Built On Sand

When it was announced that Trump had been indicted, the audience reactions on the late night shows were indicative of a certain catharsis. I’ve never heard such immediate, loud, sustained cheers. Pent up frustration finding release.

Flip over to Fox News and it was a totally different story– real and contrived anger, thinly veiled threats from pundits, members of Congress, Don Jr. and Eric, and of course the usual cast of anchors and hosts at Fox. There were cries of “third world justice” and “communist bullshit” and “politically motivated”– the same tired list of complaints Trump himself has bellowed with regularity. Unrighteous indignation for consumption by The Base, the tired and sad base, which must be dwindling to only those who harbor the most unquenchable animosity and deep-seated paranoia. The hook, line, and sinker folks who are ready, I guess, to rekindle the Civil War.

The glee and what could be perceived as smugness on the part of Colbert, especially, probably didn’t sit well with the Tucker Carlson crowd (though we now know how Carlson really feels about Trump and others in his orbit). But let us have a moment. This has been a long time coming.

A whole lifetime of selfish, slimy wheeling and dealing appears to be crashing to the ground. Finally. Maybe. All the careless language and in-your-face public spectacle and hubris and manipulation, the behaving as if it was normal, the endless claims of victimhood, the sickening sight of a whole family of spoiled, entitled brats carrying on as if they had something important to say– maybe all of this exhausting ugliness is finally being checked and contained and exposed as the vanity it has always been.

Of course, it’s all far from over. The trial for this one series of charges may not begin until after the 2024 election– an election in which Trump can continue campaigning whether or not he’s sitting in a jail cell! The days ahead could reveal a real-life manifestation of what a cornered rat is capable of. Threats made, unrest fomented, roadblocks to justice erected, violence unleashed– all of this could be orchestrated by Trump himself and a relative handful of disciples and anarchists looking for any excuse to start something.

Maybe we’ll find out just how widespread all this Trump loyalty and “love of country” and passion for American “greatness” really is.

Maybe the jig is up?