New Orleans It may have been hardball politics by both Democrats and Republicans, but it was a fair play within the chalk lines to raise the penalty flag on President Biden’s rough outing in the debate with Trump. Now the tables have turned though, and it’s equally fair to wonder what’s going on with Trump?
The latest, but not the only example, that the former president may be seriously slipping happened recently in South Dakota of all places, where he was having a rally with the governor, one of his fan girls. A couple of people fainted, stopping the show. Reportedly, he asked if anyone else wanted to faint, which was a weird way to handle the situation, but probably a shot at some Trumpian levity. But then he declared the Q&A over and proceeded to entreat the crowd to listen to his musical playlist for 39 minutes while he rocked and swayed on the stand to the music, occasionally shaking a hand, but that was that. With hardly three weeks before the election, early voting and mail ballots going out already, it isn’t surprising that all of the news reports raised questions about whether Trump was really all the way “with it” these days.
A deeper analysis, causing similar and more serious concerns, is how dark his speeches and pronouncements are running these days. I’m not just talking about his threats to attack any perceived “enemies” in politics, the media, the judicial system, or wherever he casts his eyes or his promises to militarize the country. That’s sort of been standard issue Trump-speak for some time. It’s getting worse to a very disturbing degree. A report in the Times got pretty medical about Trump and his dark rambles:
According to a computer analysis, Trump’s rally speeches now last an average of 82 minutes, compared with 45 minutes in 2016. Proportionately, he uses 13 percent more all-or-nothing terms like “always” and “never” than he did eight years ago, which some experts consider a sign of advancing age. Similarly, he uses 32 percent more negative words than positive words now, compared with 21 percent in 2016, which can be another indicator of cognitive change. And he uses swearwords 69 percent more often than he did when he first ran, a trend that could reflect what experts call disinhibition.
Sure, we can all look the other way and hope and pray, that if he’s elected, somehow, somebody will make sure it’s not a disaster, but how can this not worry even his diehard supporters, in the same way Biden’s missteps scared the bejesus out of some big whoop Democrats and a lot of others? Unfortunately, some of us holding onto our remaining faculties with both hands also remember Trump’s first term, when he was hardly 70 and not 78 and counting. Even then, he was a handful and unmanageable. With him in the White House again, it will be a long way from “morning in America,” as Reagan promised. Like it or not, it’s more like Walter Cronkite’s signoff, “that’s the way it is.”
America, take the wheel!