Winners / Losers
I am aware of Trump’s inability to feel and to display empathy for the 122,000 deaths due to the pandemic and for the many Black men and women who have died at the hands of racist police officers. It was hard for me not to react. I would like to share a relevant, interesting article that analyzes and explains Trump’s beliefs: “Victor-in-Chief,” Finton O’Toole’s essay in The New York Review of Books in which he reviews Trump’s “The Art of the Deal.” The following statements are not direct quotes.
O’Toole states that Trump has two categories of people: life losers (hateful, negative lesser-breed) and winners (human, positive; a different species). Trump describes that his father gave him a good (great) brain, motivation and the benefit of his experience; unlike that of the haters and losers. Trump feels his political enemies are haters and losers.
O’Toole describes that Trump’s aversion to germs is well known; his repulsion over shaking hands and his scolding of a chief of staff for coughing. Trump explains that his germaphobia is rooted in his winners/losers concept. Losers are doomed by their negativity, of which germs are a physical manifestation. Infections happen to those who are natural losers. In the context of the pandemic, it’s really the losers who fall victim to the ravages of this virus. Winners are people who think positively and positivity repels germs. Trump’s world is divided into those who deserve to survive and thrive and those who do not.
This becomes his ideology of human sacrifice:
Let the Losers Perish!!!
O’Toole states that Trump can’t empathize with those dying of Covid -19. Trump attributes loser status to those who have died. He repeats that losers are contemptible, unworthy and ultimately unfit to live.
O’Toole emphasizes Trump’s need to prove himself “superior” to the virus (daily testing). This ideology trickles down to those who follow the party line. O’Toole rightly fears the mass psychosis of denial we are currently witnessing by the governing Republican Party and Republican voters.
I began to contemplate Trump’s reaction to the Russians paying to kill our soldiers. We know that he considers Putin a winner. Are deceased soldiers losers? He considered McCain a loser because he was captured by the North Vietnamese. Does Trump think he himself is a winner since he created a puppet Republican Party? Republicans do as he says or strongly defend his positions. He labelled Pelosi - his opponent - a loser.
What will happen, I hope, when he loses the election? Let the loser perish?
