High Plains Grifter

The view Republicans have of themselves--as outsiders and as the brave, ethical, reluctantly renegade and brutal enforcers of a true moral code in the face of a corrupt system--is laughable and tragically unconnected to the truth. They are the insiders, the owners of the corrupt system, and criminals, cowards, thugs and crooks.

The con-artist Trump rides into town on a wave of bullshit. He's the righteous rebel with a few, forgivable rough edges, like an occasional sexual assault, but he will set things right and make America great again. Woe to those who get in his way. Unconstitutional and extrajudicial means are now normal and justified by the crisis.

It's a delusion. The rest of us might as well go to the movies--to escape not from but into reality, if we choose our movies well. But stay away from Clint Eastwood, another rich Republican with a romantic view of himself and his head up his ass. He conveniently forgets how lucky he's been and how much he owes to the system.