Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec: The Mad Cow (1896)

"It displays just how frail you've become …"

As The Incumbent's cognitive decline continues, he seems to become increasingly impatient and threatening. He seems to enjoy belittling others more than he used to, and he used to revel in the practice. He promises trouble for non-compliers, an act in which defense attorneys delight. He pounds his highchair tray, impatient for compliance. He seems to believe that he's owed deference and respect, even though he's only playing at being president. Maybe he convinces himself, between all the venom and firings, that he's the most powerful man on the planet. He maybe could have been that man had he proved to be man enough to fulfill that role. Instead, he's viewed as the 'enfant terrible' and widely mocked. He performs the role of parody president, attempting to exercise powers he does not possess. He imitates Mussolini, who could always pretend to pitch a fit in a pinch. He lacks that certain gravitas.

Don't get me wrong, he still produces plenty of chaos. Much of what he claims to have accomplished in his first month in office will ultimately be undone in the courts. He's already produced enough material to fuel plots for a ten-year run for any situation comedy series. He seems only capable of misinterpreting essential documents like the Constitution. His minions, too, he carefully selected from those left over and still willing to serve after he cruelly purged all the best and brightest. He has every reason to Bluster because the universe is not cooperating with his master plan, which was drafted by people who had no freaking clue how to run a country. They provided a cartoon blueprint to disrupt a mature system but not one capable of subduing its underlying sarcastic spirit. Our Blustering incumbent has become a widely popular focus of derision but not the recipient of even an ounce of undeserved respect. When people preface their comments to him "with all due respect," they mean they don't respect anything about him or his administration.

This time, the outrage seems real. The outrage he jinned up during his first term and his second campaign seems like a few dust bunnies in comparison. His outrage was primarily based upon lies and attracted only the more easily distracted. The outrage his opponents express seems justified in the extremis. You see, he immediately turned on many who he had convinced he would defend. He crumbled at the first sign of stress. The list of constituents he sold out grew hourly as he gleefully danced along on his political third rail. Convinced that his office immunized him from repercussions, he became even more volatile. And as he became more volatile, his Bluster expanded. His skin thinned. He could lose his cool over the tiniest incident. He started obsessing about men competing in women's high school sports competitions as if that alone might cause the universe to collapse in on itself. Most just thought him absurd.

His Bluster hurt many people, virtually all of them innocents. This behavior will prove to be his downfall. As long as his targets remained faceless immigrants, he could safely hide his cruelty behind their anonymity. Once he switched to punishing innocent school teachers and forest rangers, he began undermining whatever constituted his grand design. The authors of his 2025 initiative believed their perspectives were mainstream, but they were as radical as they come. Most Americans could never accept the fantasies they presumed to be our commonly shared underlying heritage. Their plans could only ever be successfully implemented in a world that never existed or could. They would require a genuine strongman and a docile population, neither of which they could bring to the game. They had to settle for some second-rate Bluster and the butt of an ever-expanding encyclopedia of jokes made at his expense. He's toast. He's done, ultimately, almost as relevant as a fart in a stiff wind.

The bully can't seem to ever hold his water. He lacks a certain necessary discipline. At the first glimpse of advantage, he feels compelled to lord that over someone, and the regal aspirations tumble instantly. They become utterly unsupportable as the countenance crumbles and the wannabe becomes a clown. He surrendered his own potential. He might just as well have volunteered to fail. Memo to all would-be despots: Control those outbursts. They expose your underlying weakness. Everyone but you can see right through your sheer facade. You seem unserious, a cartoon caricature, Daffy Duck or Elmer Fudd, cursing a clever rabbit that always outsmarts you. Nobody worthy of any high office ever receives permission to exhibit Bluster. It's the ultimate undermining tell. It displays just how frail you've become that you would take to yelling at neighbor kids to stay off your lawn.

©2025 by David A. Schmaltz - all rights reserved

Tags: #NextWorld, #PureSchmaltz