Trump Feeds His Hungry Followers With Scorpions And Snakes

WRITTEN BEFORE TRUMP WON THE ELECTORAL COLLEGE VOTE.  If I, not a professional campaign consultant, could see the necessity of Hillary reaching out to white male uneducated voters what in hell were the Clinton people thinking when they didn't reach out to them in the industrial Midwestern states where they were suffering?

TRUMP FEEDS HIS HUNGRY FOLLOWERS WITH SCORPIONS AND SNAKES.   October 16, 2016                                               by Keith Shirey

Today at my church, the controversial left-wing Episcopal All Saints in Pasadena, CA, the priest read from the Gospel of Luke where Jesus is quoted as saying, “What parents among you will give a snake to their child when the child asks for fish, or a scorpion when the child asks for an egg." I thought of Trump, seen by his followers as a kind of father figure (the good Vater-Führer) who will bring them what they ask for:  Work, self-respect a cure for their brokenness and alienation, their fear of lack of safety and instability.

But this strongman brings them only scorpions and snakes in lies and promises he cannot keep: "On the day of my inauguration there will be safety in America," "Crime and violence will soon, and I mean very soon, will come to an end,” “We’ll get rid of Isis, and very soon,” "I will be the greatest jobs president God ever created," "I will take care of women," and "I will make this country rich again." This Fürther carries in his hands the snakes of pure hatred of Muslims, minorities, their children and foreigners, and the scorpions of fear and rage at "elites" who have contempt for and have humiliated the "forgotten man." This is the food his hands use to feed his needy children.

I think that the whole of our civilization will be plunged into the abyss of destruction if this vile Vater-Führer Trump is elected because he, as many have observed, like Hitler, suffers from the kind of narcissistic personality disorder that makes him outraged at the slightest criticism. This megalomaniac simply cannot have the nuclear codes in his possession.

Let us be clear that comparing Trump to Hitler is quite justified: The Führerprinzip ("leader principle") prescribed the fundamental basis of political authority in the governmental structures of the Third Reich. This principle can be understood to mean that "the Führer's word is above all written law" and that the legislative and judicial branches of government are subordinate to him. Trump has pledged that he would violate international treaties and domestic law and that he would condone illegal torture. He has stated that The U.S. military “won’t refuse” his illegal orders. Many commentators have pointed out that he has no understanding of the role of the legislature and judiciary in the U.S.’ constitution-based government.

Both Trump and Hitler say and have said, "I am your voice" and, to the effect, "I am the will of the people."

“Wir kleinen Leute haben sowieso nichts zu sagen. Die da oben machen doch was sie wollen!” (‘We “little people” have nothing to say anyhow. Those “up there” do what they want anyhow!’) could be the rallying cry for Trump’s forgotten just as Joseph Goebbels knew it well and used it to Hitler’s advantage.

For Trump, America a kind of dark dystopia where crime and terrorism are a huge part of life. Trump's solution is to stoke the deadly fires of fear and hatred. Hillary Clinton, on the other hand, is talking about love overcoming hate in her campaign. She must reach those disaffected, often unemployed, and economically downtrodden who are the basis of both Trump and Adolph Hitler’s support. Perhaps her campaign can reach out to them with compassion and understanding.  Hillary seems to be informed by the Social Gospel movement in her Methodist church.  She speaks of her faith, mostly when she is asked about it,  with statements such as, “The most important commandment is to love the Lord with all your might and to love your neighbor as yourself, and that is what I think we are commanded by Christ to do.”

Let us hope that both Hillary and her staff are paying attention and practice what they preach and somehow sway the broken white men away from Trump with love, compassion, and understanding.  I know it is too naïve, if not silly, to believe that the campaign, in reaching out to angry, fearful white men,  should be based on the redemptive power of love.  On a practical note, I do think that their political message in the "rust belt" and others areas of high unemployment must be shaped by a consciousness of both the needs of who they are dealing with and how the message is presented on both television and in the precincts. They need to hear that "Hillary Listens."

Perhaps, then, the millions of the suffering, who are Trump’s supporters, will then see that their Vater-Führer feeds 
them only scorpions and snakes for their hunger for jobs, security, self-esteem and, what they see is their own humiliation, and the humiliation of their country by foreign nations. Like Hitler, Trump turns on and off people’s reptilian emotions, their blackest fears, deepest hatreds, fantasies of revenge, and racist fear of foreigners like a light switch.

The devil is smiling.