How Would You Feel If You Were Convicted of 34 ‘Minor’ Felonies?
Stop pretending this guy is not in trouble.
Artist: Edel Rodriguez
A coddled billionaire who didn’t earn his fortune and who has never been told what to do, covered up his dirt to mislead voters and finally got caught. Aside from wondering if he actually knows how serious this is, ask yourself what is going on in his head.
The man may or may not be intelligent by normal standards but he navigates the world pretty well. You would too if daddy gave you $400 million when you were in your twenties after you had done nothing to deserve it (his actual history, not his made up history).
Btw, that enormous gift was his dad’s scam to avoid inheritance taxes, another story.
Money at that scale makes life pretty seamless. We used to call it being spoiled, as in ‘spoiled rich kid’. But there is a point where reality has a way of interrupting the game. You know, terminal illness, death, getting convicted of 34 felony crimes…
He played at being President, the uncrowned king of the world and he wants his toys back. The adoring crowds, the helicopters, the concentrated attention he craves and cannot live with. Now he faces the reality that all that could go away in just a few weeks.
Have you ever lay awake at night worrying incessantly about something that might happen? It’s a terrible feeling but he is not waiting for it to happen, it has happened. And he has no mental preparation for something as serious as this.
No one has ever denied him anything.
But think about this. In prison you do not have free access to a phone or internet, especially in the middle of the night. As a felon, there are lots of things you cannot do and places you cannot go. Now, as a multiple convicted felon, even if he does not go to jail, his life will be different. As it should be.
Unless you vote for him and he becomes President again. Then he will get back at the world and you might think about what that would mean for you, your kids, and your grandkids. The spoiled rich kid is bad news and he is going to throw the tantrum of all tantrums. No one should want to be around for that.
A significant part of this country, your neighbors and friends, are conveniently ignoring this reality, or so we are told by polls and pundits. A favorite op-ed writer of mine, Jennifer Rubin of the Washington Post, a lawyer and former old school conservative, has a different take on this.
She thinks we are all too focused on the men and not looking at what they represent in the future. Both are old, but one understands the reality of the world and is trying to improve it. The other is simply trying to save his own ass and find a way to be the biggest bully on the playground, again.
I don’t know about you, but if this is our choice, I don’t have to think about it. Criminal old man or experienced leader who has been through hard things in life, harder than most of us can comprehend, but survived and became President?
It may not be the choice you want, but it is the one we got and it’s not a hard one. So wake up. And think a little bit about what Donald Trump is thinking about all the time. It’s not being President, it’s being in a jail cell with no one telling him how wonderful he is.
Then thank yourself that you have not committed crimes and been caught, because it might drive you mad. Then watch one of his speeches.
Martin Edic writes the mostly daily publication The Witness Chronicles, a place for his articles on politics and climate.