The most common question I get from readers is, “Where does this stuff come from?”  The simple answer: a good creative process.  Over the past 16 years I have instructed students and clients to approach life with a willingness to suspend judgment and look at the world with fresh eyes. As part of that experience, I found it useful to share the process through which my team and I developed lessons as well as the content within.  Today is a good opportunity to do the same with this blog.

The original title for this entry was, “Assisted Suicide.”  The premise being that, maybe, just maybe, Donald Trump has decided he does not want a second term.  After all, he prefers Mar-a-Lago and his gilded New York City penthouse to the White House.  He would rather watch television than govern.  So, how does one go back to a former lifestyle without admitting he is in way over his head and being labeled “a quitter?”  You commit political suicide.

I wondered if his strategy might be modeled after those who have chosen what is often referred to as “suicide by police.”  Do something heinous and let the cops take you out.  Except in Trump’s case, the fatal assist will come not from the men in blue, but from voters in 2020.  And everyone is happy.  Our latest national nightmare comes to an end (until the next one).  And Trump returns to the his favored role, victim-in-chief, with millions of equally aggrieved lemmings willing to pay the Trump organization for the privilege of being conned by the next Trump University or wearing Ivanka’s next line of clothing “with that special touch of Chinese forced labor.”

Not a bad thesis.  But as Edward de Bono, the man who coined the phrase “lateral thinking” reminds us, most people stop when they come up with one adequate answer.  The truly inventive keep searching for “the next right answer.”  Similarly, National Geographic photographer Dewitt Jones urges us to turn around, look at the situation from another perspective.

And that is exactly what happened at approximately 7:00 pm last night when the House of Representatives passed a resolution condemning Trump’s “go back where you came from” white nationalist meme by a vote of 240-187. Among the majority there were only four Republicans and former Republican Justin Amash.  Three days after Trump’s racist meltdown, the story was no longer whether he harbored bigotry, but the fact an overwhelming majority of GOP congressmen including minority leader Kevin McCarthy refused to call him out for it.

And there was the next right answer.  Trump is not the one looking for someone to relieve his pain and suffering.  He is Dr. Jack Kevorkian.  The patient is the Republican party.  It has been on life-support for some time, increasingly dependent on the backing of an aging, primarily white, lower-educated, rural base.  Promises of tax cuts for the donor class and the reversal of Roe v. Wade for evangelicals has kept just enough suburban voters in the fold to carry the electoral college despite losing the popular vote twice this century.

I guess the GOP’s demise was not quick enough for their own liking.  So, they invited Trump to drive his facsimile of the Kevorkian death van (pictured here) to their front door.  Except this time, it did not come in a plain white wrapper.  It more resembled the one driven by Cesar Sayoc, the man who mailed explosive packages to a dozen Democratic leaders and Trump critics.  Sayoc’s vehicle was plastered with symbols of hate and calls for revenge against perceived enemies, e.g. Hillary Clinton and CNN.

How times have changed.  In 2005, the Republican party at both the state level and in Congress intervened to keep Terri Sciavo’s family from “pulling the plug.”  Senator Bill Frist, a physician, made a professional assessment of her condition during Senate debate without ever examining Sciavo.  In contrast, there appears to be no Republican leaders willing to intervene when it comes to Trump terminating life support on their comatose body.  It’s just a matter of time before they realize the “Party” in GOP will be a wake.

POSTSCRIPT:  This morning, WBUR (Boston) reporter Kimberly Atkins used the economic term “inelastic” to describe Trump’s support.   It refers to the principle that the demand for a product does not increase or decrease depending on price, usually referring to monetary cost.  Yet it begs the question, “Is there any political price at which the GOP will abandon him?”  So far, the answer is no.

For what it’s worth.
Dr. ESP