If President Reagan was the “Teflon president”, then Trump must be the “fly paper president”. Why? Let me explain:
June, 2015, U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders very publicly warned us--and continues to do so today--that Trump is a pathological liar. August, 2017, 60,000 mental health professionals signed a petition stating that Trump was unfit for office. Rather than taking action on this professional assessment, the lead organizer of the petition drive, Dr. Bandy Lee, was fired from her position at Yale University because she invoked the “duty to warn” requirement for professional psychiatrists. Yale administrators believed she was just being “political”.
Congress members were warned by Lee and Sanders about Trump's psychiatric shortcomings. Democrats introduced a bill aimed at establishing a “commission on presidential capacity” . But Congress members concluded nothing could be done until Americans were informed and pushed Congress to act. Attempts to inform the public via the media were construed as just “politically motivated” and thus ignored.
By September 2018, given Trump’s instability cabinet members witnessed, there were early whispers of invoking the 25th Amendment and assert Trump was unfit to serve as POTUS. Assuming for lack of courage to invoke the 25th Amendment, Trump remained in office, and then further demonstrated his instability and unfitness for serving as POTUS by provoking the January 6th Insurrection.
By 2022, Dr. Bandy Lee was fully vindicated, but Trump continues to be embraced by MAGA Republicans, both voters and members of congress.
Despite so many long-term credible warnings about Trump, despite his now proven criminality and immorality, despite his disregard for the rule of law, despite his penchant for embracing dictators, and despite Trump contributing to Project 2025, a blueprint any right-wing POTUS, and despite so many character flaws—Trump's thin skin, faux genius, tiny vocabulary, man-child, big liar, big narcissist, big whiner, big misogynist, big racist, big crimes, worsening dementia, and big goal of undermining our democracy.
Despite all this, one would think, with so many defects, at least one or two would get through to his supporters and undermine their support.
I can't imagine why so many people ever supported him and still do. I can only imagine that Trump is the “flypaper president”. Unlike Teflon to which nothing sticks, anyone who whiffs Trump’s B.S. sticks to him like flypaper. I guess we're seeing in real time the effectiveness of the Big Lie and the ideas of "1984" in action.
What is it going to take to retain and strengthen our republic in 2024??
It’s not a partisan choice. Stop Trump and Project 2025: Vote for Harris/Walz for President/Vice-President; vote for Democrats up and down the ballot.