By Dr. David Laing Dawson
I apologize for obsessing about Donald J. Trump and the fate of American democracy.
It looks like, for the most part, we citizens of Canada are remaining sane, calm, and carrying on with our polite and respectful lives, while our leaders, for the most part, are doing all they can to insulate us from the ticking bomb south of our border.
We can ignore what’s going on down there and continue building our alliances, our trade, our shared humanity with the sane and mostly democratic nations of this world.
Various predictions for the U.S. of A. include civil war, a full dictatorship and oligarchy, disenfranchising the poor and working class but nonetheless remaining economically viable, growing racism until it becomes overt and actionable by an unfettered Proud Boys and ICE, economic collapse, chaos, loss of any leadership in this world, a pariah state, and then, maybe a rebirth, a new inclusive democracy with universal health care, economic justice, and a new respect for the rest of the world.
But here is the thing that worries me. This leader is not driven by ideology, no matter how perverse it might be. There can be no end point. Even becoming a monarch, a full dictator, winning a Nobel Peace prize, ruling from a golden throne, his name on every building and monument, being praised by his peers around the world, will not suffice. His psychopathology will continue. It cannot be sated.
His narcissism can never be fully satisfied. And his defense mechanisms, those brain distortions that allow him to feel at least a little equanimity, must continue to protect him from reality. Those are his externalizations, his projections, and his seeking of retribution.
So there cannot be a quiet endpoint.
Though many are pointing out his cognitive decline, that does not bring comfort. For with this decline, his basic traits will continue intact and perhaps distilled, as his judgement weakens, as his remaining rationality slips away.
And then what? For at that moment he will lash out in a way that could harm us all.
Though he is surrounded by men and women who have sold their souls, or at least their lips, perhaps some will finally see the danger in which he puts us all, and say NO.
It was a hot sunny day as I was writing this, and my son arrived with wife and daughter, and we ate smashburgers grilled on my BBQ, played some cards and talked and laughed. It stayed warm and still as the sun set and the solar lights came on. When they left we stayed outside, looking across the lake to the mountains. Marlaise poured me a glass of Canadian Bourbon, and I found on my Samsung Fold a video of Muddy Waters and a young Mick Jagger playing together, in 1981, alternating that opening line of “Baby, please don’t go.” Bluetooth relayed the sound through two good speakers, the air stayed warm, the land was dark and quiet. Stay in this moment.
