Think back eight years.
It’s 2016, toward the end of the summer. Do you remember what was the most popular song in the nation?
No?
It was Drake’s “One Dance.”
Blink. Blink. Blink.
For those whose musical tastes swing further toward the pop-top dial on the radio, it might have been Justin Bieber’s, “Love Yourself.”
It’s true. You can look it up.
Long before any of us outside of Microsoft’s inner circles could even fathom what “AI” was, Donald Trump was actually the GOP nominee for president, and Bieber was singing softly in the background.
And look where all that got us.
In the last eight years, we have been drowning in a sea of Donald Trump. By 2020, the only thing still funny about Trump was the parody of his hair, his mechanical T-Rex arms and his nonsense on Saturday Night Live.
Jumping off the cliff of the pandemic, American voters in 2020 essentially chose “Anyone But Trump,” and the only one on the ballot was Joe Biden.
The song of the summer was DaBaby’s “Rock Star.”
Blink. Blink. Blink.
That was Roddy Ricch’s world of COVID masks lying in the grocery store parking lots, zombies and Black Lives Matter protests.
OK, how about Post Malone’s “Circles”and the Weeknd’s “Blinding Lights?”
I know. That was four years ago.
By the end of the summer, wide-eyed voters chose a nice old man over four more years of Trump’s White House reality show gone off the rails.
And now, here we are again. America is stuck in this endless fever dream of an elderly man that tints his face orange and says that Vice President Kamala Harris is faking being a Black woman is the top choice among Republicans to run for president.
No longer funny being parodied on late-night TV, Trump simply parodies himself.
“Has anyone noticed that Kamala CHEATED at the airport?,” Trump infamously posted on his home-brewed social media channel last week, falsely accusing Harris of using artificial intelligence software to pretend a crowd came to her plane during a Detroit campaign stop.
In reality, a huge crowd met her at her Air Force Two plane, documented by thousands of people and just about every national media group in the country.
He persisted.
“There was nobody at the plane, and she ‘A.I.’d’ it, and showed a massive ‘crowd’ of so-called followers, BUT THEY DIDN’T EXIST!.” he wrote.
“Look, we caught her with a fake ‘crowd.’ There was nobody there!”
He accused her of cheating the nation out of reality so intensely that it was “election interference.”
Blink. Blink. Blink.
Just a few days later, he fumed over a New York Times poll revealing that Harris had pulled ahead of Trump in key swing states. It mirrors other recent polls.
“The NYT/Siena Poll has way over sampled Democrat voters, and way under sampled people who voted for me in 2020,” Trump posted on his vanity roll earlier this week. It appears he was referring to the same election he lost by about 8 million votes. “The Fake News York Times insisted they do this so that it would look as bad as possible in comparison to their last poll, which was very good for me, way up, and made the very biased Times look ‘stupid,’ just like in 2016.”
Blink. Blink. Blink.
As my daughter would say when I rattle and prattle and make no sense to anyone else but me, “That’s a nice story. Do you need a nap?”
And still, this guy, eight years after the nation paid the price for “anyone but Hillary Clinton,” is about to have his name printed on every election ballot in the country.
But there’s hope. Really.
An Associated Press-NORC poll released yesterday reveals that when it comes to qualities that most Americans appreciate in a president, Trump loses bigly.
The poll reveals that about 75% of Americans think that Harris is essentially honest, and only 25% of Americans feel that way about Trump.
There’s more.
“Nearly half of Americans say that “committed to democracy” and “disciplined” are attributes that better describe Harris,” the AP wrote. “About 3 in 10 say these qualities better describe Trump.”
It would appear that eight years after we were humming along with Bieber and thinking, “there’s no way Trump will actually win in November,” we may be coming out of our national fever dream.
For the first time in a long time, not only does a majority of Americans know that Trump is a chronic liar and is rolling off the rails, but they care.
That’s good enough for me.
I’m willing to overlook the fact that 25% of Americans — one person with you in the elevator when the door closed with you and two other people — believe that Trump is an honest, trustworthy and competent guy who cares deeply about the nation and not himself.
Blink. Blink. Blink.
And if you’re that guy, and watching Trump inspires a sense of trust, credibility and reality, you’re scaring everyone else in the elevator.
For now, I’m good with news like that and listening to Harris and running mate Tim Walz appear in public without face-paint or abdominal constraints and waving T-Rex appendages, ranting about things so provably false that even toddlers listen to him and get that “blink, blink, blink” look on their faces.
