(actually written on December 12th, 2016)
Like many, I’ve been spending more time than I used to reading books or watching shows that provide escapism for me. The more I learn about where our new president elect is thinking of taking us the more hopeless and even scared I get. This mentally ill pathological lier has built a coalition of loyal followers though. Even people whom you’d think had enough sense to never allow Trump to actually harm us have lined up to kiss his ring. I’m looking at you, Paul Ryan – and many others.
Then there are the true believers. 52% of Republicans now think Trump won the popular vote, when the factual number shows him losing by 2.8 million votes to Hillary (he lost by 10.64 million when including all the presidential candidates). This is among the least crazy things these people actually believe for some reason. Who are these people?
In my attempts to escape I ended up watching an “E True Hollywood Stories” episode that was basically a documentary on the making of Gilligan’s Island. In it the show’s creator Sherwood Schwartz tells of how the Coast Guard showed him telegrams they’d begun receiving about ten weeks into the show’s first season. The telegrams were from people asking the Coast Guard to save these poor people stranded on Gilligan’s Island.
Although I was watching the show to escape our new Trump infested world, all I could think was that this explains who these true believer Trump supporters are. Even though there’s a laugh track on the Gilligan’s Island TV show, even though each story plays out in a half an hour, including pauses for commercials. Even though one could assume there is a camera crew on the island with the seven castaways and these camera crews then somehow get these edited film pieces back to CBS studios to be shown on TV each week it would be the true believer Trump supporter who would be angry at the Coast Guard for not saving the movie star who always has a perfectly clean golden gown, the rich couple who apparently brought their whole wardrobe on a three hour tour, and the other charming, fun castaways.
