Jason Sattler

Opinion columnist

If you think our president is a “fool” who has “lost his mind” and is in the midst of “one the greatest political meltdowns of all time," I have some terrible news.

You’re more confused than Donald Trump has ever been.

And if you actually believe that Vice President Mike Pence has any interest in saving anything except his place on the ticket, stop trusting yourself with anything sharper than a giant foam finger.

The bankruptcy-prone birther is not deteriorating or crumbling. Nope. Sorry. He’s still the same sad, sadistic con man he has always been. And he’s on the verge of luring his opponents into making the mistakes that elected him, all over again.

The WWE’s tangerine terror only “won” the presidency because we underestimated him and overestimated the people and institutions that should have stopped him. The need to keep discounting him heading into the 2020 election is his greatest and possibly only asset, and the worst threat to our democracy we’ve faced.

This nightmare won't end on its own

Trump is actually getting better at the worst things that matter most, like avoiding accountability for high and low crimes, capturing the courts for the far right, and raising hundreds of millions of dollars to “carpet-bomb” Democrats. The institutions that were supposed to rein him in have done more to restrain his critics than him. Meanwhile, what reigns is the belief that this nightmare is bound to end on its own — what writer Sarah Kendzior calls “normalcy bias.”

By now, we should know better.

Cognitive scientist George Lakoff warned in 2016, “Trump is a master salesman with a history of selling deals good for him but not so good for most others.” But it may be “Dilbert” creator Scott Adams, the author of a book that claims Trump is a “master persuader,” who nailed Trump’s strategy: “When it comes to unfavorability, you don't need to outrun the bear. You only need to outrun your camping buddy.”

Trump’s passion for kneecapping anything that might hold him accountable has even become clear to his favorite reporter. “A Trump adviser, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said weeks ago that the president, whose own approval ratings have stayed upside down, needs voters to feel negatively not just about his opponents but about longstanding institutions,” The New York Times’ Maggie Haberman tweeted.

Historic corruption is now normalized

There are definitely reasons for Democrats to be optimistic. Too optimistic.

They won the largest midterm vote margin in the history of the House of Representatives less than a year ago. Their potential 2020 nominees are beating Trump by a “historically large margin” in recent polls. And Rachel Bitecofer, the academic whose model most accurately predicted the 2018 wave election, sees a likely Electoral College win for the Democrats in 2020.

Bitecofer notes that her prediction would only require “massive restructuring” if there is a “significant upheaval,” which could include a well-funded third-party candidate and other “disruptions” like a terrorist attack or a recession. Unfortunately, the chances of a different sort of “significant upheaval” are trending toward 100% as the most obvious corruption in the history of the presidency is being normalized.

Time's wasting:Democratic debates don't match the moment. Time to get serious about beating Donald Trump.

Normally, when the president’s lawyer tweets “prosecutions will happen” in a reference to the president’s political opponents, it would be national news. Just as normally, you would expect some sort of congressional action when the president essentially asks foreign actors to hack his opponents or offers pardons to both achieve political goals and pay off his donors (as reported by The Washington Post based on unnamed administration officials). Instead, any hope that we’ll even see Trump's tax returns before the election seems to be vanishing.

Getting away with "it," whatever "it" is, is Trump’s greatest gift. His second greatest gift is a knack for smearing adversaries as the lowest slime in the cracks of the earth — in other words, Donald Trump.

The worst can happen, again

The current front-runner for the Democratic nomination, with his four decades in the limelight, might provide the perfect bull’s-eye for the president's patented psychological projection. What about former Vice President Joe Biden’s “gaffes,” questionable family business, possible foreign entanglements and history ofrace baiting? Trump will surely ask.

Regardless of who wins their nomination, Democrats are heading into what could be the messiest primary we’ve ever seen. And any of the front-runners would likely draw a third-party protest candidate into the race.

I'm writing from Michigan, where Trump won by fewer than 11,000 votes as Gary Johnson of the Libertarian Party pulled in 172,136 votes and Jill Stein of the Green Party got 51,463. I can assure you that a third-party candidate doesn’t have to be well-funded to get Trump elected.

Flashback to 2016:Democrats failed to imagine the worst

Meanwhile, almost nothing has been done to secure our elections against the hacked emails, voter database intrusions and social media manipulation that we saw from Russia in 2016. And Trump continues to try to reward Russian President Vladimir Putin for that interference.

Verily I tell you, the worst can happen, again.

Ask yourself: What good did it do believing the polls in 2016, assuring yourself that this clown was bound to impale himself with a giant rake he stepped on? None.

We should all be doing what Georgia's Stacey Abrams is doing — everything we can to ensure every voter gets to the polls. For our greatest threat is underestimating the threat we face.

Jason Sattler, a writer based in Ann Arbor, Michigan, is a member of USA TODAY’s Board of Contributors and host of "The GOTMFV Show" podcast. Follow him on Twitter: @LOLGOP