Donald Trump May Be Finished But His Stench Will Still Remain

At this juncture, it appears fairly certain that Donald Trump is never going to be president of the United States. In all likelihood, come this January, we will be swearing in Hillary Rodham Clinton as the first female president of this country.

Now, this is great news for anyone who has African-American or Mexican-American friends or family or Muslim friends or family or has a wife or a daughter or a mother or has, in fact, ever known or met a woman at all. We will be spared the constant stories of the president sexually assaulting campaign staffers or congressional pages or invading the dressing rooms of naked contestants of the Miss Teen White House competition.

There is, however, still a great deal of cause for concern.

The wound that Trump has opened with his ridiculous, toxic candidacy will not be so easily healed. The dark currents that he has awakened and uncovered in our society are not just going to crawl quietly back under their rocks when their hero walks away from politics to star in some wretched new reality show. Who’s ready for “Donald Trump’s Fistful of Pussy Party,” coming soon to SpikeTV?

The truth of the matter is that this election has exposed something very ugly in the American electorate. What we have discovered is that a great many of us are not shocked or repulsed or offended by Trump’s vulgar, boorish, narcissistic behavior. No, in fact, he has come to represent and symbolize a new version of the American Dream.

It appears that a significant portion of this country actually wants to be Donald Trump. And, by that, I mean that they want to be rich and powerful enough that they can behave like horrible, selfish pigs, just like he does. They want to be able to say nasty things about minorities and the handicapped and to treat women as objects who can be used and thrown away and grabbed whenever and on whatever parts of their bodies are desired.

Trump’s supporters represent a group of people for whom the American Dream is and always has been the freedom and ability to lord it over every other group of people in this country. This is why they hate political correctness so much. It means they are now expected to have some sensitivity towards groups they have traditionally held under their boots. They see the power slipping away from white men and it has made them enraged. They know, somewhere deep down in their dark hearts, that this country is never again going to be the white, male haven that offers them advantage to the exclusion of all others. This growing realization has caused them to shuck any pretense to civilization that they once may have had.

Another thing that has become clear is that many of Trump’s male supporters (and a large number of the female ones, as well) are not bothered in the slightest by his misogyny or his bragging about sexually assaulting women. They explain it away by calling it “locker room talk” or by saying that “boys will be boys” (never mind that Trump is 59-years old). What this tells me is that there are a lot of men who wish they could behave this way with women as well and are only held back because they don’t have the power to get away with it.

When it comes right down to it, the real reason a lot of men strive to attain power is they believe it is the magic key that unlocks the mystical kingdom of pussy. I mean, money and respect are very nice but the real selling point is the pussy.

Henry Kissinger is famously quoted as saying, “Power is the ultimate aphrodisiac.” This is a little piece of bullshit that powerful men have been convincing themselves of since we first crawled out of the primordial ooze. Really now, come on. There isn’t aphrodisiac enough on the planet Earth to make Henry Kissinger or Donald Trump sexy. Sure, attractive women will fuck them sometimes, to get a taste of the power for themselves or stave off the career ruin or character assassination that pigs of this status level can bring about but, believe me, they hold their noses the whole time they are doing it.

Have you ever considered how horrible it must be for Melania to have to touch the naked flesh of that creature? Would you want to?

Now, racism and misogyny and selfishness are currents that run deep through our history and character. We’d hardly be America without these elements and much of our grand history as the country of moral right and goodness is simply a myth. We used to have, however, a greater variety of ethical and moral values in America than merely sheer, naked accumulation of wealth. We believed in compassion and helping our neighbor and hard work for the sake of itself and giving to those less fortunate than ourselves. Mention those attributes as desirable today and the person you are talking to is likely to laugh right in your face. Those traits are considered quaint and naïve and weak. Or as Donald Trump would say, “That’s what losers think.” Winners take whatever they want and don’t give a good goddamn what anybody else thinks about it.

They don’t care about anyone’s feelings or who they have to step on or destroy in order to succeed. Once a person is filthy rich, it doesn’t matter at all what they had to do to become that way. Cheat people who work for you out of money? It’s just good business. Lie and steal and find ways to defraud the country you say you love by uncovering loopholes to escape from paying your fair share of taxes? That’s just what winners do. The simple fact that it adds to their wealth makes it acceptable.

This is why none of these scandals has been able to take Donald Trump down. His followers can easily forgive him because he is only doing the same things they would do if they had the opportunity.

In the wake of this horrendous, never-ending election cycle, all of us need to take a cold, hard look at ourselves and decide the kind of country we want to be. Will we be eternally trying to build greater and greater piles of dollar bills to the exclusion of all other human feeling or will be able to find a way back to our humanity and reignite qualities such as empathy and kindness and forgiveness in ourselves?

I do know that if we go the former route, this planet may not long be able to sustain us. Donald Trump and his followers think even considering the fate of this Earth is stupid and weak. What doesn’t make them money or satisfy their urges in the here and now is not even worth giving a moment’s thought.

We have the capacity as human beings to perform amazing acts of selflessness and good. We could make a paradise of this world, if we wanted to and put our collective minds to it. People like Trump and his followers don’t believe that it’s even worth it to try.

Donald Trump’s hopes for winning the office of president and thus becoming one of the most powerful people in the world may be broken and dashed and that is an absolutely wonderful thing, but that doesn’t mean that the work ahead of us is finished. It is just getting started.