Different & the Black Teflon that Enables Him

Everyone’s commenting on the development of Different and even I have to admit that he appears to be growing into his job.  The change in confidence began when he made the announcement to the Press about the termination of embattled Secretary of State Rex Tillerson; the impromptu conference as he was boarding MAR1.  He looked “presidential” answering questions, not seemingly from an earlier written and arranged script and doing so without flying ad lib as we’ve seen him do previously and recently.  Yet his timely, positional acclimation shouldn’t calm our fears. Let me tell you why.

That’s because no one seems to understand the depths of how low Different is willing to go.  And that’s because no one takes him for his word.  We’ve come to accept his lies as hyperbolic affirmations, choosing to err on the side of comedy rather than tragedy.  On the other hand, we should believe, understand and take literally everything that Different says; every bleeping thing. 

When Different boasted that he could stand on the corner of Fifth Avenue, shoot someone and not lose any votes, most Americans thought he was kidding and that it was, oh so funny, yuck-yuck.  Rather than any dark humor, we should’ve realized that he meant it, exactly as he said it; his words speaking truthfully to his views on power, position, authority and privilege.  And we can see now, in retrospect, how we missed an important opportunity to clarify and challenge what he meant by that statement.

When Different failed to call out white supremacists in Charlottesville, quibbling that there were “good people on both sides”, We should’ve recognized what he was trying to do and more importantly, who he wasn’t trying to insult.  After all, we’ve been here before.  And yet, even as hundreds of torch bearing neo-Nazis lit up the Charlottesville night in a spectacle D.W. Griffith would’ve been proud of, the pushback was the usual and the customary from the usual and customary and from his base, equivocation.

And when Different bragged about his ability to grab any woman by her crotch because of his celebrity, we accepted his claim that it was “locker room” talk.  Yet, no Right man stood up and challenged the notion that men would behave so immaturely, showing that type of disdain for women, in any setting.  It should’ve been easy; there’s a gym in the Capitol building.  Like most men, male members of Congress have been in a few locker rooms and know the types of men that bandy such info about.  Yet no one called Different out as that guy who can only get it when he pays for it.

Contrary to what his base, Evangelicals and other proponents think, everything controversial that Different says is not always a joke.  And the fact that his closest supporters fail to take him literally does everyone a disservice.  It’s one thing to give him a pass because he’s supposedly adhering to the conscripts of an agenda you seek but it’s another thing entirely to ignore over half of what he says and does because you think he’s a comedian.  He’s not; he’s the president of the United States and he should be expected to behave like one.  To disregard his ignorance, disregard of and disrespect for the normal workings of the presidency and the levels of government presents a level of denial that puts us all in jeopardy.  What do you think causes it though?

Plain and simple, I think it’s arises out of the aftermath of two consecutive and successful terms of the first African-American president of the United States.  The election of Barack Hussein Obama, not only stuck in the craw of the Republican-controlled Congress for 8 years, it also, unfortunately, displeased many citizens.  Then, along came Different, the author of the birther movement, crazy critic of the Obama administration and self-proclaimed “hero” of forgotten white America.

And for some in his base, those who knew something wasn’t quite right but were willing to vote for him anyway, it probably went something like, after two terms with a ni…a black man in office, why not give the unorthodox Different a shot at governing? Or maybe, If Obama can do it, you can’t tell me that Different can’t.  That he could supplant the customary Republican leadership with insults and lies and practically take over the party is testament to the anger that the aggrieved citizen segment felt and still feels.

Different owes his presidency to Obama because it’s the success of that administration that affords him the Teflon coating that allows all his chaos, all his problems, all his corruption to run and flow away from his body politic.  Thing is, all of that which he causes, the chaos, the corruption, the problems all ultimately flow downhill to lodge permanently in the drains of our lives, clogging our existence, gumming up our works.  And while he’s in office, American “plumbing” will suffer; at least until those in that aggrieved portion of white America grab their plungers and send him down the drain.  So far though, they can’t shake that non-stick.