Fixing a Whole

[malthaussen]

40. Oh, but of course.

But is Donald Trump really the opposition? Or is the opposition the gang of idiots running interference for him? In boxing, it is fairly simple: you have the boxer, and his trainer/corner man. Mr Trump has an entire apparatus working on his behalf. Whether they are working at his explicit direction is another question, but it's moot: their interests converge. As someone said upthread, it's no mystery what Donald Trump will do. (Well, I suppose the specifics may be mysterious, but there's no way to divine them, anyway) What he will get away with -- ah, now that's interesting! But to have an answer to that, short of waiting on events, we'd need an understanding of a much vaster system than just the workings of one human psyche.

It is interesting to me, in the context of leverage, that Mr Trump has gone to considerable lengths to piss off just about every institution in the government that he would need to support any overtly unconstitutional acts. Of course, he can't help it, he has no sense of self-discipline or long-term thinking. But he's injured a lot of people with very long memories. Given that most of his allies are in the Legislature, his leverage may be too limited to pull off some of the nightmare scenarios that people are cuddling to their chests.

Which is not to disparage that understanding of one human psyche. Many people are wondering about Mr Trump's brain, and what he will do next. My focus tends to be less on individuals, and more on systems, too, and on how patterns of behavior can tell us which way the cat will jump. However Mr Trump might wish to project whatever power he does possess, that projection has to be through the hands of others. To what extent those others will cooperate seems to me to be the question of most import.

-- Mal