This Carbon Based Life

By David Glenn Cox

Just in time for Christmas! Trump gift wrapping paper featuring the mugshot of Donald Trump. Only $35.00 (cheap!) for three count em, three whole sheets of wrapping paper. A regular $5.99 value! Order today! Be the first one on your block! Impress your friends! It’s the gift that wraps itself! Finally, wrapping paper worthy enough to wrap up those NASCAR collector plates you’re regifting.

Sometimes you just have to nod your head and tip your hat to the old grifter. He can be efficient once in a while, if you put a dollar sign in front of it. “Just in time for Mother’s Day!” He never misses a trick or a grift. As long as the suckers are buying, give em more! But history tells us there was once, long ago, a line before the mechanical bull. And platform shoes at the disco that are no more. No more bell bottoms or Timothy Leary, time marches on.

“If a man does not keep pace with his companions, perhaps it is because he hears a different drummer. Let him step to the music which he hears, however measured or far away.” – Henry David Thoreau

Or perhaps, it’s because he’s hearing a con man drummer selling sweet beats and is baffled by the bullshit. But nobody is new forever. Look how many Hollywood franchises are spewed forth until their public demise and yet, Trump can’t even manage a sequel “Trump 2! Welcome to the Dark Side.”

Trump’s outbursts and string of unhinged statements label him as a man on the way down. The orange Tidy bowl man trying to deal with the waves and currents of the storm. Reactive and not proactive, except in merchandising. As Trump drifts into other lanes of oncoming traffic the public will slowly peel off. The cultist will slowly begin to disappear back into the woods. There will be no march of remonstration with signs reading, “Boy! Were we ever chumps!” Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, and I must be a Trump supporter!

January 6^th prison sentences have had the desired effect. Like a cattle prod or a dull thud on a thick skull. Fuck around and find out fella. Fuck around and lose everything! There will be no more mass Trump demonstrations. The bloom is off of that rose. There is no longer a line at the mechanical bull.

Quietly at first, fellow Republicans began to criticize Trump. Some suggest that while Trump is still their lord and savior, maybe the time has come to look for someone else. Then they began to question Trump’s stories. Then they came right out and said it. Trump’s not running for office, he’s running from jail. Others, like Chris Christie, warn of the dangers of a second Trump Presidency. Christie isn’t running for office; he’s only running against Trump.

A house divided against itself. A year ago, it would not have been possible for Republicans to speak ill of Trump without taking the phone off the hook. The mailbox is full…goodbye. But the dull logic is seeping in, and Republicans begin to realize that Donald Trump is their past and is no longer viable in the future. Republican leadership (so called) see a brick wall ahead with Trump’s face plastered on it. The Republicans are headed towards that wall at a high rate of speed. And old Donny stole the handle and the train it won’t stop going, no way to slow down.

Look at Trump’s status a year ago versus today. What will it look like in twelve months at the same rate of decay and erosion? The Milwaukee Convention is going to look like WrestleMania or a Jason Aldean concert. This time it’s going to get ugly. Republicans tried in vain in 2016 to stop Trump but failed. This time around the Party knows the possible consequences. This time around Trump is playing for all the marbles. No bone spurs this time. With your shield or on your shield! Trump is fighting a losing battle for survival as time marches on. Without victory there is no more Trump.

And they that are last shall be first because that’s the way things work. First people want tailfins on their cars and then they don’t want tailfins on their cars. Liz Cheney was forced from office for not wholeheartedly supporting Trump. But Cheney understands and is playing the long game. One of these days, soon perhaps, the Trump craze like slot car tracks or hula hoops will fade. Followed by a revulsion of everything Trump and Trump related. At which time, Liz Cheney becomes the shining star. The herald of truth and the bringer of fire.

But just as possible will be a growing weariness leading to Republican apathy. Fear based politics can be so exhausting and suffering defeat after defeat, day after day, can only be demoralizing. Already there is an excitement gap. Ron DeSantis has no personality. Vivek Ramaswamy has a clueless personality, and Nikki Haley has a plastic personality. Nikki Haley of the Tupperware Party.

The televised Republican deflates illustrate just how bad the situation has become. Without Trump on the stage, they are nothing. With Trump on the stage, they are invisible. Trump polls fifty percent of the Party as the also rans control the other fifty percent of the Party. It is a political fact that no one has ever been elected to national office with only fifty percent support of their own Party. (See: Al Gore)

Trump is through with denial and has moved on to anger before he reaches the bargaining stage. Then comes depression and acceptance. That stage will come later, after Trump has lost the election (again) and is on his way to a stretch at Club Fed.

Trump, a man with a brilliant future behind him. The orange pied piper leading the low IQ children off into the woods. The children will find their way home eventually as nothing is new forever. Even good paint fades with time.

“Now the darkness only stays at night time
In the morning it will fade away
Daylight is good
At arriving at the right time
But it’s not always going
To be this grey

All things must pass
All things must pass away
All things must pass
All things must pass away”

— George Harrison