The Fear Matrix: The Horrors Were Not Unexpected

A few weeks ago, I read an interview with Stephen Colbert for Rolling Stone. On election night in 2016, Colbert hosted a live special on Showtime. Things did not turn out as expected.

Speaking of things being worse than you imagined, we got to watch you react in real time to Trump’s election on your Showtime special. How deeply shocked were you?

I know nothing, so I tend to believe the number-crunchers. I was shocked, and I was dismayed, bu I will say this: There is nothing that has happened since Trump became president that wasn’t in my fear matrix about him. Now, all the horrors that you can see dawning on my face on that Showtime special have only been borne out. Nothing about Trump and Putin, nothing about his caging children, nothing about him saying, “There’s good people on both sides.” Nothing about his handing the reins of power over to just a rogues’ gallery of anti-regulation, pro-pollution, anti-union, anti-women [officials] in any way surprises me. It’s all what I thought would happen. Which is why I was truly horrified.

For the full Rolling Stone interview with Stephen Colbert, click here.   



But consider what Stephen says here: "There is nothing that has happened since Trump became president that wasn’t in my fear matrix about him."

That night in November 2016 hit me right in the gut. I'm not exaggerating, I really felt like I was going to throw up as the news came in, the cold dread that uncoiled inside of me as the terrible realization sunk in that Donald Trump was going to be the next President of the United States.

 I've never felt that way about a Presidential election before. Oh, I may have had some concerns. I remember in 1976 thinking that Jimmy Carter seemed a little too homespun, too naive to be the President but I never doubted his intellect and I never doubted his compassion for the American people. I was worried that Bill Clinton may have been a bit too young, too inexperienced to be President but I never doubted his intellect and I never doubted his compassion for the American people. I may have in fact doubted the intellect of George W Bush when he was elected but I never had cause to doubt his compassion for the American people.
 For whatever doubts I may have had about any perceived shortcomings about an incoming President, I had faith it would all work out. 

 I did not have one iota of that faith on the fateful Tuesday night in November in 2016.

  America had elected the absolute worst person for the job.

 The thing is, this is NOT hindsight. Every single bad, incompetent, ill conceived, small minded, evil thing this heartless son of a bitch fucking moron has done has checked off a box on a list that unfurled from my brain as the last delegate total came in and the news networks announced this fucker had won the White House.

Before:   
It was clear as day that Donald Trump lacked any significant intellect or any interest in learning about anything.  

Now:   

White House Chief of Staff John F. Kelly says Trump is  “an idiot" and it's “pointless to try to convince him of anything.” 


Yeah, I saw that coming.  

Before: 
Trump was mining fears and hatred rooted deep in racism. 

Now: 
Trump said “both sides” at the Charlottesville white supremacist rally were to blame for the violence that occurred in August 2017. 


Not a surprise. 

And after his advisers urged him to maybe try that again, Trump described the speech condemning white supremacists and neo-Nazis  as "the biggest fucking mistake I’ve made". 


Yep, saw that coming.  

Before:
Trump expressed total disrespect for anyone he perceived as an enemy and was fully ready to lie to bad mouth someone.

Now: 
Trump falsely suggested Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) cowardly took advantage of his father’s military rank to get early release from a prisoner-of-war camp in Vietnam. The truth of the matter was the actual opposite. While McCain did have an early out from captivity due to his father's rank, McCain pointedly rejected in deference to fellow prisoners.  


Yeah, that seems like Trump to me.

Before:
Trump berates immigrants as being the worst, riddled with murderers and rapists

Now: 
Trump supports a zero tolerance policy that separates children from their families. Even legal immigrants are being targeted, looking for loopholes to send them back.


Anyone surprised by any of that? Not me.


We could play this game all day.


There is no depth of incompetence or depravity that Trump and his cronies can reach that wasn't telegraphed with terrible clarity in advance.  


Whatever chaos and utter wrongness is spinning out of Trump's White House at any given time, these horrors were not unexpected.