A few months ago News Corpse published an article illustrating the disrespect that Donald Trump has for his legions of dimwitted followers. His open contempt for the little people that flock to his hate-filled revival meetings was expressed in a Q&A with a supporter who wanted to know how Trump would handle terrorism. Trump responded that “You don’t want to hear how I’d handle it.” Of course they don’t. They’re too dumb to understand a substantive answer, even if Trump were smart enough to give one.

This morning Trump demonstrated how he is changing his image to be more “presidential” by railing against John Kasich for the disgusting way he eats pancakes. That’s the depth of the discourse on issues that Trump is capable of, and it perfectly reflects the intellectual capacity of his audience. And Trump knows it. That’s why he said the following this weekend:

“You know, being presidential is easy — much easier than what I have to do. Here, I have to rant and rave. I have to keep you people going. Otherwise you’re going to fall asleep on me, right?”

Right! Trump is acknowledging that his supporters are low attention span blockheads who can’t concentrate unless they are being subjected to the neanderthal ranting and raving that is the hallmark of a Trump rally. But what’s truly pathetic is that they cheer him even while he’s insulting them as shallow peons who require vulgar stimulation to remain awake. It’s a perverse sort of political masochism that excites Trump’s submissives as well as the dominant, dictatorial tendencies of Trump.

For the record, if it were easy for Trump to be presidential he would not have spent the last ten months insulting women, African-Americans, Muslims, and his GOP colleagues. He would not have brazenly lied more than any candidate in modern history (see the Trump Bullshitopedia). And he would not have repeatedly embarrassed himself by acting like a buffoon and affirming the most repulsive behavior of the past few decades, including that he wants to bang his daughter.

How Fox News Deceives and Controls Their Flock:
Fox Nation vs. Reality: The Fox News Cult of Ignorance.
Available now at Amazon.

The fact that an elitist, narcissistic, billionaire, born into wealth and privilege, inspires such demented reverence on the part of his lowbrow, glassy-eyed disciples is a troubling sign for the Republican Party. The frightening thing is that the rest of the Republican field is jockeying to attract these same cretins. So regardless of what happens to Trump, the GOP constituency will remain infected by his diseased mindset and the party regulars will have adopted his crackpot platform. That’s a stain that will be hard to wash away.