The Doctor Has Made His Call

 The men the American people admire most extrovertly are the most daring liars. The men they detest most violently are those who tell them the truth.  

H. L. Mencken 

With that single observation, H. L. Mencken pretty well sums up the reason Donald Trump, a known rapist and accused felon, will either clinch, or come within an inch of clinching the republican party nomination for President of the United States today. 

Here in the U.S. the media and politicos from coast to coast and beyond refer to the day as, "Super Tuesday." It is the day when voters in 15 states and one territory cast their ballots to decide on who the parties will nominate to run in November. In the days of yore the nominees were chosen at party conventions which were filled with drama, closed room deals, and generally old white guys sucking at the ends of cigars.

We still have the conventions, but they haven't been relevant in decades. Thanks to the primary voting process, today being the most wide spread of these events, by the time the conventions roll around the nominations have already been decided. The get togethers exist now solely as sort of political rock festivals held to give party activists an opportunity to kick out the jams, throw week long benders while dressed as fools, and provide the candidates with free network airtime.  Oh, and to let the attendees play with balloons. There is always lots and lots of balloons. 

This year in particular the issue of nominees appears chosen already. A lot of people on both sides of the aisle aren't happy about it. That's mainly because there are many democrats and republicans who consider their guy either too old and senile, or nuts to run the country. 

The other day, Dr. John Gartner, a psychologist and former member of the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine faculty, gave his opinion on the subject in an interview. 

"I had to speak out because the 2024 election might turn  on the issue of who is cognitively capable. Biden, or Trump.? It's a major issue that will affect some people's vote. Not enough people are sounding the alarm, that based on his behavior, and in my opinion, Donald Trump is dangerously demented. In fact we are seeing the opposite among too many in the news media, the political leaders, and among the public. There is also this focus on Biden's gaffes, or other things that are within the normal limits of aging. By comparison Trump appears to be showing gross signs of dementia. This is a tale of two brains. Biden's brain is aging. Trump's brain is dementing." 

The reason for Gartner's diagnosis? "Phonenic paraphasias--the substitution of non words for words that sound similar. ..That is a fundamental breakdown in the ability to use the language. ..There is no healthy older person who speaks that way." He went on to say, "Trump also engages in what we call tangential speech. He just becomes incomprehensible when he engages in free association word salad speech that is all over the place. Again that's a sign of real brain damage, not being old, not being slow, not losing a step, but of severe cognitive deterioration."

According to Gartner, "By comparison, Biden has never been the most articulate person. He always had a stutter. He always made gaffes. But Biden has a good heart and good judgement. Over the decades we have not seen much evidence of deterioration in Biden's speaking." 

When it comes to the MAGA groupies Garner said: "At some level their worship of Trump is cartoonish. They idolize him beyond anything that is reasonable...Charismatic leaders like Donald Trump excite their followers into a kind of frenzy. But because the MAGA movement, like other fascist and authoritarian movements is a death cult, what Trump is inciting in them is a kind of dark frenzy and dangerous excitement. We have seen such summoned in some of the worst moments of modern history., most notably in Germany." 

Gartner believes Trump's followers and the media misinterpret his apparent energy, not realizing, that it is a symptom of his condition. In his words, "Trump is what we would clinically describe hypomanic." In Gartner's opinion, "Trump and people like him are not going to have good judgement."

The doctor concluded by saying, "Even if he was demented I would rather have Biden than Trump as President of the United States of America. Dementia brings out the worst in people's character. They become 10 times worse. If Biden really were to mentally decline--and I'm not saying he has, or will, or is---he's basically a benign person with good judgement. Biden cares about his fellow human beings. Biden is patriotic and actually believes in defending the Constitution and the United States of America. So even if Biden were to become diminished in his cognitive abilities he's still not going to do something evil, or crazy. He just might need more help. By comparison, Donald Trump unleashed would be Satan unbound."

And just think, I didn't even mention the parts where John Gartner talked about Trump's lust for revenge, his perverse pleasure in destroying people and institutions, and his belief he actually has God-like powers.   

Yes, the real options on this Super Tuesday are decidedly limited. In November though, they will be as stark as night and day. And, as we've just learned from the good Doctor, that night is a darkness the media and much of the voting public has grown too accustomed to, simply because they can't truly fathom it.

3-5-24