Image by GloriaAgostina from Pixabay
I have quoted from and posted any number of times an article by Ben Shapiro from before the 2016 election which compares uncritical Trump supporters to people in abusive relationships: “You Can’t Pretend Trump’s Flaws Away.” I have said, and still say, that it’s the best piece written at that time to explain the mindset that led normally sensible people to vote with enthusiasm for the man who now occupies the White House. Shapiro starts the article with a description of a friend who was dating a jerk. No one could convince her, however, that he was a jerk because she wasn’t in love with that real problematic person. She was in love with her fantasy version of him, and as long as that illusion persisted she simply could not be budged from her devotion. Then the great line:
It’s bizarre to realize that for large swaths of the Republican party, Donald Trump has become that abusive boyfriend.
I had said that I’d write a brief post on each point of a generic list of Donald Trump’s accomplishments that I’d recently been sent, but I’ve decided that it’s kind of a waste of time. I’ve written or posted about a number of them already, and the whole idea of rebutting this “Hey, Donald Trump has done a lot of good stuff!” is pretty well moot by now anyway, as it’s becoming quite clear that It Can’t Last. Every single day that passes the Trump Presidency veers closer and closer to the brink, whether of a forced resignation, or the start of impeachment proceedings, and/or the MOAB (Mother of All Bombshells) coming from the Mueller investigation. I think the first is going to proceed from the last, but we’ll see what happens. (To quote someone famous.)
Number Two on the Laundry List of Donald Trump’s Accomplishments
I’ve had a couple of people mention this program on Dec. 2, 2018, in which conservative writer Ben Shapiro interviewed John MacArthur on his weekly “Sunday Special.” Shapiro has a wide range of guests on this show, and this one has gotten a lot of buzz in the Evangelical world. So I decided to watch it, as I’ve done with some of Shapiro’s other specials. His podcast, “The Ben Shapiro Show,” heard every weekday, goes in and out of my “favorites” podcast playlist, depending on how shrill and obnoxious he is at any given time. I do like a lot of what Shapiro says, and I think he wrote the most incisive article of the 2016 election season, “
Am I pro life? You bet. When I became pregnant at age 41 with my son, the obstetrician suggested on my first visit that I get amniocentesis to test for Down syndrome so that . . . I stopped her. “I’m not interested.” She looked a bit taken aback. “But even if you aren’t going to terminate the pregnancy, you could know ahead of time about the child and be prepared.” Of course I still refused. “It won’t make any difference. And there’s a risk of miscarriage with that test.” She allowed as how that was true, and we went on from there. The subject was never brought up again. (That son is now earning an MFA in creative writing, by the way.)
How could all this have played out differently?
Not that anybody asked me. But here’s my take: I think it’s entirely possible that Christina Blasey Ford and Brett Kavanaugh are both telling the truth as they remember it. 
I had been thinking over the past months that I should write something about the conspiracy theory mindset that leads people to believe in specific conspiracies. There’s a difference here, and I don’t think I’ve ever seen this difference explained and explored. Now, with the newest wackadoodle thinga-ma-bob of “QAnon” that has exploded over the past few weeks, I’ve been given a renewed nudge.