Donald Trump says Democrats are cheaters who want to destroy the country, while evidence of his own dementia-related issues tend to go without scrutiny

Donald Trump and his father, Fred Trump, who died of Alzheimer's

Donald Trump uses a rhetorical device we will call "The Rant Method" (not to be confused with The Socratic Method). Trump seems to live in a state of constant emotional agitation. His rants apparently grow from this state of emotional disarray, with Trump using rants to express an ever-growing list of grievances, which help control his MAGA followers and keep them riled up, in a mindset that could produce political violence at any moment.

Trump's most recent use of The Rant Method came during the Republican National Convention when -- without producing  a shred of supporting evidence -- he said Democrats are incorrigible cheaters who want to destroy our country. This is a classic case of gaslighting, -- blaming others for problems Trump himself is largely to blame.

Why does Trump resort to such an abusive, underhanded technique? Apparently it is about all he's got left in his rhetorical. toolbox. Trump even has resorted to repeating his rants, sort of like summer reruns on TV. How prevalent has The Rant Method become in American political life? A Google search of "Trump and rant" produces page after page of results..

Ellie Quinlan Houghtaling, of The New Republic (TNR) examines this phenomenon under the headline "Trump Issues Dangerous Call to Arms During RNC; Donald Trump and his allies are using the convention to undermine faith the upcoming election." I'm not aware of Trump making any call at the RNC for the use of actual firearms, so it appears Houghtaling is using the term "arms" in a metaphorical sense -- for now. But a reasonable person could conclude that Trump's next move might be a call for MAGA to use actual arms against perceived political enemies. And yes, that certainly could be dangerous -- perhaps a  precursor to civil war.

Let's take a look at how Houghtaling analyzes Trump's use of "The Rant Method" at the RNC. She writes:

Republicans appear to have completely forgone the “unity convention” theme this week in favor of a much more divisive brand: a total call to arms.

In a prerecorded message to the convention Tuesday night, presumptive GOP presidential nominee Donald Trump insisted that Democrats are “destroying our country,” and once again claimed that the 2020 election was stolen from him, urging supporters not to let “what happened” that year happen again.

“We must use every appropriate tool to beat the Democrats,” Trump said. “These people want to cheat, and they do cheat, and frankly it’s the only thing they do well.”

In a post on Truth Social, Trump twisted an old lie into something new, trying to convince his base that Democrats are “attempting to interfere” in the 2024 presidential election.

But Trump wasn’t the only Republican stoking the flames. In his own speech, Louisiana Representative Steve Scalise nodded toward a white supremacist, alt-right conspiracy known as the “great replacement theory” while baselessly advancing the idea that “Biden and Harris want illegals to vote.” House Speaker Mike Johnson shared a similar idea, telling the conference that Republicans “cannot allow the many millions of illegal aliens [the Democrats] allowed to cross our borders, to harm our citizens, raid our resources, or disrupt our elections.”

This relies on several staples of postmodern Republican communications -- speech that is filled with deceit, insults, taunts, and inflammatory barbs. I would say it is language of a third-grader, but that would be an insult to third-graders everywhere. Here is more insight from Houghtaling:

Of course, undocumented immigrants (and any other noncitizens) cannot vote in U.S. elections. But that didn’t stop Texas Senator Ted Cruz—whose state overwhelmingly identifies as Hispanic—from mindlessly hopping on the bandwagon.

“[Illegal immigration] happened because Democrats cynically decided they wanted votes from illegals more than they wanted to protect our children,” Cruz said Tuesday.

Senate candidate Kari Lake, who’s running to represent 2.3 million Latino voters in Arizona, also advanced the bold-faced lie that Democrats “voted to let the millions of people who poured into our country illegally cast a ballot in this upcoming election.

But few summed up the aggressive mood of the convention better than West Virginia Governor Jim Justice, who told conference-goers on Tuesday that the “bottom line” for Republicans is this: “We become totally unhinged if Donald Trump is not elected in November.”

What does that mean? I don't know,  but it sounds like a threat to those who do not support Trump -- and that includes yours truly and a whole bunch of other Democrats and independents, plus open-minded Republicans. It's also a sign that today's Republicans can't even speak for themselves, without resorting to the kind of lame language that Trump employs.

Here's a thought: While the press and Democrat insiders have relentlessly been examining every supposed flaw in President Joe Biden's mental acuity, Trump has received a free pass, with many even ignoring The New York Times' editorial board and it's declaration that "Donald Trump Is Unfit to Lead." 

The questions of the moment are these: (1) Why does Donald Trump so often speak in grievance-filled rants, even when things seem to be going his way (if he doesn't have something real to whine about, you can bet he will whine about something unreal)? (2) Why does Trump seem capable of using only language that is inflammatory? (3) And is that a trait Americans think is desirable in a president? 

My answer is "no" because such a trait, in my view, could lead our nation into a whole lot of avoidable trouble.

Since the mental acuity of our presidential candidates has been a hot topic, I am reminded of clinical psychologist John Gartner and his view of Biden and Trump:

“There is this focus on Biden's gaffes or other things that are well within the normal limits of aging. By comparison, Trump appears to be showing gross signs of dementia. This is a tale of two brains. Biden's brain is aging. Trump's brain is dementing.”

This suggests Trump might already have dementia. After all, we know Fred Trump, his father, died of Alzheimer's Disease, so cognitive health issues run in the family. 

Is America on the verge of electing a man who already has dementia, perhaps is being treated for it with powerful drugs, which come with serious side effects? Americans need to know the answer to this question, and they should demand that Trump undergo thorough cognitive testing and make the results public. Biden should do the same thing. So far, neither has been forthcoming about health issues. That needs to change -- now.