In the 1988 film, Who Framed Roger Rabbit, a down-on-his-luck private eye, Eddie Valiant gets hired by cartoon producer R.K. Maroon to investigate a scandal involving Jessica Rabbit, the wife of Maroon’s biggest star, Roger Rabbit. But when Marvin Acme, the owner of Toontown, is found murdered, Judge Doom vows to catch and destroy Roger. If you haven’t seen this movie, it’s time because the country is currently going through a similar experience with the Former President, Donald Trump. Our country may be Marvin Acme, and the January 6th committee Judge Doom, but who is the real villain?
Trump has had some horrific luck during his lifetime where, even though he questionably inherited, many millions of dollars from his real estate-mogul father’s estate, there are those who have analyzed how those funds were used and claim his life would have been better, he would have been wealthier, and even more positively perceived by everyone if he had just invested that inheritance and lived comfortably from the interest generated.
If you look at his history of failed businesses, it’s a lot longer than even his history of failed marriages. I’m sure just paying off his ex-wives, his other misadventures with the ladies, and his myriad lawsuits from not paying contractors and craftsmen for the work done on his various bankrupt buildings, he could have lived luxuriously forever. Stack on top of that the failed Trump Airlines, Casinos, University, Steaks, the Trump Game, Trump Mortgage Company, Trump’s Corporate Communications Company, Trump Travel Site, Trump Tower Tampa, Trump mattresses, Trump Vodka, and even Trump Cologne. Per Forbes, “Trump claimed that his brand and brand-related deals were worth some $3.3 billion. Forbes valued his brand at less than .04% of that amount.” And went on to say, “Trump has repeatedly stood for half-baked schemes, shoddy work, and sketchy characters.” The poor guy just can’t catch a break.
Unlike Eddie Valiant, however, the former twice-impeached, disgraced president had been exposed to a philosophy of living from, among others, his famous Pastor, Reverend Norman Vincent Peale and other mentors and influencers such as his attorneys, Rudy Giuliani and Roy Cohn, chief counsel to the infamous U.S. Representative Joseph McCarthy. Philosophically, he believes whatever the outcome is, never admit defeat. Not unlike Joseph Goebbels, Hitler’s chief propogandist who succeeded Adolf as Chancellor of Germany for one day before he and his wife committed suicide, after poisoning their six children with cyanide, Trump discovered you can win over the masses by using provocation to bring attention. There was a link between all of these men that seemed to inhabit our former president’s psyche. If you do fail, never admit you failed, which was Rev. Peale’s “Power of positive thinking” on steroids, Then, make sure there are people upon whom you can place blame even if you have to fictitiously create them, and Goebbels’ if you tell a lie often enough, people will believe it no matter how ridiculous it is.
Well, the January 6th Committee is carefully unpeeling the Trump onion by using not only his closest advisors, appointed leaders, and former allies, but also his oldest daughter and her husband to demonstrate what he knew, when he knew it, and how he selectively chose to ignore them. He did this to perpetrate the greatest scheme in American History by refusing to secede power and step down as President through igniting the ire of the masses via his “big lie” about a stolen election. According to the witnesses, he skillfully used his accusations and provocations to generate a quarter of a billion dollars designated to defend his presidency but instead spent it on his hotels, and to elect and buy candidates who would be loyal to him.
We don’t know how this real-life movie will end. Will Judge Doom or Merritt Garland press charges? Will autocracy replace democracy? In this case, it’s up to you.