter what the reason was—whether it was misogyny or anarchism or despair that drove them to make the mark near Trump's name. The point is that they were willing to put the lives of their fellow citizens in the hands of an unstable, puerile ignoramus with vicious reflexes. That is an asshole move, whatever the motive.
So the question is: Can America survive with so many assholes among its citizens?
The short answer is No.
Asshole-Americans tend to be selfish, arrogant, belligerent, tyrannical, grievance-filled, bullying, self-justifying, boorish, angry, unself-critical, vulgar, fearful, and ultimately delusional people. Watch any tape of a Trump campaign rally and you'll see them acting out.
(If you voted for Trump and don’t see yourself as having those tendencies, look in the mirror more closely. I’ll bet, if you’re honest, you’ll find at least one.)
If you were to sum up that list of attributes in one word that relates to politics, it would be anti-social. Assholes hate government because they are anti-social. They don't care about anyone who isn't like them, and that's a death-wish for civil society.
How can we turn around the horrendous situation we are now facing, in which the assholes, even though they are still a minority, hold all the reins of power?
We must get to them before they remove entirely our last means of controlling them—the vote.
They have already made great strides in preventing decent and disadvantaged people from voting. They will go even further now that there is no force to stop them from closing polling places, passing extremely restrictive voting hurdles into law, and pumping money into disinformation campaigns.
The window is closing. The last remaining chance is the 2018 midterm elections. There were about 24 million young people who didn't vote in 2016. If just half of them would come out in 2018 to vote against Republicans—especially those who live in red counties that went for Trump—their votes would swamp even the most robust Asshole-American turnout.
Remember, the assholes only got to 47% with the help of people who are not die-hard assholes—people who, for some reason, imagined that electing a major asshole wouldn't destroy us all. If some of them realize their error of judgment and vote like the decent citizens they probably are at heart, perhaps—despite all odds—we can take back Congress and put a stop to Trump's assholery.
(This is cross-posted from The Scott Blog here.)