WHAT HAVE YOU done for me lately?

I find tremendous irony in the fact that the US president was the star of a reality show where he was surrounded by less-than-brilliant sycophants and presented as the epitome of  business success in charge of a thriving empire (though it turns out his decision-making often led to bankruptcy). The  climax of each episode was when he got to pronounce to a hapless contestant “You’re fired!”  The irony makes an entrance in that he is now at a point in his tenure where the party that embraced him (only after they realized that he could get them power) may soon make a similar pronouncement to him.

Almost two years ago on this blogsite, I posted that Trump would create the greatest reality show in history–and he did. The show has had everything: drama, character development (and assassination), and unpredictable plot turns. Everybody–and I mean EVERYBODY, Baby–has tuned in. In one particular way, it is merely an extension  of the The Apprentice in that he surrounds himself with sycophants and someone gets “fired” on a weekly basis.

But it has been getting, unlike the “reality” show of the past, uncomfortably real: The stock market is down for the year, trade wars aren’t working, there are waves of staff and cabinet resignations, and he gets on the wrong side of unpopular issues (like immigration, healthcare, and the environment) trying to make his campaign platform ideas sound great again–even to the point of government shutdown.  And let’s not forget that he is the target of a wave of Federal investigations.

Anyone who is paying attention to the Truth (this means getting news from award-winning journalists and institutions) can see that Trump’s Republican coalition is weakening rapidly and the Republican brand has lost serious market share in recent months. If the trend continues–and it could accelerate at a frightening pace after the events of this week–Republicans will ask for a divorce.  If he does not resign, enough of them will “throw him under the bus” by allowing impeachment proceedings to go to the ultimate level of removal from office or by invoking the 25th Amendment section that could remove him as “unfit to serve.”

While I have also incorrectly predicted that Trump would be gone by now, there is price we would all have to pay if it did come about.

If he left office, the circus would leave town and the whole world would undergo depression: one symptom of withdrawal  from the stimulation of the Trumpian spectacle. Imagine a world where Tweets don’t rattle the sleeping Western world or where there is no new WH scandal uncovered every week and people go back to being–if not politically correct, more or less politically acceptable. Imagine waking up and turning on a smart phone to your favorite news source only to find out that. . .nothing happened!

Horrors.

This might be a good time to take up a new hobby and begin to replace time spent following the Trump spectacle with something more beneficial, healthier, and more hopeful.

WRH