Here is C.S. Lewis' charming Screwtape, senior devil, who spends his time teaching"junior devils" how to tempt humans to hell. Last line is a blueprint for Trump and his minions:
The use of Fashions in thought is to distract the attention of men from their real dangers. We direct the fashionable outcry of each generation against those vices of which it is least in danger and fix its approval on the virtue nearest to that vice which we are trying to make endemic. The game is to have them running about with fire extinguishers whenever there is a flood, and all crowding to that side of the boat which is already nearly gunwale under. Thus we make it fashionable to expose the dangers of enthusiasm at the very moment when they are all really becoming worldly and lukewarm; a century later, when we are really making them all Byronic and drunk with emotion, the fashionable outcry is directed against the dangers of the mere “understanding”. Cruel ages are put on their guard against Sentimentality, feckless and idle ones against Respectability, lecherous ones against Puritansm; and whenever all men are really hastening to be slaves or tyrants we make Liberalism the prime bogey.And so, having captured one of two major parties and looking sure to draw over 40% of the U.S. vote, Trump promises to end Constitutional guarantees of right to counsel, due process of law, and protection against cruel and unusual punishment: From the reporter doing perhaps the best job covering Trump:
This whole thing is worth your time to read from Trump in Florida today: pic.twitter.com/IdHgnYSsL8— Sopan Deb (@SopanDeb) September 19, 2016
As this foul campaign drags on, we see those hastening to be tyrants, from racist ghouls like Bannon to once-latent fascists like Giuliani and Christie, degrading before our eyes. If the U.S. elects Trump, we'll collectively have hastened to be slaves, ending our democracy with eyes wide open.
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