Hoping Trump stays around the full 4 years

Editor: As the insanity of the Trump administration thickens to a point of atrophy, I am comforted by the fact that this misogynistic, xenophobic, deranged sociopath is the leader of the free world. I give you four reasons:

Few things in life would give me greater satisfaction than to see Trump and his sycophantic lapdogs continue their headlong plunge into their self-created purgatory. However – a bumbling idiot in charge of the Republican Party is much better than it being ruled by a self-righteous, gay-hating, pro-choice despising, conversion-therapy loving Mike Pence. The Republicans would get behind him and his radical right-wing agenda, and, unlike Trump, he might actually get something done in Washington aside from posing with feckless executive orders.

The president’s popularity has historically played a major role in determining the midterm elections’ outcomes. Of 435 seats in the House, the Republicans hold 238, the Democrats 193 with four vacancies.

As Gallup concludes: “When presidents are above 50 per cent approval, their party loses an average of 14 seats in the U.S. House in the midterm elections, compared with an average loss of 36 seats when presidents are below that mark.” Trump is currently hovering around 37 per cent approval. With Democrats needing only 24 seats, I should think the Republicans are in panic mode.

Geert Wilders, Marine Le Pen, Frauke Petry and Matteo Salvini have one major thing in common — they love Donald Trump. These ultra-right wing politicians from the Netherlands, France, Germany and Italy are all anti-immigration, nationalistic demagogues. They play on populism and prejudices rather than relying on rational argument.

But the world getting a taste of what being ruled by a narcissist is like, The European quartet’s base was weakened and led to disappointing returns for the radical right in Europe.

When Survivor first aired, my wife and I watched it without fail. Now, after 34 seasons, Jeff Probst takes a distant backseat to Trump’s new reality show. Everyday is like Disney for the political junkie. A few examples:

Treasury secretary — doesn’t believe in minimum wage

Education secretary — doesn’t believe in public schools Attorney General — a white supremacist Environmental Protection Agency Administrator – doesn’t believe in climate change

I would still love to see Trump get impeached. I just hope it happens on Nov. 2, 2020. Chris Loewen, Kelowna