I was awake at three am last night and found myself reading an article about January 6th participants and how the resulting criminal prosecution has ruined their lives.

I read about a young man who went to DC as a patriot caught up in Trump’s machismo. His take is that he wanted to see the monuments in real life and actually participate in a Trump Rally in person. Those testifying for him asked the judge for mercy saying that because he grew up without a father and had a rough life he just didn’t know what he was doing was actually illegal. It wasn’t his intent to hurt anyone or break the law.

When sentencing him, the judge involved said that it was evident that he was living in an alternative reality that thus far was unable to be pierced through. In spite of clear evidence that he committed serious crimes, he showed no understanding at all that he had done anything wrong. And if that wasn’t sad enough Trump’s spoken directly to him since and promised a pardon should he be re-elected. This man no longer has a self apart from a connection to Trump. The psychological ability to think outside of the paradigm that Trump is king and his personal suffering is for the king, now exists in his brain as cement. His life is virtually over.

Think about this with me.

This grown man from rural Texas completely lacked the understanding that a government building was not a public place he could freely walk into on behalf of the President’s instructions from social media. When the doors to capitol were locked it mattered little because Trump had mandated the action.

The reality is that as POTUS Donald Trump knew exactly what he was asking them to do. He wanted them to do something immoral and illegal because it served his narcissistic purposes. The sacrificing of a young man’s life was entirely irrelevant. It is still entirely irrelevant but the victim only knows Trump thinks he’s special and needs him.

When confronted with locked doors and armed guards, he and many others went forward undaunted because they believed themselves to be empowered to ignore them. Years of subcultural conditioning from this man’s alternative universe shaped him into someone who would take action when Trump spoke.

What is most disturbing in all of this is that this powerful psychological connection reflected in this one man’s story, equals the reality of ANY conservative American still planning on voting for him. That is not exaggeration. This man is more dangerous than any man in this country.

He has literally been grooming the US populace since first building Trump Tower in NYC. He then manipulated the system to get a 30 year tax deferment. The world of high fliers around him in the 70’s quite literally blown away by his savvy. They lusted after his power for themselves – power to skillfully screw other people over for one’s personal benefit. Cloaked in lavishness, he twisted the narrative to arrive as the businessman’s hero. He was perceived as brilliant because he found way after way to never pay taxes and control the social scene in the city. He quite literally created the perception that government is the enemy of the people unless he is in control of that government.

Donald Trump has never known a situation or been involved in anything where the final power of a law or a system of government has any control over him. As POTUS he went through staff unwilling to do his bidding the entire four years. Project 2025 is the far right’s answer but in t reality, he’s likely to tell them to go to hell if elected and appoint guys like Mike Lindell to a cabinet position.

Trump knows that we comprehend the world as we are and that he must align with others at that place first. He gets along with people of all sorts until they discover his real person and then just like that, they disappear. I don’t know if there’s anything he can do that will persuade the hard core Conservatives I know to grasp that they too are under his influence in the same way the January 6 people are. If they vote for him, they think they are voting for Conservative values and ideals but they really aren’t. He’s done his sick magic and unless there are enough of us who are yet to be under the spell, he could win again.

It makes no rational sense at face value. But pathological narcissists know that and that’s their super power. This election is going to be fraught with turmoil because he will not leave it alone until he can no longer speak and even then, I will bet he will find a way to control if he can.

It’s really this bad.