This is the first purely vengeance campaign that I've seen in my lifetime. For all the comments about the effects of age on Biden, Trump is crazy. He lives in a fantasy world in which he simply makes up whatever he wants to be true. It cannot be said too many times how abnormal and bizarre his campaign is. And rather than back away from this insanity, the GOP is weaponizing it.In the bitter, sub-zero cold of Iowa, the bitterest candidate made clear to anyone who’s paying attention what matters most to him. On Sunday before tonight’s GOP caucus, Donald Trump—who’s pledged for months he’s out for retribution against his enemies this year and every year that follows—said this to his rally audience in Indianola: “These caucuses are your personal chance to score the ultimate victory over all of the liars, cheaters, thugs, perverts, frauds, crooks, freaks, creeps and other quite nice people. The Washington swamp has done everything in its power to take away your voice. But tomorrow is your time to turn on them….”
It's going to be a long, long year. As the article concludes:
Frankly, this willingness to overlook Trump’s degradations and desecrations by registered GOP voters from across the spectrum—people who refuse to take legitimate legal inquiries into his behavior seriously—makes this election season feel surreal. While much of the traditional political media is busy analyzing polls and assessing the candidates’ performances, they’re missing the real story. Trump is not really running for president: Rather, this criminal defendant is exploiting the political system to seek immunity, delay his trials until after the election and exact retribution against his enemies. This is not politics as usual, but fundamentally a crime story.
Yes, Trump is both a criminal defendant and a candidate for the nation’s highest office. That requires us to pay attention to the results in Iowa to remain informed. This dual track of Trump necessitates that we stay focused on how to keep him from succeeding at the ballot box. In fact, his abuse of our democratic and judicial systems—which is propelling his rise now—makes our responsibility more urgent than ever.
So let’s not get pulled into the horse race mentality that typically defines the presidential election season. While far too many of our fellow citizens refuse to accept the gravity of Trump’s legal and moral violations, I still believe we can make increasingly clear in the coming months how grim America’s future will be if Trump retakes the levers of power. The bitter, sub-zero cold of Iowa is a useful reminder of the cruel conditions that four more years of Donald Trump—and “beyond” as he ominously told an Iowa audience—portends.
