Republished with permission from Thom Hartmann

Americans are dumbfounded. How is it that half this nations’ voters are on the verge of returning to office a guy who:

• Began his life of crime busted for writing “C” for “Colored” on Black rental applicants’ forms,
• Mismanaged the Covid crisis so badly America had the developed world’s highest mortality rate with at least a half-million unnecessary deaths,
• Is credibly accused of sexual assault by more than twenty women (one 14 years old) and found by a jury—twice— to have raped one of them,
• Forcibly tore nursing babies from the arms of their mothers with almost a thousand of those children still missing,
• Solicited a billion-dollar bribe just this month and illegally took over $7 million (that we know of: the real number is almost certainly a multiple of that) from foreign governments while in office (Senator Robert Menendez was a slacker),
• Praised Nazis who marched chanting “Jews will not replace us!” as “very fine people,”
• Conspired with militia leaders to storm the US Capitol, leading to the death of 5 civilians and 3 police officers,
• Regularly quotes Hitler’s vicious, racist rhetoric referring to human beings as “scum” and “vermin” while claiming people of color “poison the blood of our nation,”
• Stole national security secrets and repeatedly lied to the FBI when we tried to recover them,
• Abandoned our Kurdish allies to Putin, leading to their mass slaughter by Russian troops and warplanes,
• Gave to Russia at least one spy we know of in an Oval Office meeting with that country’s foreign minister and US ambassador,
• Did his best to destroy NATO and hand Ukraine to Putin,
• Negotiated a deal to build an office/apartment building in Moscow that was to be executed a week after he took office and lied to the American people about it,
• Knowingly lied to the nation for almost four full years about having lost the last election,
• Called our fallen soldiers buried at Normandy and Arlington “suckers” and “losers” and ridiculed John McCain and every other American POW,
• Gutted the EPA and sold off public lands to drilling and mining interests who were greasing his party’s palms,
• Proudly packed the Supreme Court with people he hand-selected to end women’s right to abortion,
• Repeatedly violated the Hatch Act, using federal property for campaign and political activities,
• Is currently violating the Logan Act by interfering in President Biden’s foreign policy efforts,
• Praised the world’s worst dictators while trash-talking our democratic allies,
• Holds rallies in which he curses, using words that can’t be broadcast on TV or radio,
• Threatened the Georgia secretary of state with jail if he wouldn’t help overturn the 2020 election,
• Facilitated his son-in-law extracting two billion dollars from a murderous dictator,
• Gave billionaires a two-trillion-dollar tax cut that’s being paid for by raising taxes on working class people for the next few years,
• Promises he’ll be a dictator from his first day in office and will bring about a “Unified Reich,”
• Said he’ll imprison or destroy the media and those who criticize him, using language last attributed to Hitler,
• Slept with a porn star and a Playboy bunny in the months after his less-than-two-years-married trophy wife gave birth to his son and then paid them both to hush it up so he could get elected,
• Convinced China to give his daughter millions worth of trademarks while accusing his opponent’s son of corruption for taking a routine payment for being on the board of a foreign natural gas company,
• Used explicit Nazi iconography to label his political opponents,
• Tried to extort a foreign leader to manufacture dirt on his political opponent while withholding military aid to that nation as it was under attack by Russia,
• Collaborated with Putin to get elected and, when the FBI tried to investigate it, engaged in at least 10 documented felony obstructions of justice,
• Trash talks America’s criminal justice system, insisting he’s the victim of “racist” Black and Hispanic prosecutors and judges,
• Committed multiple campaign finance crimes,
• Convinced about half of Americans the country’s in a recession when in fact we’re in better economic shape than any time since World War II,
• Engaged in and was convicted for both tax and insurance fraud,
• Got multiple deferments to avoid the Vietnam War because he bought a X-ray of somebody else’s bone spurs from a corrupt doctor,
• Stole from a children’s cancer charity,
• Repeatedly joked about the assault and murder attempt of Paul Pelosi, implicitly encouraging his followers to commit more violence against Democrats,
• Was found liable for running a fraudulent university, and, among other things,
• Stole millions from his siblings and relatives and then pissed it all away by being an incompetent playboy businessman, having to declare bankruptcy six times.

Any one of these things would have destroyed a normal politician. Two or more would consign him or her to permanent political purgatory.

Howard Dean screamed. Larry Craig was busted in a mens’ room trying to hook up with an undercover cop. Gary Hart was photographed with Donna Rice on his lap. Mark Sanford ran off to Argentina with his mistress. Republicans claimed John Kerry faked a war injury (he didn’t). Adam Kinzinger and Liz Cheney dared criticize January 6th.

How, many Americans wonder, is Trump getting away with all this? I don’t know the answer, but I do have a few theories:

• What if it’s because the media loves Trump because his bombast, scandals, and lies deliver them clicks and views they can monetize in a way impossible for normal politicians like our current president?
• Could it be because rightwing social media and search engine billionaires along with China’s TikTok owners have rigged their algorithms to push pro-Trump and anti-Biden content?
• Maybe the media is so desperate for the billions in revenue they’ll get from a tight “horserace” election that they’ll do anything they can to hide Trump’s incompetence, hate, and crimes while raising questions about Biden?
• Or is it that Trump is a singularly brilliant politician, cut in the mold of historical demagogues like Huey Long and Adolf Hitler?
• Maybe Trump’s popularity comes from all of us underestimating how much racial and gender hatred has been simmering below the surface of America, just waiting for a politician who’d proudly go farther than Nixon’s “Southern Strategy” or Reagan’s “young bucks” and “monkeys” rhetoric?
• How about people fearful of economic uncertainty, climate change, and experiencing PTSD over the pandemic embracing a confident, self-assured sociopath, smooth as an oiled snake, whose lies slither effortlessly from his lips?
• Could it be that bullies and sociopaths identify with him and are thus drawn to him?
• Can one speculate that 1,500 rightwing radio stations broadcasting pro-Trump messages all day every day are having an impact? Amplified by Fox “News” and other right wing media willing to lie to the American people?
• What if Trump gets a pass because he promises more tax cuts and thus more billions in profits to the owners of big media, social media outlets, and TV networks?
• Maybe the flood of dark money from billionaires wanting more tax cuts and deregulation has reached a critical mass?
• Can we consider the possibility that the American public has just become so desensitized to Trump’s crimes that he’s established a new baseline for political behavior, which we’re now seeing acted out by Supreme Court justices and Republican politicians across the country?

Whatever the answer is, we’re seeing it play out daily in ways that are increasingly impossible to ignore.

In the most recent example, imagine if we learned this week that Joe Biden had lied and hidden some of the top secret documents he said he’d turned over to the FBI in his bedroom. It would be a front-page, above-the-fold story in The New York Times.

We just learned yesterday, however, that Trump did exactly that, but the Times inexplicably buried the story inside the paper under the misleading headline, “Trump Lawyers Accuse Prosecutors of Misconduct in Documents Case.”

Every day brings new examples of Trump getting away with things that would politically destroy any other politician; they’re far too numerous to list here. His political Teflon coating is at least a hundred times more effective than Reagan’s was in his wildest dreams.

So, why do you think Trump’s getting away with all these crimes and social violations?

Leave your ideas and speculations in the comments section…