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It really is amazing how much, in American political psychology, the last 9 years have been The Age of Trump. It's not that America's actual political policies have been dominated by Trump - I think for the most part, if you had no idea that Trump existed and just looked at what the American government does in terms of policy, you could easily believe that the last few Presidents have all been normal establishment types. But his presence in politics on an attention-dominating and psychological level has been massive. I don't know who the last American political figure was who had such a hold on the public mind both in terms of attracting love and hate. Bush was widely hated but was never loved in a Trump-like way except maybe briefly after 9/11. Obama was widely loved but most of the really emotional "hope and change" fervor that helped him win in 2008 went away when even his supporters saw that for the most part, he was a standard politician.
There's this comedian Rachel Feinstein who really nailed something I've noticed over the past few years. In maybe 2021 or 2022, she posted a clip where she was complaining about her extremely liberal mother who is constantly ranting about Trump and how wretched he is. "She'll be like 'you know, he's not my President' - like yeah mom, he literally isn't!" It's a trend I've noticed: during his administration, people got so into the habit of ranting about how much they hated Trump and how awful he was, that they kept doing so several years after he'd been out of office, reduced to the status of a private citizen, an ordinary rich guy with no political power to speak of (and not even particularly rich when compared to Bezos, Musk etc.). When I pointed this out to them, they would get very offended and meekly offer the half-hearted rationalisation "well he's going to run for a second term so we have to keep the pressure on" or something to that effect. I really can't think of any historic precedent for this: the second Obama was out of office, Republicans largely stopped complaining about him (aside from the occasional joke about "Michael" Obama): I really cannot recall interminable ranting about how loathsome Obama is from conservatives throughout 2017-9, while their preferred candidate was in office. TDS is the wrong term for this - Trump just defined the Zeitgeist in a way that Biden did not. I'm sure in the future, a lot of people will "remember" Trump serving two consecutive terms starting in 2016, and will have to be reminded that he only served one (much like so many people "remember" Tim Burton directing The Nightmare Before Christmas, and have to be reminded that it was actually Henry Selick).
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Trump linked the fire of Jeffersonian politics that is in the lineage of Jackson, Teddy Roosevelt, Huey Long and Reagan, burning away the soul of his fame and legacy to reignite the Kiln of the First Flame beneath the Washington Memorial to extend the Age of America.
Who stands in for Ornstein and Smough?
Ted Cruz and Chris Christie. (James Carville is Darkstalker Kaathe.)
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Yet, there are those who wish to cross the Rubicon, to feed the flames and let the last cinders burn, until nothing remains.
Get away from me, Kaathe!
The age of dark is not yet here!
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Is this supposed to be a reference to something?
To link the fire.
Couldn't you have just told me plainly that it was a Dark Souls reference, rather than give a vaguely-worded link to a youtube video?
I could have, yes.
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Praise the Sun.
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