It Doesn't, It Won't, It Can't, It's Not, It Is And It Isn't...But, Mostly...It Just Shouldn't....

Sizing up, talking about and summing up Donald Trump should be as simple as it gets.

It isn't.

Given that the person we're talking about was, in theory and, as it turns out, only in theory, thought by, literally, millions to be the "sweeping change" needed to get this country "back on track", saying that this country, at least in modern times, has never been more derailed might be hyperbole, but when it comes to being incorrect?

It isn't.

No winnable argument exists to refute the fact that America has never been as polarized as it's been since the day Trump solemnly swore to faithfully execute the office.

And while there is most certainly a host of wonderful possible punchlines dealing with his "executing the office", it's a mistake to think that this is a good time to go there. 

It's not.

Recently a friend/colleague and I launched The Blab, a vidcast/podcast, that streams live on Facebook Wednesday nights at 7P Eastern. The Blab deals with timely topics, invigorating issues and assorted other features, follies and fun facts to know and tell formatted, theoretically, to cover a wide, deep diverse range of what's happening in our towns, culture, country and world in the year 2019.

It doesn't.

At least, not yet. And it's not for lack of intention or effort. In fact, each week, after the six weeks we've been doing it, at this writing, we do a brief internal review, talk about revising and tweaking and streamlining, working to find those fine lines between entertaining and endless, profound and preachy, thought provoking and mind numbing; engaging, educational, erudite....and exhausting.

For us and the audience. You can easily understand that, even when things are what passes for normal in life, that's a challenging task and, if asked if we ever find that its even close to easy to accomplish that, there's only one honest answer.

It isn't.

Politics plays a primary part in that challenge. Before deciding to give the show a try, we both agreed that we didn't want to be just another sixty minutes of yada yada yammer, world without end, amen of political punditry, but not talking politics at this point in the timeline that is irrefutably not normal, by any standards, would be like having a breezy chat about sports scores and movies we like while outside people were running in a panic to find any kind of shelter as the zombie apocalypse is in full giddy up.

There's an elephant in the room metaphor that's commonly used in situations like this but as to elephants, and/or donkeys, being our favorite metaphors these days?

They're not.

The presence of Donald Trump, meanwhile, both in the Oval Office, and even on planet Earth, for that matter, compounds the complications of talking as much about any and everything else as we talk about politics. Because normal times and normal presidencies would obviously factor into any chat that includes the daily headlines, but that assumes that the Trump occupancy being anything resembling normal is something that can be reasonably said.

It can't.

In reviewing the shows of the first few weeks, I found a common thread in The Blab. Actually, it turns out, common on a couple of fronts.

First, it's a theme that seems to run through each of The Blab shows, to date.But it's also the same theme that runs through talk radio shows, TV cable news shows, generic chit chat radio and/or TV shows and even a lot of every day conversations amongst the masses we sentimentally, if not just a little satirically in these times, refer to as "we, the people."

And there's no denying that it comes down to an unavoidable, and unavoidably catchy, catch phrase.

All Trump. All The Time.

And it's a theme that actually blurs, if not outright blinds us to, the simple truth offered up at the beginning of this piece.

Sizing up, talking about and summing up Donald Trump should be as simple as it gets.

It's not.

But it should be.

And if you're curious as to whether you're correct that that's where this piece is headed.

You are.

It is.

And, unlike almost all of the other debates, discussions, arguments, confrontations, etc, yada, blah blah that this guy generates, all of the "he's this" and "he's that" that fills the conversational air like a foggy day in London town or a smoggy day in Tinseltown, the real heart of the matter has to do with who and/or what....

...it doesn't.....won't.....can't.....and, more critically, one more apostrophe equipped word.

Still to come.

First, a mea culpa is in order.

While I haven't gone completely over, I am guilty of being, too often, seduced into the dark side of the force.

In this case, the force is the precedent shattering tonnage of bad mouthing a single, living, breathing human being.

Donald Trump, through no fault of anyone in this life, except Donald Trump, is the Frank Burns of American politics.

In an episode of "M.A.S.H.", Hawkeye and Trapper are being unusually more than usual frat boy disrespectful to the weaselly, easy to dislike Major Burns.

Burns, in a moment of frustration, finally finds a little spine between his usually stooped shoulder blades, "why", he whines, "do you both always have to treat me so badly?"

Hawkeye, in an articulate mixture of satire and sincere, replies "...well, you invite abuse, Frank. It would be impolite of us not to ask it in."

Throw in Melania as Hot Lips and you've got a 4077th re-boot just waiting to happen.

Anyone who knows me or any of my work knows I have a finite, specific and exact amount of respect for Donald.

None. Zip. Zero. Zilch.

And, if pressed or confronted with someone who simply won't take zilch for an answer, I can do twenty minutes on why he rates 1001 on the list of 1000 people I think deserve to exist at all.

