As I see it - a Deep South high on Trump

They say it’s easier to come out as cross-dresser than to admit to being a Democrat in America these days. That’s a joke by a trans-gender comic.

But it is a scary truth.

Dems have been driven into the ground by the bellowing toxic fumes of the Trump steamroller. These blowhards are the new definition of bigotry, intolerance and stubborn ignorance. They are a seething hate fest directed against Hillary and all who would defend her. They also hate Obama with conspiracy-theory vigour and, of late, hate the entire Bush family who have fallen out of favour.

They are God-fearing church-going, gun-owning Christians. They are feeling empowered.

Wherever I go here in the American South, there are the Trump/Pence signs. On cars and in yards.

Trump is on media 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Hillary is nowhere to be seen.

Media discusses how “presidential” Trump has become.

Indeed, one can see the coaching as he delivers carefully prepared speeches in his new sanctimonious style - stentorian and smug.

He has been a good student. Now that Roger Ailes, he of the Fox News sexual harassment scandal fame, has come in to be the expert advisor, Trump’s style is newly tailored. Ailes is the man behind Fox News’ rabid rightism, which long has been revving this country into the state we now see.

Trump is a winner. He gets what he wants by any means available. He is prepared for work for it, since he really wants it.

I recently finished reading Trump Revealed by Michael Kranish and Marc Fisher, a pretty definitive and deeply-researched bio by Washington Post political journos, and it describes a lifetime of this pattern of winning at all costs. It tells of people and businesses lain waste, so to speak, by Trump’s business ambitions. It is a chilling read. Never has there been a phenomenon quite like this man. He is the ultimate ruthless narcissist and he is unfazed by details such as truth. Good liars, of course, not only create untruth, they believe it.

Trump is out on the hustings every day. He is saving America from everything. He is getting jobs back from Asia. He told Pittsburgh that he would revive steel industry employment. He perhaps had not noticed that post the steel industry, Pittsburgh has clean air and is now a city driven by education, technology, and the arts. I am not sure they want steel factories back. But it sounded good.

If he softens one attack on Hillary, he lashes forth with a new one.

Today she is somehow behind police brutality.

Of course, Hillary has done herself and the Dems no favours.

She has been in barricade mentality throughout and this alienates her from both media and the public.

She does not defend herself and her attacks on Trump are feeble.

They say her invisibility is all about preparing for the debate - but she is the professional politician and debate is second nature. She knows her stuff. It makes her sound afraid of Trump, that she needs to hole up and prepare to debate him. Another wrong stance.

Perchance she is resting to ward off the evil cough from the pneumonia. Many say she is really sick. I don’t believe that. We all get sick when exhausted and under stress. I’ve had that shocking cough, We all have. It is just bloody bad timing for Hillary.

She is beset by two scandals - the email server and the Clinton Foundation. The are attacked repeatedly by the Trump camp.

Hillary stays silent. Ostrich, head in the ground.

It is the old tough-it-out technique.

But I think she is ill advised. . She needs to be open and emphatic with the American people. Just as she should have admitted to catching a seasonal bug like the rest of the world instead of trying to cover up and ending up collapsing.

The Clinton camp paranoia is legend - and it is doing her such a disservice. I want to scream.

I really admire Hillary Clinton and I would like to see her doing better.

I am afraid.

I am staying with Bruce’s aunt Libby, a wise emeritus professor of history.

She, too, is shuddering.

“This country has been through some terrible times. It has survived an awful four-year civil war. It has survived the Depression. Many things. But, I am not so sure about this. It has never encountered anybody like Donald Trump running for president let alone with a chance of getting in.”

The Democrats I’ve met have been slack-jawed, aghast at the status quo.

They thought Trump was a joke. It could never happen that he could win. What the…?

But in these parts, there are not many Dems to meet.

Just this evening in this little valley of the Appalachians, the sound of shotguns rang out.

“Target practice. They don’t shoot that many times when they’re hunting,” said aunt Libby.

A bloke in a huge ute stopped on a backroad to say hello while we were out walking during a recent twilight. They are right friendly here in the South.

He was in full camouflage gear and a great big shotgun, also camouflage pattern, lay on the passenger seat beside him.

“Out to shoot the wild boar which are getting in to my fields,” he said.

A couple of nights later, while sitting on the porch of a neighour’s house, a fellow appeared from the mountainside carrying a massive bow contraption. He, too, was out hunting something or other. It was unclear. The weapon made me nervous. But he, too was right friendly.

These are the people afraid that Hillary wants to take away their guns. Of course, their fear is driven by a calculated propaganda push. Hillary has said she would like some gun control but she is too savvy to try to push the gun lobby too hard. The gun lobby just wants everyone to think she will de-power them because Trump has said he loves them.

Media runs Trump's every snipe and every fatuous claim. All day long.

The talk radio is exclusively right wing and so no question as to their endless anti-Dem vehemence.

I heard the Laura Ingraham show saying that they expected Obama to bring out the National Guard to impede the election. Huh? They make up this madness as they go along. They still think he is a Muslim. Their hated is inflamed.

The proprietor of a local bookshop asked me what Australians think about Trump and this election.

I said we were incredulous that such a megalomaniac could ever be taken seriously.

I asked what she thought. She said she was a Trump supporter.

Why, I asked.

“Because we want to have a businessman running our country,” she declared.

I suggested that she read the Trump Revealed bio. She won’t. She pooh-poohed the book immediately. Journalists lie, she said.

There is no comeback to this view.

Trump’s voters are not readers. All those wonderful articles in serious print media go unread by those who really need to know. They don’t watch political satire, either.

They are not interested in hearing anything negative about Trump. These people believe in him. He is their great white hope, their orange saviour.

Note: Trump images taken from the cover of the book.