Trotteldämmerung: The Coming Twilight of the Fools
Mad Magazine
Trottel: (n.) fool, jerk, nincompoop, moron, idiot
Has Trump fatigue hit you by now? Are you worn down by the daily scandals actual and in-the-making? The bloviating cant from mendacious White House propagandists and apologizers? Do you not feel queasy when Sarah Huckabee Sanders says with a straight face, "The president does not lie"? If not, why not?? Do you fall asleep at night confident that our nation's security is in the hands of sane and judicious leadership? Are you even able to fall asleep easily? How about that stock market, you say? Fess up. Tell me you're not thinking in the back of your mind, "Better sell and put that cash to work in canned goods and ammunition."
This week Gallup measured Trump's disapproval rate at 60 percent, with 36 percent approving. Previously, the president who hit a 60 percent disapproval rating the fastest in Gallup's poll was George H.W. Bush, on his 1,290th day in office. Trump reached this esteemed target in the 144th day of his presidency. You don't hear him boasting about that record.
Witnessing the surreal scene of Trump's cabinet members debasing themselves as they praised their chief with breathless hosannahs like brainwashed North Korean apparatchiks, the New York Times' Frank Bruni sees "a dark parable of bets misplaced and souls under siege... in a White House governed by dread."
Robert Mueller's investigation is now in the Oval Office.
Pull your head out of the sand. The collapse is nigh. "Après moi, le déluge," lamented Louis XV, whom a historian described as "a perpetual adolescent called to do a man's job." Sound familiar?
The ops tempo toward collapse far exceeds that of Watergate when Nixon reached his end almost two years into his second term.
As both houses of Congress and Robert Mueller close in with their investigations, one can almost sense how the residents of Berlin felt with the Red Army storming in. Götterdämmerung's final act.
How will it unfold?
As with Wagner's opera, it will likely be slow, painful and epic. But inevitable.
Why?
Because, this American Ring des Nibelungen also centers on greed, thievery, and villainy. And we've reached this crisis also due to the failure of the gods to appear and sort things out for the common folk (read: Congress). George Bernard Shaw skewered politics, observing, "Those who have taken a practical part in modern politics best know how farcical the result is." A great Wagner fan who saw parallels between the operatic Ring drama and modern politics, he lamented laws and institutions "that prop up the weaknesses of mobs and secure the survival of the unfittest." Wotan, god of gods, is supposed to inspire men to strive for great positive deeds. In Trump, Shaw would see not Wotan, but the evil and cunning anti-hero, Hagen.
Having lived through Watergate, I believe the stages of Trump's undoing will play out more or less similarly:
Mueller, et al. uncover financial improprieties, potentially including secret channeling of Russian cash to Trump's campaign.
The investigators reveal multiple attempts by Trump to obstruct justice by leaning on the intel agency directors to halt their investigation of possible collusion with Russia .
Most of those being investigated for possible collusion with Russia will be found to have been "useful idiots," a Soviet-era term meaning gullible dupes of Moscow's secret agents. Two possible exceptions: Flynn and Kushner.
Congress will hold exhaustive hearings. As the dirt on Trump piles up, his political base will gradually erode just as Nixon's did. As the base fractures, more congressional Republicans will feel free to withdraw fealty to their GOP chief. The White House slides into more disarray as senior staff quit or are indicted.
Calls for impeachment will gain momentum. Eventually, a serious letter of impeachment is introduced.
As with Nixon, Trump will quit rather than suffer through a Senate trial.
Welcome President Pence.
God save the Republic!