I get it BUT...

Garrison Keillor is, very kindly, concerned about Cheeto Jesus' future. In the Chicago Tribune, he says (amongst other things):

I worry about Donald Trump. What is he going to do? He has damaged his brand. The steaks, ties, home furnishings, fragrances, whiskey, resorts, condos, golf club memberships — when you associate yourself with white supremacy, male chauvinism and invincible ignorance, this is not smart marketing. He can't go back to the Tower. Manhattan is about 83 percent Democratic. Why live among people who don't appreciate you and ride around in a black limo with smoked-glass windows through crowds of pedestrians giving you the finger? It's no way to live.

He concludes that, after Trump’s inevitable loss, the Angry Creamsicle ought to move to Nebraska where, right now, he’s leading two to one.

Ya know what information this election’s giving me? Yup, a map of where in the US I should never set foot. I just can’t envision feeling safe enough to holiday in these places.

Nebraska, Kansas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Alabama, Wyoming and West Virginia are solidly in the no-go column for visitable states. Mind you, I’ve been to them all already except Wyoming. There’s nothing I want to see in any of 'em (except...except the Field of Empty Chairs looks amazing).

I know, I know, there’s beauty and cool, intelligent people who live in these blindingly red states. There really is. I get that.

Naturally, this brings me ‘round to the article in Cracked which Jim Wright of Stonekettle Station recommended, How Half Of America Lost Its F**king Mind by David Wong. The column is an attempt to explain why the hinterland Trumpers support this racist, misogynistic, not over bright, born-in-a-money-patch-and-thinks-he-got-there-through-his-own-hard-work, entitlement-mad, coked up orange hellbeast.

The thrust being:

The rural folk with the Trump signs in their yards say their way of life is dying, and you smirk and say what they really mean is that blacks and gays are finally getting equal rights and they hate it. But I'm telling you, they say their way of life is dying because their way of life is dying.

Yes, very true – I understand this. HOWEVER, while the article gives a picture of the desperation and angst of the ex-factory workers, ex-coal miners, ex- steel workers whose jobs were all exported to China and Mexico, Wong does not explain how these same people fall for the Republican/Tea Party lies, the slight of hand which authored their losses and struggles.

It feels good to dismiss people, to mock them, to write them off as deplorables. But you might as well take time to try to understand them, because I'm telling you, they'll still be around long after Trump is gone.

Again, very true. Is there any way to educate the masses so they understand they’ve fallen for a giant con? Do they want to see how they’ve believed lies for most of their lives? Boyhowdy, that’d be one helluva rough awakening, wouldn’t it?

You take the blue pill, the story ends. You wake up in your bed and believe whatever you want to believe. You take the red pill, you stay in Wonderland, and I show you how deep the rabbit hole goes.
~ Morpheus, to Neo in The Matrix

John Cole of Balloon Juice took the Red Pill long ago and kindly explained. 

It’s easy to say- BUT I SAW THROUGH ALL THE SHIT WAY BEFORE THAT, WHY DIDN’T YOU?

Josh Barro, senior editor for Business Insider, just recently switched too. His reason for being a Republican for so long, despite all the insanity, seems to fall in line with the flaming canard that the GOP is the party of good business and economics. Ummm, nope – that's more of that slick grifter action for ya.

All the lies, distortions and damned lies somehow became self-evident truths to the deperately deluded.

If you repeat a lie often enough, it becomes the truth.
~ Joseph Goebbels