Trump is a Narcissist, Democrats are Situational Moralists, and Politics is PoisonoUS

I’m one step away from swearing off politics given the developments of the past 48 hours. Once again, all sides are up in arms over the latest Trump bulletin. This time around, the US president’s meeting with Vladimir Putin is the catnip that is driving pundits on all sides to froth at the mouth. To no surprise, partisans quickly ran to their corners and expressed either shock or elation depending on their political affiliation.

To find nuance in the cacophony of dissonance is almost an impossible task; mainstream media hacks have figured out that it is more profitable to cater to the herd than it is to lead rational conversations. Trump has become their greatest gift; his delusional and incongruent proclamations serve as a perfect foil for his detractors and an invitation to bend like willows to his loyalists.

This is why Trump’s embrace of Putin is being presented as either a traitorous deed or an act of moral conviction. The most amazing thing is that both sides of the political aisle have switched places in this never ending kabuki dance of fraudulence that has come to define our poisonous national affairs. The political wind is blowing hard across the United States and turning human beings into fusion of flip flops and pretzels.

Liberals who once cheered on Putin during the Iraq war in order to defy Bush are now raising McCarthy as they fear monger about the “Red Menace”. Not to be outdone in the duplicity department, conservatives are all the sudden getting commie with it as they rush to the aid of Putin in order to stick up for their idol Trump. In between these two extremes are a majority of Americans who are feeling whiplashed by the hypocrisy that is pulsating from both sides.

As reprehensible as Trump is with his rampant narcissism and juvenile antics, his deranged and duplicitous detractors in mainstream media are a thousand times worse. A conclave of frauds throwing darts at a charlatan. — Teodrose Fikre ✒ (@TeodroseFikre) July 17, 2018

To assess news and politics in an atmosphere where dissembling has become a norm is almost an impossible task. Up is down, down is left and all sides are trying to be right but few admit their limitations. “I don’t know” has become passé; these days most people are in a rush to prove that they know it all. Too often, I’m guilty on this count. However serendipity visits; the more I observe politics, the more I realize I can’t figure it out.

Here are a few things I’m certain of. Trump is a rampant narcissist whose soul is so empty that he can’t stop making every occasion about himself. Most of us have a source from which our pains flow forth, we can either choose to fill it up by giving to others or we numb it by chasing our egos. Trump chose to do the latter, he spent his whole life putting his name on every building, golf course and trinket he could get his hands on. His grand gestures and grandiose claims are an outgrowth of his sickness, he is putting his imprimatur on news by garnering headlines with each debacle and with every outrageous assertion he makes.

In the mind of Trump, branding is more important than substance. His quest is not to do good but to be remembered as the best. What I can’t figure out is whether he is seeking validation or if he is just a jerk without a heart. Are his actions that of a child who wants attention or an asshole who just wants to make himself feel good at the cost of everyone else? Sad thing is people don’t understand that each time Trump throws a tantrum, incites people into derangement and drives mainstream media into a tizzy, he reaches a state of megalomania Nirvana. Hero who saves America or Nero who burns her down, Donald will take either role as long as he is talked about. The more people rant or rave about him—he’ll take either as long as his name stays on our minds and our lips—the more we feed his pathology.

As for the Democrats you see running around with their hair on fire and the “liberal” pundits on TV who swear they just witnessed an act of sedition unmatched in history, you can disregard all of them as charlatans who are just chasing eyeballs. Trump cozying up to a despot is not a departure from tradition; almost every US president since the 1900’s has been chummy with dictators around the world. The list of tyrants that have been embraced by the US for the past 50 years alone requires a trilogy to document. This fact was not mentioned by Obama as he left a life chasing Tubmans from the Wall Street criminals he rescued by offering the rest of us as sacrificial lambs to sanctimoniously condemn Trump.

Democrats are not defending America nor are they virtuous, they are situational moralists who care about money and status first, party second and everyone else last. The same can be said of these analysts on CNN, MSNBC and the liberal establishment, they’re using the playbook of Fox News by stoking the anger of their base while making it seem like they are standing up for truth and justice. They’ll accuse Trump of being a turncoat and a public menace one second then turn around when the cameras are off and sign on to legislation that enhances his authority and enlarges his war making powers.

I know a lot of people love to revel in the national past time that is US politics, however people on all sides should really stop to consider a few things. I don’t write this to defend Trump and his antics; putting our president’s fatuity aside, we should really be careful about the course some are charting with their rhetoric. A few years ago, Congress considered a bill that equated a cyber attack as an act of war. Picking up on this narrative, there are some in our government who are equating the supposed Russian interference in 2016 with the attack on Pearl Harbor.

I know warmongering is a very profitable business, but a war with Russia is not the same thing as invading Panama. A flash point anywhere between NATO and Russia could lead to nuclear tipped ICBMs criss-crossing the planet. The lunacy of our politics is devolving into madness, the rich have their bunkers in the event of a global conflagration, where will the rest of us be while the 1% are sipping Chardonnay in their fortified compounds? By virtue of distance and detachment, most Americans—outside of those who put on the uniform—have not felt the horrific repercussions of the never ending wars that keep being declared at the behest of the military-financial complex. A war with Russia will deliver hell to our doorsteps.

As I noted at the outset, I’m seriously contemplating taking a break from politics for a reason. We have entered into a paradigm where emotional outbursts are valued more than logical discussion. Trump, his Democrat cohorts and the two-faced punditry have an incentive to keep inciting the public. The more we fight and bicker, the more they profit from our dissension. The rest of us—the people on all sides who have been rendered irrelevant by the influence of billionaires and outside interests—will only suffer for our troubles each time we let the news dictate our temperament. Click To Tweet

If we have a chance to overcome the iniquities of our governance and bend the arc of history towards justice, it is through unity and movements of solidarity that disavow our differences. Politics gets in the way of this quest; by its very nature, politics is divisive and breeds disunion. We can keep gazing into the navel of outrage and by extension feed the flames of animus, or we can choose to walk away and refuse to sip the poison that is politics—the wiser course is not to become political but to transcend it. #PoliticsIsPoisonoUS

Politics is not the solution, it is one of the main sources of injustices::

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