What will the country look like in a year? Here's the best case. By Hal M. Brown

I see the chance that Trump will have mellowed to some degree if, as I hope happens, he’s had his sadistic streak somewhat sated.

Last night a friend asked me what I thought would end up happening over the next year. I didn’t have an answer. I thought about it and come up with today’s Substack

I see two elements to consider when I try to answer the question shown above.

One, probably the major element is based on my understanding of Trump’s personality. I’ve called this “his psychopathology” though basically his personality is fraught with psychopatholgy, however each and every person has a personality. Some people are lucky enough to have more or less healthy personalities, others struggle with self-doubt and inscurities, others have diagnosable psychopatholgies like depression, anxiety, or being too obsessive, and still others have disorders which lead them to hurt others. These include narcisstic personality disorder or antisocial personality disorder, the latter often refered to as being sociopathic.

The second is based on what happens outside of Trump’s mind but causes him to react. The major ones follow:

The outcome of the elections, mainly in Congress, but to a much lesser extent in state governorships, will determine whether laws will be passed that thwart Trump’s agenda.

The decisions of the Supreme Court may put a damper on his attempts to be the sole arbiter of how the country is run.

The reactions of the public may become so overwhelming as they protest in pubic demonstrations that Trump is faced with the decision whether or not he wants to go full bore ruthless as a dictator using violence to put them down.

The screw-ups by some of his appointees and the failures of their policies may be so egregious that he fires them and modifies and reverses their policies. I see RFK Jr. as being the most likely to bite the dust first because contagious diseases are apolitical.

If his trade war doesn’t achieve his desired bragging rights it may simply quietly go away.

Trump’s big, bad signature juggernaut is his demonization of brown-skinned Hispanic people, non-citizens who he is hellbent on rounding up and sending to other countries. Trump not only doesn’t care about the criticism leveled at the mistakes his masked marauders make, he probably takes the “on ne saurait faire d'omelette sans casser des œufs” attitude, or in English “you can't make an omelette without breaking eggs” attitude.¹

Now that I think of it, this metaphor can be applied to much of what Trump thinks. On a personal note, when I woke up an hour ago and hadn’t even gotten out of bed I was thinking about making an omelette for breakfast. Before I put this online I’m going to do this and use a photo of it for my illustration. There are good omelettes and bad ones. Mine was delicious.

Trump’s omelette can’t be good since the eggs are tainted because they come from angry chickens.

What does all this add up to looking forward a year from now?

I envision Trump as having turned the country into a moderately miserable place to live for freedom loving people who are lucky enough to be White, Black, or Asian. I see it as a massively miserable place to live for people whose skin color is an Hispanic looking brown.

I see the chance that Trump will have mellowed to some degree if, as I hope happens, he’s had his sadistic streak somewhat sated. If he feels firmly secure in his role as the decider-in-chief he may decide that when it comes right down to how he wants to spend most of his time. Instead of performing in front of cameras and picking on reporters or playing world leader overseas he may feel he has better ways to occupy his time. In other words, he may say to himself, fuck this governing shit, I’d rather be playing golf.

Read my previous Substacks.

These are the most recent Substacks (not Sunstacks)

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1. In order to achieve something, it is inevitable and necessary that some mistakes are made or some sacrifices must occur. Reference