Evel Knievel used to tell a yarn about his “great great great great great great great great great grandfather,” who was dragged out into the middle of the Roman Colosseum and buried up to his neck. When Caesar arrived and took his seat, a lion was released.
More on that in a moment.
Gaping at the TV last week, I saw an Iowa evangelical minister declaring grandly that Donald Trump wouldn’t be getting his endorsement.
Why?
Because not one of his fine followers, no matter what they thought about Trump as a political leader, would want their kids to grow up to be like him, the minister said.
Oh, well that’ll shut Trump supporters up.
No Trump supporter would want their boss to be like Trump. Or their kid’s teacher. Or their doctor. Or anyone else important in their life, except maybe …
… their lawyer.
Yep, you might want a guy like that to be your lawyer, right? Because you want your lawyer to try everything, to pull out all the stops, set aside niceties in favor of a scorched-earth policy and do whatever needs to be done on your behalf to fight those bastards who you believe are trying to take away your shit—or who have already taken away your shit and are refusing to give it back.
Rarely do people fire their lawyer for being too aggressive, for pushing too hard or being too rude to the opposition—even their divorce lawyer, who is going to the mat against a person they used to love. Preferably within the confines of the law—but what do you know about the law? That’s above your pay grade.
As long as people feel (not think, feel) that modern politics can never be an essentially constructive, cooperative civic process, but is inevitably a desperate, vicious, animalistic fight against enemies threatening their way of life, Trump supporters won’t be put off by his excesses, they’ll be encouraged by them.
And they’ll be damned if they’ll replace him and take their chances with a polite Republican like Nikki Haley.
Anyway, that ole lion charged at the senior Knievel, but before he could maul him, Knievel turned up his head and bit the lion’s balls off. As the dentally neutered cat whimpered away, over the roaring crowd Caesar was heard to yell, “Fight fair, Knievel!”
And that’s how Trump people react when you, me or their own self-righteous evangelical minister tells them their guy has gone too far this time. As far as they’re concerned, he can’t go far enough.
He’s not their preacher, he’s their lawyer.
Good for us to keep that in mind, it seems to me.
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