Opinion – Bill Straub: Fathoming the unfathomable is just incomprehensible, no matter how you look at it

A lot of folks, and I include myself here, are concerned for the nation’s future should Trump win another four years in the White House. It hasn’t reached the realm of probability yet but it is certainly a possibility, having captured the Republican nomination without a sweat despite campaigning while he was under four criminal indictments containing a grand total of 88 counts.

It’s fair to say, even in this bothsiderism era that has handcuffed the media from pointing out that handing Trump the keys to the kingdom yet against is a crazy idea, that possessing a curriculum vitae of this nature wouldn’t usually prove conducive for any candidate seeking high public office. But in some Twilight Zone way it seems to be enhancing Trump’s electability, even among voters of a religious bent who usually consider it unseemly to lie, cheat and steal.

Trump himself once infamously said, “I could stand in the middle of 5th Avenue and shoot somebody and I wouldn’t lose voters.” Well, he hasn’t done that…yet…but he has raped a woman – as Ring Lardner said, you could look it up – and once acknowledged his way to approach an attractive woman was to “grab her by the…’’ and we’ll just stop there.

None of it has resulted in his electoral calamity.

And, listen, there’s so much more that should preclude this abomination from attaining the presidency or roaming in civilized society – we haven’t even arrived at him instigating an insurrection against the United States after his failed re-election bid – but his supporters couldn’t care less. If anything, they are becoming more rabid in their support of Trump rising from the dead, if you get the reference.

Kentucky is on the front lines, keeping with its switcheroo from Democratic partisanship to Republicanism and all the baggage that it carries. The Bluegrass cast 1,326,646 votes for Trump over President Biden in 2020, good for 62.09 percent. It represented the most votes for any candidate in any election ever staged in the Commonwealth.

By means of comparison, former President Bill Clinton, a Democrat, carried the state in 1996 with 636,614. Trump more than doubled that four years ago and there’s no reason to believe his performance will nosedive this time around.

Any Kentucky Republican politician who crosses the Trump orthodoxy can expect to find himself or herself all but drummed out of the party – ask state Sen. Whitney Westerfield, R-Fruit Hill. The Commonwealth’s GOP congressional delegation is falling all over itself pledging fidelity to the great man. Rep. Andy Barr, R-Lexington, has prostrated himself before Ming the Merciless in hopes of gaining his validation for a Senate run two years hence. Rep. Jamie Comer, R-TheFrankfortLoop, already a national embarrassment and the punchline to an endless stream of jokes, brags about his ties, going so far as to ignore Democratic pleas to use his position as chair of the House Oversight and Accountability Committee to investigate Trump enriching himself during his time in office.

Then there is Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell, of Louisville, a constant target of Trump’s ridicule whose wife, Elaine Chao, has been subjected to the former president’s racist rants. Mitch has likewise provided his endorsement, exhibiting the spine of a worm, knowing full well the hell a second Trump administration would offer.

So, what gives? Kentucky is a pleasant place whose residents are renowned for their friendliness and willingness to help out a neighbor in need. Why would so many support a misogynistic, racist bully who actively sought to undermine the government he formerly led, created doubts about the nation’s democratic system, used the White House for a personal investment account and totally blew the response to the COVID pandemic?

The answer, to borrow a well-known phrase, is blowin’ in the wind.

After all this time, I just don’t know.

But there are some grounds for speculation. There remains, in both Kentucky and the nation, a sizeable though dwindling number of racists and bigots. They would seem to be a natural Trump constituency. It’s been said, with good reason, that all Trump supporters are not racist (that should be a point of emphasis) but all racists are Trump supporters.

Stalwart Christian voters, and they are legion in Kentucky, seem to have embraced Trump, despite reservations, out of fear that their sincerely-held beliefs and, thus, their position, as well as God’s, in this world, are under attack, citing figures that show a decline in church attendance and religiosity.

Whether there is actually any organized effort to threaten a person’s belief in God is highly unlikely. But they’re concerned and Trump, perhaps the least devout president in the nation’s history – when was the last time he actually attended church? – has offered soothing words and promises of protection, although what sort of protections he can offer in a secular society are unclear.

But they have faith in him as opposed to his opponent, President Biden, who, along with perhaps George W. Bush, is the most religious president since Jimmy Carter. And they’re willing to set aside the discomfort Trump continually provides in order to protect religiosity in the marketplace.

But the biggest group might best be described as the White men strike back. Society is becoming more diverse with women and people of color playing more prominent roles. That naturally displaces some White guys who ran things even before the founding of the Republic.

As comedian Tim Allen once put it, “Men are pigs. Too bad we own everything.”

Owning everything is no longer so widespread. A lot of White men, it seems, are anxious about their elite status and Trump, through his rhetoric, enflames their anger and offers hope for a less diverse, more traditional universe.

There are, obviously, some women, Black and White, and men of color who support Trump for various reasons. Democrats are often accused of practicing identity politics, promoting Blacks and women. But the truth is Republicans practice identity politics just as much. It’s just that its constituency is White males.

In a weird way, it doesn’t much matter what Trump has done in the past. What is frightening is what he plans to do in the future if he returns to power — using the Justice Department to get revenge on his foes, initiating a more authoritarian government, implementing lessons he’s learned from his heroes Viktor Orban, the prime minister of Hungary, and Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, the president of Turkey, further undermining the democratic process and destroying NATO, thus threatening world stability.

That needs to be kept in mind.