My name is Erica and I’m a liberal Trump-aholic. Do I need to go cold turkey?

I want to get over TDD (Trump Derangement Disorder), but I’m an outrage junkie. .

This is the Snarky Sunday edition of Snarky Senior — the newsletter from Erica Manfred, which you can read about here. If you like it and don’t want to miss an issue, you can get it in your inbox by subscribing.

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As the election fades into the distance and more news is devoted to the grownups taking over the White House, instead of reading about Biden’s encouraging plans to rejoin the Paris Climate agreement or Fauci’s common-sense recommendation to mandate mask-wearing, I find myself searching for the latest Trump outrage. 

The questions still obsess me.  Will he or won’t he succeed in undermining the election?   Is he or isn't he going to fire Barr?    Is he going to hold an alternative inauguration for his 2024 run?  Will his Georgia rally help or sabotage the Republicans chances for the upcoming Senate runoff?   When will his Republican Party enablers finally admit he lost?  Are we still in mortal danger or aren’t we? 

So far I’ve been unable to move on.  I’m too hooked on the adrenaline rush of outrage every time I read about another Trump barbarity.  Biden is wonderfully sane—but that doesn’t do it for me. 

The pundits are all saying they look forward to being bored for four years, but I don’t buy it.  They’re hooked too. 

For four years Trump has provided a daily adrenaline rush for us all.  And a bump in subscriptions for newspapers and magazines.  Plus fame and fortune for writers of Trump tell-alls.

Admittedly, the rush is not exactly an upper, but it is energizing.  There’s not much excitement available during this pandemic outside of Zoom. So I follow the Trump follies.

 Like crack, I’ve grown to depend on that rush.  I look for it, feel empty without it.

Trump has also given us liberals a source of social bonding.  I know that trashing Trump’s latest violation of decency on my Facebook page will get lots of likes.  If I come up with an especially clever Trump-the-asshole meme, I’ll get even more.   There’s nothing more disgustingly thrilling, than sharing Trump’s press conferences—like the one where he suggest that injecting bleach might be a good cure for the Coronavirus, or that soldiers who died in wartimes were “suckers.”

His mob monikers for other politicians such as Crooked Hillary or Shifty Schiff or Sleepy Joe were horrifying.  Not even clever. The actual mob had much more colorful nicknames.  But what Trump’s nicknames lacked in cleverness they made up in cruelty, which is why the Apprentice was such a hit.  And why Trump is such a hit.  His fans got a thrill out of him insulting and firing hapless contestants.  They loved that he got away with it.   It’s why they elected him.

Truly cruel people who have no self-awareness or desire to modify their behavior are fascinating to us normal, socially inhibited, folks. Most of us spend our lives trying to be behave properly—to treat people fairly, to not hurt others feelings, to help the needy.  We’re taught the basics of socially acceptable behavior as children.  To see an actual President of the most powerful country in the world act like a mob boss, commit crimes in plain sight and run roughshod over all the rules of propriety is horrifying—but oddly exhilarating. 

 Like a train wreck, you can’t take your eyes off it.

I may despise their politics but I think I understand Trump supporters emotionally. He’s allowing their untrammeled ids to run roughshod over their egos. It feels good.  Trump’s anti-social, transgressive behavior gives them a vicarious experience of “winning,” an experience many of them never had in their own lives.

The vicarious thrill we get from criminals and murderers who get away with it—at least for a while-- seems to be baked into our genome.  Why do we love the Sopranos?  Or the Godfather?  Why do we obsessively watch true crime stories and podcasts?  Watching someone who kills or cons -- and doesn’t feel any remorse—is bewildering but also thrilling.  Murderers like Charles Manson, Jeffrey Dahmer, Ted Bundy, mesmerize us.  But even Bernie Madoff is a subject of endless fascination.   How can anyone swindle so many people for so long and get away with it?  As it turns out, Madoff doesn’t have anything on Trump in that department.

Trump hasn’t actually killed anyone, but he knows he could get away with it.  He’s said as much.  He’s gotten away with everything short of murder with no consequences—except of course losing an election.

Unfortunately it’s not only Trump supporters who are addicted to this aberrant clown.  It’s the rest of us as well, except we think we’re not. The liberal press has fed our addiction for the last four years. They’ve enabled Trump as well because he makes such irresistible copy. 

So how do we break the addiction?  I don’t have the answer.  Trump certainly won’t stop providing news fodder—in or out of office. 

 Maybe Mary Trump can help us.  She’s the only member of her family who has broken away from the sociopath in the family.    She’s coming out with another book.  I can’t wait.

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