I know. I know. We’re not there yet.
But just hearing that a majority of Americans even care about reality and honesty and adulting from their elected officials is enough to buoy me to Election Day.
And in the background this time? Hoozier is crooning, “Too Sweet.” Beyonce is rocking the summer with “Ya Ya.” and we’re all singing along with Shaboozey being “tipsy” at “A Bar Song.”
Cheers, America.
Follow @EditorDavePerry on BlueSky, Threads, Mastodon, Twitter and Facebook or reach him at 303-750-7555 or dperry@SentinelColorado.com
Dave,
Did you ever stop to think why so many people like Trump, and are willing to over look all of his lies and don’t care if he is a SCUMBAG?
Well, most are white guys and think this SCUMBAG is going to save their white asses, while the country gets more diverse. Good luck with that. He only cares about himself and crowd sizes.
Thanks for admitting your side hates white people, SCUMBAG.
My side? Another scared piece of Trump shit- “Too stupid to know
you are stupid”, probably with a single digit IQ. Just the kind of person your “Orange headed comb over Dear Leader loves.
If you think that any of the present presidential candidates are honest, then you are not paying attention. Both parties have given us candidates who would have been scorned when we believed in honesty or what is best for us as a country. It is questionable as to which side is more dangerous to democracy. Certainly, we cannot continue bringing in millions of people who strain all of our resources and many of whom will constitute a direct threat to our system of government. Europe has been warning us about the dangers of massive immigration for many years. Pay attention to what is happening there and what the average person is saying, not their politicians. For most of us, we would like to live in an orderly society, where we have liberties guaranteed by our constitution. We do not want to be dictated to as to religion. We do not want to have systems that are entirely corrupt as in many of the countries from which these people fled. We do not want gangs ruling our neighborhoods as in many of these countries. Our own minorities and poor will suffer as we strain to accommodate all of the influx. Our undermanned and poorly regarded police will become weaker and even less effective. Eventually, the police chiefs will succumb to the “silver or lead” threat and we will have no real police deterrent. We are all to blame for accepting the candidates that the two parties want to foist upon us. I don’t like the orange man either. I fear how much the radical ideas of the cackling Kamala will damage the future for my grandchildren.
Thanks for the long winded verbose diatribe of “the sky is falling”.
If you’re going to blatantly rip off the theme of Charlotte Alter’s tongue bath article in Time, at least give her credit for it.
I won’t be voting for Donald Trump or anyone that supports him. Being a somewhat goofy old man does not qualify one to be a high-level executive. (I should know, I am getting there myself) But not to worry youngsters, DT will soon be dead (as I will) and in a few decades will be forgotten. His fans may move on to some other screwball, but I doubt it. Americans tend to like their politicians on the conventional and likable side, and ones that don’t interfere with their ability to sell products and services at a good profit.
::states he supports politicians who won’t interfere with business transactions::
::will vote for a politician who just said she’ll implement price controls::
I didn’t state that. I mentioned that voters, in general, like candidates that they think will allow them to
sell products and services. The price of that product or service is your problem, not mine as the provider, except
if you don’t want to buy. If the price is controled and is seen as being cheaper than an uncontrolled item, it is likely that you will buy it. It’s up to me to make a profit based on that reality. If I need to maximize profit, I can always cut wages and benefits. Or, I could market my protect to those that are more successful than yourself, making the pool of buyers larger. You could start your own company and compete with me, but won’t do that, will you?
Imitating Kacklin’ Kammie’s word salads now, too, eh?
It’s okay. Being a loser is a tough thing to shake. I know from personal experience. You are aren’t stupid and if you put in the time and effort you could make a success of yourself. Best of luck to you.
” Being a loser is a tough thing to shake. I know from personal experience.”
Sounds like you’re still experiencing it.
Also, thanks for conceding the point.
You say, Mr. Perry: “American voters in 2020 essentially chose “Anyone But Trump,” and the only one on the ballot was Joe Biden.” ?!? That’s not how I remember the ballot I faced in November of 2020 here in Colorado. I’ll just have to scratch the Sentinel off the list of my sources of “credible, factual and truthful journalism every day” until you print a retraction listing the candidate(s) who made it onto the ballot in Colorado, or at least in all 50 states.
Don’t forget the blues guitar, “Going Down”