Jack Tulloss: Welcome to the jungle

Before entering the Mos Eisley spaceport seeking an interplanetary Uber to Alderaan, Obi-Wan Kenobi cautioned Luke Skywalker, “You will never find a more wretched hive of scum and villainy.” Evidently, Mr. Kenobi had never been to Washington, D.C., and certainly not during a Trump administration. Donald Trump is a con man. Always has been and always will be. He is also a hollow man honeycombed with self-doubt, horror-struck at the thought of self-awareness, and using remorseless mockery of others as a psychological contrivance counterbalancing his moral and ethical impotence.

Think conscience-free Wizard of Oz in men’s 58-inch elastic waist pants. But give Donald his props. He excels at unearthing suckers. DJT, with the support of his stone-blind middle-class pigeons, the hard hats, the camo caps, the ill-fitting T-shirts, and most confusing, females sporting “Women for Trump” posters, pulled off his grandest con. Reelection. Relying on his one-size-fits-all racism, misogyny, xenophobia, and garden-variety fabrications, Donnie produced for his supporters a bedazzling contact high, closing their eyes to what lies ahead.

What lies ahead is a national economic hellscape. Trump claims to be a financial genius, but when he left office in 2020, he left behind the third-largest national deficit of any predecessor, attributable to his tax cuts for the nation’s wealthiest. And he is not done yet. During the campaign, Donald warned his gung-ho voters, a.k.a. unindicted co-conspirators, that, without blushing, he intended to grant another financial windfall to his affluent playmates.

The response from Trump supporters: “Who cares?” For those who thought they had it economically challenging under President Biden, despite all statistics to the contrary, hold on to your hats and wallets. Whether a financial obligation is individual, municipal, state, or national, bills come due. And when Mr. Big gives his billionaire buddies another grotesque financial gratuity, who will be left holding the tax bag? It will fall to the working-class burghers who bought into his con to make good on the nation’s debt. So Trumpsters, next time you see Donald and Elon on the news whispering sweet nothings to one another, remember, Donnie warned you

Jack Tulloss

Belchertown