Fool Me Once

Fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice, shame on me...so the saying goes.  Donald Trump managed to fool a number of voters and, in spite of failing to win votes from a majority of voters, won the 2016 Presidential election. One has to wonder what, if anything Trump learned from the 2016 election.  Either Trump or his election staff failed to realize that a majority of voters did not “buy his act”.  If the immediate results of the 2016 election did not teach the Trump team anything, they surely should have learned from the defection of the Republican party of all of the prominent Republican talking heads.  If that was not a sufficient indicator that Trumpism was not working, the Lincoln Project should have indicated a failure to bring the voters around to the Trump political point of view.  Trump had over three years to learn that his focus on dividing the country was not working.  He had an opportunity to demonstrate his ability to both lead and govern when faced with the Corona-19 pandemic.  All he had to do was to mirror the other countries that had far greater success in mitigating the disastrous effects of this disease but he, being Trump, chose to ignore both the comparative success of other countries or the advice of skilled, intelligent advisors.  While the final bell has not yet rung on the 2020 election it is apparent Trump will not win a second term.  Of course, Trump being Trump will never admit it was his election to win and he failed every opportunity to demonstrate to a majority of voters he deserved a second term in office.  At no time during his first term in office did Trump say or do anything to try to win over voters who voted against him in 2016.  Instead, he managed to convince many who voted for him in 2016 their votes for him was a mistake.  Trump may have succeeded in fooling the voting public once in 2016 either due to his lack of intelligence or lack of competence, or both he failed when he had a second chance.