And that's just twenty minutes without taking a breath. Give me a chance to inhale a fresh batch of oxygen and I can do another half hour with nary a pause for comma, colon or period.

But there's something else that factors into my Trump antipathy.

I fully recognize that the continued hashing and re-hashing and rehashing of the re-hashing of the being, and his morals, character and/or personal existence, and/or complete lack of them, is a waste of time, energy and brain tissue.

Again, pleading guilty to any and all accusations that I'm just as inclined, or more so, to go off on said re-hashing as if it were an instinct.

I am a rattlesnake. I see a fleshy leg and I strike.

I am a boxer. I see someone's hand even beginning to come my way and I dodge, duck and right cross back like a boss.

I am courteous. I see someone inviting abuse and I feel it would be impolite of me not to ask it in.

Donald not only invites abuse, he sends out embossed invitations.

Although it's a safe bet that he buys in bulk, stiffs the stationary store for the bill and has someone else do the licking and stamping.

Cue Susan Ross.

All of that said, and, admittedly, re-said, it's obvious how the re-telling changes minds and offers productive solutions.

It doesn't.

And there's an annoying part rhetorical, part stone cold reality question floating around out there that needs, deserves, even requires answering. If only so that I can say that I gave my very best effort to resist being drawn into yet another yammer about what a crude, rude, blunt tool of a narcissistic sociopathic bully currently occupies the highest, once most prestigious,office in the land.

It's a simple question, really.

And, indulge me, if you will, as I ask myself the question.

And give it my best earnest effort to answer it.

Because I'd really like to know what I've got to say for myself.

What is really my problem with Donald Trump?

By running for the office of President in the first place primarily because he was looking for yet another way to draw media attention, spotlights, lime lights and assorted focuses to himself, he created, endorsed, even encouraged the idea that asking to be given the honor of serving the nation as its president is primarily a self serving headline opportunity just waiting to be exploited.

It isn't.

By consistently, even enthusiastically, replacing the "campaign trail" with a historically "low road", at every opportunity, with cheap talk, childish taunts, obnoxious insults, sexism, misogyny, racially inflammatory spewing, et al, etc, he gave every appearance that his perception of the election of a United States president is nothing more than a cut rate, carnival atmosphere hybrid of a WWE "championship" match, NRA convention meeting and brightly lit Klan rally in a black man's front yard.

It's not.

By mocking women, fellow candidates, even a reporter with a congenital physical affliction, essentially anyone and everyone who failed to worship at his altar not so thinly disguised as a podium, he all but insisted that ridicule and revenge are virtues, even symbolic of courage and valor and worthy of praise.

They are not.

By giving yet another cheap and tasteless campaign speech and calling it an "inaugural address" that reeked of cynicism, fear mongering and self congratulations, he sent the message that "a new kind of leadership" means exhibiting cynicism, fear mongering and self congratulations.

It doesn't.

By denigrating, diminishing, devaluing and demoralizing bedrock American institutions such as the court system, the FBI, the CIA, each and every, any and all, agency, organization and even Cabinet level office when, if, and as, anyone involved with any and/or all of them incur his wrath by simply disagreeing with him, he left, and continues to leave, an unmistakable impression that his belief is America is best, and most effectively, led by autocratic authoritarianism. His autocratic authoritarianism.

It isn't.

By viciously, unarguably and irrefutably, spitting in the face of the rule of law, he makes it unarguably and irrefutably clear that he believes himself to be above that law and America should be grateful for every drop of spittle.

It's not.

By always inciting, never inspiring, inflaming never enlightening, pandering never compelling, agitating never awakening, by exploiting people's fears never showing a way out of darkness and despair,  he reduces, even dissolves, the indescribable power and potential of the office he holds, pissing away a thousand opportunities to move a nation in the direction of greatness, at a time in history when that nation should be lighting a path for the rest of the world and not showing every sign of spending the next five or ten or fifty years falling farther and farther...and farther behind.

Because he foolishly, pitifully, embarrassingly, tragically, even, possibly, dangerously mistakes bullying for strength, denigration for critique, demolition for construction, belittling for authority, blind loyalty for respect, preaching to a sad, uneducated choir for speaking to better angels, leading a lynch mob for magnificently moving the masses.

Donald Trump needs people, for reasons that will fill psychology textbooks of the future, to believe that his way is the "new American way" and that way works better than any other way that has come before it.

It doesn't.

It can't

It won't.

Because Donald Trump's new American way is bullying, denigrating, demolishing, belittling, inciting, inflaming, pandering, agitating, cheapening, humiliating, embarrassing.

He doesn't spend a minute of his day not convinced that his way is going to succeed.

It isn't.

And here's some pretty reliable history regarding how well that way works.

It doesn't.

It can't

It won't.

Partly, again, as history has taught us, because it never has.

But, more importantly...and fundamentally.

Because it shouldn't.

And that's as it should be.