Why Is Donald Trump President?

History’s chain of causation is often ambiguous or obscure, but let’s hold this thing up to the light.

Al Gore won the election of 2000, but it was stolen from him by unscrupulous men backed by a partisan political Supreme Court. Absent Ralph Nader it wouldn’t have been close enough to steal. If Al Gore had been sworn in as president, according to the law and the will of the American people, Donald J. Trump would never have become more than the ridiculous celebrity con-man that he was up to the first week in November, 2016. He would never have had the chance to become the ridiculous celebrity con-man president that he is today.  

With George W. Bush safely installed in the White House, all of the terrible dominoes started to fall. The pointless, ill-advised wars, the ridiculous and unnecessary tax cuts for the rich, the irresponsible fear mongering after 9-11, the extravagant recklessness of the banking community, the near fatal crashing of the American economy, and the world’s economy. With Al Gore in the White House, none of that happens, or at least nowhere near as dramatically.

If the aughts had been characterized by a reasonable foreign policy and a responsible fiscal policy, the election of 2008 would have been a relatively sedate affair. In that atmosphere, there would be no reason to reach so desperately for the change that Barack Obama represented. George W. set the stage for Obama. And no Obama, no Trump. Trump is the response of America’s irretrievably racist and bigoted majority to a black president. Yeah, I said it. It’s a “majority” because I’m including the people who would never talk about it in a million years. The hidden racists. The Trump voters, with a thousand excuses why they’re not racists at all, and a thousand reasonable lies for why they voted for Trump. Those racists, those bigots.

So I’m blaming the national tragedy that is Donald J. Trump on:

1.   The Supreme Court;

2.   Governor John Bush* et al;

3.   Ralph Nader; and

4.   Those fucking chads.

That’s in no particular order.

But that was then (W.), and this is now (Trump). And we’re stuck with it. If W. was an almost endearing, lazy-minded fool, Trump is a laughing hyena in a fat suit.

*I’m not calling that asshole “Jeb.” The man’s name is John Ellis Bush. You can look it up. He wants it kept a secret for some reason. In my experience, when people go by an alias, it’s usually because the police are after them for something.