"Is Donald Trump an aberration or a symptom of a deeper US malady?"

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Trump is a symptom of something deeper. He would have never been elected in a well educated, well functioning nation. Trump supporters aren't big on research and deep thought. If one scratches the surface, they would find a failed businessman, who demonstrated his cowardice when called to serve his country in active duty military, squandered hundreds of millions in failed business ventures, and been found guilty of fraud on more than one occasion. Trump supporters fell for a racist, sexist snake oil salesman in an expensive suit, and can't bring themselves to admit they were wrong.

@mchill said
Trump is a symptom of something deeper.

That's only half the truth. He and his libertarian cronies are also one of the major causes behind the deeper problems. He didn't jump on someone else's bandwagon - he built part of it, pushed it along, and only then jumped on.

@Duchess64
Magister dixit.

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And there are many in our own Debates Forum exactly like him.

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Don't be a $#&*(# 1d!ot. Trump couldn't make it past half a page... Jeez, what am I saying!? Trump couldn't make it past half a sentence of Chomsky! In which, at least, you're better than he is - you would make it past the first page.

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My point, near exactly.

YouTube

This was on Colbert’s Late show.
It’s an interview with people from Showtime’s “The Circus” (I don’t know what that is or who these people are).

It’s only 6 minutes or so. But it gives a good impression of where the US and the Republican party is at this moment in time.

And it is not a healthy situation.

Basically, what’s being conveyed is that the trump delusional paranoia which has a load of MAGA-supporters living in some sort of alt-reality is wide-spread throughout the Republican party.

“If Biden wins the election is rigged, if trump wins it is not.”

@shavixmir said
My point, near exactly.

I heard a sociologist in an interview describe the relationship between Trump and his base as symbiotic which I thought made sense.
I’d imagine Trump would’ve been just as happy to have been the democrat incumbent of the White House.
I may be showing a bias but I think registered democrats are a lot less vulnerable to dog whistle catch phrases so I cannot imagine Trump had a chance of winning a democrat primary.

@kevcvs57 said
I heard a sociologist in an interview describe the relationship between Trump and his base as symbiotic which I thought made sense.

I'm not sure about "symbiotic". It's too positive. I don't think there is a biological term for "mutually parasitic", though, so I suppose "symbiotic" will have to do.

Can we coin the word "ambantibiotic"?