Grift Graft, I Need a Bath
How only the Sleaziness of Republicans' Trickles down
I’ve done 20-odd years as a full-blown junkie, both on the streets and in lockup, desolate years full of dismal people. And of the many types of criminals encountered during that time, the most sinister was the grifter—that is, one who hustles others for money and/or personal gain. Whether through conning, or self-victimization, or just straight-up whining, the grifter has the uncanny ability to make their mark feel good about being taken, which in its turn highlights a seldom-considered axiom; the festering of propaganda requires the full gullibility of those the lies are specifically geared toward.
A misunderstanding of President Trump is born from the fact that some can’t identify this pattern, while others are plain in on the grift. Take, for example, Trump’s sudden insistence that most American’s be given $2,000 in the last stimulus, rather than the already legislated $600. On the surface it appears caring and even noble, but Trump has been grifting his constituents for cash donations with both an Election Defense Fund and a Save America PAC. In direct contradiction to their titular purpose, both have placed hundreds of millions of dollars into Trump’s personal coffers. But it’s not enough. Is never enough. Trump’s grifting mind reasoned that disciples with $2,000 are more likely to fatten his coffers further, especially if he’s branded as championing it, and he’s right.
Of course, many aren’t fooled by the malicious lies of the president. Most of us are indeed outraged by the endless fabrications. We, however, don’t count. Will never count in Trump’s world. Those that can’t be conned are of no use to him. We knew he sidestepped responsibility for the massive failure to even mildly mitigate the pandemic by blaming the States, and this for the grifted was perfectly reasonable; same as it was for the maligning of vaccines.
Grifters are usually defined as small-time swindlers, and this is often true of Trump. Like millions of three-dollar donations, his endless deceits are often minute but cumulative. In this he resembles a junkie who needs to fix. Constantly. That need is addictive in the same manner as heroin – the same roller blind striving toward an oblivion so single-minded in its scope that it’s damn near sociopathic. The difference is that a junkie’s objective is to turn down the quadrophonic sound of the world, whereas Trump demands it on full blast. The payoff, however, is similar, warm and fuzzy with a rush like honeybees buzzing through your veins.
His followers are similarly addicted, and as blissfully banal as the grifter himself. They cannot see or choose to ignore the fact that Trump positively percolates lies which then drip, gonorrhea-like, from his tongue, infecting them with delusion.
Many Republicans are in on the grift, have indeed been an integral part of it for decades. Consider their utter unwillingness to pass sensible forms of gun control even in the aftermath of massacred school children; or their total rejection of healthcare for those who can’t afford it, preferring rather that they perish ignobly; add to that the million-plus dead from the pandemic and it’s all the proof needed to write Republicans off as self-serving louts grifting their constituents while pandering to the donor class. Prop up a consummate charlatan like Trump and suddenly they’re no longer even sneaky about it, nor need they be. Trump has established the fleecing beyond their wildest duplicities.
Another grift involves those few Republicans guilty of putting on airs of indignation over Trump’s claims of voter fraud when their caucus has been complicit of suppressing the vote since the collapse of Reconstruction. The grift becomes even more substantive when, in full view of God and country, they refer to themselves as the Party of Lincoln while maintaining a straight face.
But a more damaging aspect of the grift is this insistence upon decency. Trump and his sycophants forfeited their right to civility a long time ago. It began when Senate Leader McConnell stole a Supreme Court pick from Barack Obama, violating his oath to uphold the Constitution. In so doing, he surrendered his privilege to be treated courteously. A bit of free speech is, therefore, in order, perhaps insinuating that he’s a calculating, kowtowing, corporate toady because, all modifiers aside, that’s exactly what he is. As is his wife. She was also in it up to her neck.
In this, Democrats need to be really clear about the rules; deceit is the epitome of incivility. So calling Trump a despotic fraud is merely a counter to his ceaseless lies and insults; is in fact a stand against incivility because it’s pitting veracity, the height of civility, against mendacity, its notorious low.
Their greatest grift, however, is convincing millions that government doesn’t work, and then engineering this self-fulfilling prophecy into decades of incumbency, including sabotaging the economy before and during a democratic presidency. When it comes to their political ambitions, We the People are mere afterthoughts. Nor is this strictly a Republican grift. Trump, however, has turned it into an art form. Not once in his eight-years as president did Obama utter Trump’s favorite refrain: “It’s so unfair.”
Sadder still is that the grifting has exacerbated after POTUS Trump’s departure – his lackies on radio and TV and in the House and Senate and are even now compounding his perfidy despite the obvious damage to our democracy.
And if that’s still not enough to convince you of his griftiness, consider this; Trump is the vilest human being I’ve ever encountered, and I’ve been to prison five times.