KISS

 KISS is an acronym for keep it simple, stupid.

It dawned on me today, that Donald Trump has been employing this philosophy for all of his political career, and perhaps even longer.

While Trump has focused his message on a number of topics, immigration, China, and law and order among others, there was always a key thread running through his campaign, and his presidency.  US vs Them.

If you recall, he first made headlines in the political theater when he popularized, and became the spokesperson for the birther movement.  Whether on far right talk shows or the more mainstream Fox and Friends, Trump claimed that Obama was not born in America.  He demanded proof via a birth certificate, then claimed it was fraudulent, once it was published.  Regardless of his never producing any proof of his claim, he sowed the seeds of doubt in a significant percentage of Americans, especially those who were already primed to receive such a racist message concerning the first African American President, that so resisting Obama at every turn was not only the right thing to do, but the patriotic thing to do.  

Then, during his campaign, he continued to stoke the US vs Them power by reminding his followers how much crime emanated from the illegal swarm coming from Mexico, justifying his Build the Wall idea.  It didn't matter that a large percentage of that swarm were children, or that statistics showed that illegal immigrants committed less crimes on the average than Americans, he never relented.  And, while it didn't get much play on his state run TV station, he also slashed legal immigration, removing the basis for so many defenders of his racist policies.  Sadly, those defenders never realized that they supported an immigration policy that would have kept their own ancestors from becoming part of the American tapestry.

But no topic better illustrates the keep it simple, stupid philosophy than his view of elections.  Even before 2016, he assured his cult that he would win, and that a loss would only be because of fraud and cheating.  Oddly, when he did win the electoral college with narrow victories in Michigan, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania, he still claimed voter fraud, claiming he won the popular vote as well.  The fact that the commission that he authorized found no evidence of massive fraud, did not deter him from using the same strategy for 2020.

What was brilliant about this year, however, was that as the president, he could influence the postal service by attacking its competence, and placing one of his stooges in charge of it, while claiming that mail-in votes would delay the declaration of a winner of the November election.  Additionally, when many states sought to legally expand their mail in voting process, he made sure that the legislators who knew that their constituents wanted safe, mail-in voting, also put restrictions on when the ballots could be tallied, which, of course, resulted in a delayed determination of the victor along with a plethora of conspiracy theories that votes were either altered, changed, fraudulent, or just shouldn't be counted at all, depending on which state's results did not add up to a Trump win.

All the while, US vs Them.  True Americans vs socialist democrats, patriots vs America haters.  

Seekers of law and order and the truth, using lies and conspiracy theories (like the one that claims a connection between Dominion voting machines and Hugo Chavez), to further cement the US vs Them divide that has millions of Americans doubting the veracity of the democratic process in a country that they continue to believe is the greatest country ever, in history.

I guess it doesn't dawn on them that a country that has rigged elections, a federal law enforcement organization that is rife with law breakers, a Congress of which half its members hate America and/or are closet communists, (or who eat children if you are a QAnon fan), a Supreme Court filled with cowards, a federal bureaucracy run by the "deep state", whatever that is, and a free press that is the enemy of the people, can't be in the running for greatest country today, let alone ever.

At this point, even those who have defended him in the past, Republican elected officials, his own Attorney General, a number of judges he appointed, all of them are off the US team and part of the ever growing, all encompassing Them conspiracy to steal the victory from US.  Sadly, US has long ago become him, it is just that those who believe in him haven't figured it out yet.

And then there is the pandemic. I have a relative who thinks that Americans who wear masks are sheep for following the guidelines put in place to slow the spread of a virus that has killed more Americans than any event since the pandemic of 1918-20, and has created a daily death toll that has surpassed that of 9/11 a number of times. See link below, which, unfortunately, if it were updated, would include a few days since that article.

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/deadliest-days-american-history-single-week-coronavirus-pandemic/

He is a victim of KISS, ignoring all the grim statistics because he believes the simple message that Trump has voiced, we are on top of it, we have done the best job in the history of mankind, we are turning the corner, it will all be forgotten after the election.  A true sheep being led to slaughter by the ultimate con man. Trump downplayed the virus by his own admission, then turned his simple sheep against the very policies that he refused to take to save their lives, knowing that his simple message could be turned against the Democratic officials who did their best to save the lives of those in their cities and states.  He even held rallies that he knew were dangerous, even events at the White House that sickened him, his family, and innumerable people whose only mistake was being employed at the White House or assigned to guard someone who did not care about their welfare.

It is evil genius, simple, effective.  So much easier that understanding that a novel virus takes time to research and understand so there may be times that medical advice might be altered or adapted to the new data.  So much easier than understanding the basic foundations of American democracy that prescribe the process of a peaceful transfer of power precisely because so much of mankind's history is filled with power transfers that required horrendous bloodshed and suffering.  So much easier than thinking.  Especially when thinking involves calculating how we are going to return to normal if people all around us are getting sick and dying.

Perhaps then, it is time to propose our own KISS theory.

Personally, I would like to see all the "essential" workers who make less than $15 per hour, or have scant of no health care benefits, or need to work 2 or 3 jobs to make ends meet, to all stay home for a month.  Of course, they can't because they don't have large stock portfolios or tens of thousands of dollars in an emergency fund, but it would sure be nice if it were simple enough that when our child care centers close, there are no more fast food outlets, no department stores, no one to take our online orders or deliver our online food, no lawn cuts or snow removed, and much less food on the table since the agriculture and meat packing industries aren't well known for their treatment of their workers, people realized that the policies that would actually help Americans, are not US vs THEM driven but WE ARE IN THIS TOGETHER driven.

Or maybe just this.  Before you open your mouth, politician, pundit, talk show host, social commentator, tell us how many people we should sacrifice to save the economy, and how we should decide who to let die.

In the end, what is more realistic?  That state voting officials of both parties, the Supreme Court of the United States, the now resigned Attorney General, and the state and federal judges who almost unanimously threw out the various suits brought by Trump to challenge the results of the election, all conspired secretly to create a Biden presidency, or that Donald Trump is a sore loser?

Keep it simple, stupid.