The Mask of Sanity

      The Republican leadership has come to see their outrageous candidate, Donald Trump, as their best opportunity to sweep the liberals out of the Supreme Court, the Congress, and the Presidency. While this strategy continues their stance the past eight years to completely stonewall Barack Obama and the Democratic Senate, the reality of terrorism is their ace in the hole. 

      Trump’s red-faced ranting during much of his presidential nominating speech conforms to the definition of full blown psychopaths famously developed by Psychiatrist Hervey Cleckley forty years ago. In “The Mask of Sanity” he described psychopaths as persons who can “typically tell vivid, lifelike, plausible stories that are completely fraudulent, without evincing any element of delusion….When confronted with a lie, the psychopath is unflappable and can often effortlessly pass it off as a joke.”

      During the Trump nomination speech PBS's Judy Woodruff counted fifty promises Trump had made. Of course, he will not have to deliver on any of them until next year, if elected.  A psychopath, Cleckley wrote can be

  

“a perfect mimic of a normally functioning person, able to mask or disguise [their] fundamental lack of internal personality structure, an internal chaos that results in repeatedly purposeful destructive behavior…”

      Cleckley revised his analyses seven times between 1947 and 1976 but always believed such personalities were not capable of fully organized productive behavior. Trump proves he was wrong about that. Trump is highly organized in his unique way and that’s the problem: Donald Trump is sane and very dangerous because his character portrait is of an obsessed and highly narcissistic personality who can’t distinguish right from wrong.

      The strategy of the Republican leadership has now accepted Trump because of his potential as the law and order candidate whose campaign will fit hand in glove into the reality of terrorism.  He’s their cynical linchpin to defeat Hillary Clinton, finally throwing back the progressive, diverse, liberal wave. 

       It may happen. 

       

        As terror attacks multiply Trump becomes more likely to defeat the highly unpopular Hillary who will have to struggle with the high energy her campaign lost when it ambushed Bernie Sanders, who had electrified millions of young supporters.  There’s  little electricity in the Clinton campaign now, hobbled by her mistakes in Iraq, Libya and her not so confidential email messaging.  If there’s going to be new energy in her campaign for election its fear of Trump that may be her ace in the hole.