Letter to the editor: Splodey heads keep 'sploding

First published in the Brunswick Beacon, 08.24.26

That’s how Sarah Palin described the cognitive dissonance conservatives experienced when the 2016 Republican nomination went to a serial adulterer who bankrupted four casinos. Lindsey Graham refused to support Trump, saying, “He doesn’t represent my party” and wasn’t “a reliable Republican conservative.”

Trump not only represents the GOP — he defines it. Disobey him and you’re out, as senators Tillis, Cassidy and Cornyn learned. Trump even tells Republicans who to hate and what to think.

Desperate to avoid an electoral drubbing in November, Trump has revived the smear tactics of disgraced Sen. Joe McCarthy. Reuters documented 81 times Trump invoked communism from June 23 to July 8. Like Hitler and his propaganda minister Goebbels, Trump repeats his Big Lies until supporters accept them as truth.

Carol Phillips did. Her recent letters conjure up a phantom menace — communism taking over the world’s most successful capitalist country.

But Trump loves flattery, and here’s where the cognitive dissonance comes in. Flattered during visits to the world’s three largest communist countries, Trump called China’s Xi a “great leader,” pronounced Vietnam “one of the great miracles of the world” and “fell in love” with North Korea’s Kim Jong Un.

After Trump red-baited NYC Mayor Zohran Mamdani, a Democrat who belongs to a democracy-supporting organization that thinks working Americans should be doing better, Phillips dutifully lumped Mamdani with those who want to “destroy our way of life.”

But Trump also loves winners. Mamdani’s approval rating is 58% — Trump’s is a record low 32%. Contradicting Phillips, Trump said he and Mamdani want “the same thing. We want to make New York strong.” He called Mamdani “a nice guy, a charming guy, very rational,” and gushed, “I think you’re going to have a really great mayor.” Still more cognitive dissonance.

Trump’s cure for “splodey head” is simple: remove the “cognitive” from “cognitive dissonance.” Don’t think! Then you won’t notice that Trump isn’t “a reliable Republican conservative” — exactly as Lindsey Graham warned.

Michael Rush

Leland