Where Does Trump Go from Here?

Donald Trump's campaign would like to deny that the candidate was mocking the disability of a reporter whose recollection of certain disputed events differs from the candidate's own recollection. The campaign would prefer that one believe that the candidate does not know what the journalist in question looks like.

Oh, really? Because the exact words out of Trump's mouth before he scrunched up his right arm were:

“Now the poor guy, you ought to see the guy,” he said as he gestured, drawing condemnation from the Times and disability advocates.

Right. You ought to see the guy, like Trump knows what he looks like, and in case you don't...?

Tacky. But this is an interesting thing--why did Trump single out this reporter's disability? To discredit him. Why use this to discredit him? Because in Trump's mind, any weakness is to be exploited. Naturally. Of course the disabled guy's reporting is faulty. In the Trump regime, don't actually expect that weakness will be suffered or cozened. Actually, expect that if you have weakness, you are suspected of trying to weaken the entire corpus Americanus. There won't really even be a place for charity towards the ill.

What the hell does that sound like? See, when I hear "Make America Great"--in part I hear, "Make Americans Pure". And that purity might not entail someone you know.

Trump doesn't need "sensitivity training". He isn't being chided for being less than politically correct. He knows who the hell that reporter is, and he mocked him like a child who knows no better might mock someone before being advised that he lives in a world with a lot of other people of varying strengths all of whom have value. But he is not a child. And he shouldn't have to be taught like one.

There is nothing to rehabilitate in Trump. He just needs to be understood as being perfectly fine with the clamor of support he finds around him, and equally fine with jettisoning every useless person who clung on in the first place for their own varying levels of uselessness to him. He isn't against the Mexicans or the Muslims or whoever your grievance of the day is. He's against people who don't serve his present needs--and if you don't know that's you, that's your problem. But don't suppose he also doesn't have petty bigotries anyway. He might think they are luxurious great truths about people--they are as ugly as a racial slur spat out by a bigoted street person. And the sheets he sleeps on don't dress his bigotry up any.

The Kasich campaign, already knee-walking, has taken a swipe. If Jeb Bush was a good candidate, he'd already be trying--he has the money and connections, and knowledge of their existence should be all he needs to understand how to tap them. And I think we already understand what the other GOP candidates are.

There was a time when Trump could have been lampooned out of existence--but the GOP failed because they don't see the problem, and their base does not see the problem. And so many pundits don't see the problem . I think whatever he's channeling into right now, as a demagogic force, is chaotic rather than law-abiding, and divisive rather than civil.