The Face of Sore-Loserism

Rather than face the truth, as dealt to him by the voters in November's first week, President Donald Trump descended into his convenient world of alternative facts, to stew in his own juices. While he was at it, blocking the General Services Administration from declaring Joe Biden to be the president-elect was probably soothing, at least to some degree. 

We can only guess how thoroughly Trump had convinced himself he was going to win. But holed up in his fit of fantasy, bouncing between depression and desperation, anything that could soothe Trump's sorry state of mind had to have been irresistible. 

Instead of seeing the voters had simply rejected him, he had to see skulduggery -- his presidency was being stolen by Trump-haters! In his twisted view only a massive voting fraud could explain what went wrong with his reelection.

At some point well into November, reports suggest Trump's overwhelming malaise subsided enough to allow him to focus on how he would play his cards. Then Trump could see that in keeping with his promise to "Make America Great Again," going forward, his heroic mission would be to bamboozle and motivate his most gullible and dear fans like never before. Embracing that uplifting thought he might have winked at himself in the mirror. 

Next came the lineup of horribles -- the elected Republicans who would willingly buy Trump's stolen-election contrivance. Once that nice piece of campaign propaganda strategy-realized fell into place, Trump knew he had cooked up a victimhood stew that would sell.

Thus, Plan A called for Trump to dispatch his team of lawyers, headed up by Rudy Giuliani, to file a blithering series of challenges to the election results in selected states, without assembling any evidence to back up the accusations. 

If nothing else, Trump must have figured Giuliani's evil clown act would goose the public's interest in his mission to save the country from ruin by protecting his presidency.

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Back to reality: To date, none of that scurrying between courthouses has paid off. It seems the conservative Supreme Court has wanted nothing to do with Trump's fundraising campaign. 

Undaunted, Trump was already into rolling out Plan B: Twisting the arms of Republican state legislators and attorneys general, to force them to ignore the official voting results in selected states.    

Then, on Dec. 14, 2020, the Electoral College did its duty, which turned Trump's heap of unsupported claims of election fraud into yesterday's bullshit. Still, wasn't the collection of stunts also designed to boost Trump's most loyal and deluded followers into acting upon their "stolen election" anger?

Therefore, Plan C must include addressing the Mad Don's list of payback priorities. Which means anything that helps to quench his thirst for revenge, especially to do with what the "pussy hat" Resistance movement did four years ago, is a good thing. So sabotaging Biden's inauguration cheer must be high on the payback list. 

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Until the 45th president came along, it had been unthinkable that an American president would attack democracy, itself. Yet, truth be told, there's been no real surprise to any of it. 

After all, this president has publicly mocked a handicapped reporter and bragged about it. Kidnapping and caging small children hasn't appeared to bother him. He has openly relished the support of white nationalists and such. Accepting no blame for his integral part in spreading the killer virus, he routinely shrugs off the nation's countless COVID-19 deaths. And, remember, he said many times he would do pretty much what he's been doing. 

Meanwhile, lots of pundits are parroting the opinion that as an ex-president, Trump will remain in place as the top dog of the Republican Party. Furthermore, that he's the GOP's 2024-nominee-in-waiting and so forth. However, his bumbling, annoying efforts to overturn the results of the election have been impossible to ignore.

Whatever they make of it, Americans of all political persuasions have witnessed the folly. Consequently, Trump has been exposed as a poseur and a loser.

Make that a sore-loser. 

Therefore, now my guess is Trump's true potential as a Republican Party king-maker and/or a TV network boss in 2021 is going to be severely hobbled by his damning history. Don't forget his ridiculous venture into the casino business. Then there was the Trump University scam with its humiliating lawsuit settlement, etc. How will the large debts still dogging him play out? Then, there are his tax problems and the lawsuits waiting for him. 

OK, I realize we've all seen Trump dodge the bullets of accountability so many times we've come to expect his self-dealing and abuse of the courts will never be checked. Still, given the monumental failure of his attempted coup d'état, my expectation is that Trump's future as a celebrity ex-president/traveling medicine show fundraiser is going to be marked by a descent into legal troubles aplenty. 

That, rather than another glorious ride down the golden escalator to claim the power to shape reality for the masses. The power to cow senators. Power!

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Please don't get me wrong. Just because I'm anticipating that Trump's influence and prospects will shrivel next year, I'm not suggesting that trouble from the shenanigans of his militant devotees won't erupt in the weeks and months to come. Nonetheless, as the days go by in 2021, with such a grievous loss of power gnawing at him, isn't it likely Trump's craziest days are yet to come? 

Who knows? Perhaps before he's fitted for a straitjacket, Trump will overplay his hand by shooting at somebody in the middle of 5th Avenue ... and missing. 

Bottom line: Becoming the face of sore-loser-ism is what fate awaits the Mad Don. 

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Words and art by F.T. Rea (all rights reserved).