Trump's "Evil Genius" and Unhinged Centrist Paranoia

Some people have dubbed Trump an "evil genius." Trump is not an "evil genius", his only "genius" is in how thoroughly he's baited the paranoia of his opponents to the extent they look like rabid fools who are sitting around in a circle jerk self-confirming each other's opinions that Trump is an "existential threat." If I was a politician, there's nothing I'd like better than for my opponents to think I was an "existential threat" and then feverishly imagine every possible way their "evil" opponent might threaten their precious bodily fluids (in the immortal words of General Jack D. Ripper). So that may be "genius" but how "evil" it is, is relative to how deeply you've taken the bait. Did I miss it or did Bruce fail to mention that Trump has access to the Nuclear Football? How could he have missed that? He must be slipping, that one is a paranoiac's dream.

When the Congress attempted to impeach Trump, the reason they didn't try to use the Hatch Act or campaign finance violations or general government funding violations, or abandoning treaties, or violating the public trust, or undermining faith in elections is, they want to preserve those capabilities for a future Democrat President to make use of-- all Trump did there is follow the playbook set up by previous administrations and take the next logical steps-- he was just more overt about it than we've been used to. That then establishes a precedent of Presidential behavior that future Presidents of both parties will happily make use of, and they all will have Trump to thank for normalizing abhorrent Presidential behavior.

And all this has neatly eclipsed the fact that Joe Biden is everything I and a lot of other voters DON'T WANT in a President. Trump sucks, but he's largely incompetent. Incompetent at building his wall, incompetent at dealing with a pandemic. The only thing he's been GOOD at is pushing the boundaries, something no doubt Biden will make ready use of and the Democrats clearly appreciate. So those actions by Trump are undoubtedly bad things, but essentially he's just been doing the establishment's bidding-- backed by Congressional approval from both sides of the aisle pretty much every step of the way. Certainly all bad, but Biden is no improvement and JUST as dangerous because there has been NO punishment, and he will continue to foster a do-nothing Congress while giving away the store to the wealthy-- while all those who have taken Trump's bait will go back to sleep, leaving Biden the easiest Democrat candidate to beat in 2024 that the Republicans will have ever seen.

But here is what I think is happening-- Trump doesn't really want to be re-elected, it's too much work and he doesn't like work. What he wants is a pardon from Biden for any wrongdoings. He will use a questionably "fraudulent" election to negotiate for that. And he'll get it, because he is in fact, a good negotiator...