Another reason why Donald Trump is going to lose in November
A recent study has revealed a fascinating statistic. When Donald Trump’s approval ratings are broken down county by county, it turns out that in counties where coronavirus deaths surpass 28 per one hundred thousand the approval for Trump begins to decline precipitously. In other words, when the bad stuff caused by Trump starts happening to them, Republicans abandon him.
This statistic exposes a fundamental flaw in the average Trump supporter. They lack both empathy and backbone. To my mind that summarizes Trump supporters I have encountered everywhere. They’re fine when bad things happen to other people — minorities, LGBQT, foreigners — but when it happens to them, suddenly, miraculously, they become “concerned.”
It is a prominent feature of the calloused, unsympathetic sociopath to redress the imbalance caused by their lack of empathy for others with an excess of empathy for themselves. The police can deprive people of color of their human rights — and even their lives — all day long as far as Republicans are concerned. But require them to wear a mask? All of a sudden they’re livid with rage and demanding their civil rights.
If this soulless hypocrisy can be exploited I’m all for it. The inevitable truth is coronavirus deaths will soon leap to alarming heights, and those county statistics are going to turn deadly for Trump’s chances for re-election. There is a just irony in it, a karmic instance where Trump is hoist on his own petard. He’s been warning us with screaming tweets that, thanks to mail-in ballots, dead people will start voting in the election. His prophecy just may be coming true in a way that he can do nothing about. The deaths he’s causing from his negligence is going to cause survivors to turn against him.
Thankfully Trump is too stupid to fix the problem he’s made for himself. He could still fix it, but he lacks the intellectual wattage to see it. A clever person in Trump’s predicament just might have enough time left to start enacting sweeping reforms and save the election. The bottom line is Trump is too lazy to work and he’d rather go to prison. And therein is another irony, because that is the very slur people like Trump have levelled at the poor, the voiceless, the American minority for centuries, the people from whose industry and strength America has always derived what greatness she still has. And, as ever, ladies and gentlemen, brothers and sisters, comrades and friends, stay safe.
Robert Harrington is an American expat living in Britain. He is a portrait painter.