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The United States of Delusion
We’ve long been dazzled by grift, so we shouldn’t be surprised we found a President in Donald Trump
If you have ever asked yourself, “What the hell does anyone find to admire in Donald Trump?” rest assured, you’re not alone. How does a compulsive liar with a history of rampant fraud and serial bankruptcy, who prides himself in not reading become President of the United States? Many of us ask these questions. Daily. Many, but apparently, not enough. As we advance inexorably towards November in this pleasantly symmetrical year of 2020, the question is “Why aren’t there more of us?”
Why, instead, do so many of us remain so credulous? How did we elect this snake oil salesman to the Presidency?
A recent, relatively small development serves as a typical enough illustration for explaining why.
Last November, we learned about Trump’s new “faith advisor” Paula White and her remarkable background. A flashy, bombastic TV evangelist, White teeters dangerously near parody, more so than many others in the parade of rather deranged evangelicals Trump has at his beck and call — Franklin Graham, Jerry Falwell Jr, Betsy Devos, etc. At the time of her appointment, the progressive news organization NowThis circulated a supercut highlighting some of her more bizarro…
