Since I distrust politicians, I distrust politics and view it from afar. This cycle I switched channels at every political commercial, boycotted punditry on every fake or real media site, and received accidental doses of politics by sitting to close too people in public places and articles in my peripheral vision. In short, I try not to waste too much time on crap at my age.

But time has taught me a lot about politics,…and people. Trumpism, for example, appears to be Reaganism on steroids. When you view the political arena from afar and over time, you realize life goes on at both the national level and the personal level. Trumpism will be gone in a maximum of 8 years, if not sooner, and what will take its place? A point to remember is even with control of most of the government, presidents still never get all the things they promise.

But if Trump is the new Reagan, it means America has swung back towards a new (old?) era of white insecurity. And especially white, male insecurity. Reagan won in 1980 with his “are you better off four years ago” approach appealing to a country being led out of The Great Depression of 1973 by the last, honest politician: Jimmy Carter. Reagan made Carter look like an incompetent fool. Parse that sentence and understand every word. Carter was not an incompetent fool and the recession he inherited was caused by the mostly Republican Administrations that preceded Carter: Nixon and Ford.

As America recovered in the late 70’s, Reagan criticized and whined, and touched the nerve of an electorate unaware of the reality, and they voted out Carter.

We’re at the same point, now. Biden inherited a mess from a Republican President who contemplated ingesting bleach to end The Covid Pandemic. Four years later the country is getting back on its feet and Trump (not Reagan) criticizes and whines and makes Biden look like a fool. Trump doused himself with more idiocy in a televised debate with The Biden Replacement, Harris: “They’re eating the dogs and cats.”

The American electorate has never been very logical about an election, or even voted for its own self-interest, so 2024’s results are not a surprise: men voted against a woman, woman voted for a misogynist, and lots of white males probably sat it out, unable to convince themselves a woman could lead this country.

The pundits will dissect all the activities, but the salient theme of the election was white insecurity. Embarrassed Trump supporters told me “Don’t listen to him” when Trump said something stupid. But listen to him, they did. Trump’s most powerful message was this, to the white insecurity: “I’ll fix it.” And people believed. Go figure.

Now, the feces will begin to impact the air circulator. Remember “I’ll build a wall and Mexico will pay for it.”? That incomplete wall added billions to the national debt. Reality is not just a hard pill to take for some, but for Republican voters, it is also something they easily forget. Or choose to ignore?

Time will tell, but Reagan did a decent job with his opportunity. Will Trump?

Peace, out, for politics. Back to my serene, graceful, blessed, normal trip to The End.

Wait. A word to the Evangelicals: good luck with The Second Coming and The Anointed One.