“I didn’t make a mistake,” President Donald Trump said about posting to his personal social media platform a video with images of President Barack Obama and former First Lady Michelle Obama depicted as primates. The entire country now knows for sure there is no low too low for the current occupant of the Oval Office.

If the racism, sexism, transphobia, xenophobia and promotion of white supremacy was not enough, the country must also continue to contend with other mind-blowing and stomach-turning behavior from the so-called leader of the free world. That includes holding appropriated funds hostage until congressional Democrats rename Penn Station and Dulles Airport after him, a man who is literally trying to brand the nation as if it is a Trump property. It includes the ongoing attempt to nationalize – and therefore subvert – the nation’s federal elections, thereby continuing his and his party’s hold on power. What can be done by whom to stop this, and why isn’t it happening?

Perhaps the answer lies in election year bumper stickers and yard signs that said, “Mean Tweets & Cheap Gas 2024.” Perhaps it lies in the thousands of Trump voters on TikTok after the election saying, “We should all come together, now; this doesn’t have to divide us.” And those saying, “He’s just better on the economy and immigration.”  I saw thousands of videos and comments to that effect.  

The bumper sticker means there were citizens out there that actually wanted back in office someone who posts mean (and racist) messages. They wanted back someone who advertised racism, misogyny, white supremacy, authoritarianism and corrupt intent in almost every rally and interview at which he appeared. None of it mattered to his voters, as long as gang member immigrants were deported and the price of groceries went down.

That is the problem. And it is a problem as great as the president’s un-American choices.

Donald Trump did not make an American society that cares more about financial security than it does about character, the Constitution and community. But he celebrates and promotes that set of priorities. And as long as we the people don’t challenge that we will continue to gasp, shake our heads, and show up to protests, mostly just to be counted, with the primary effect being great visuals for the nightly news.

I have said before that the only end to circumstances that are increasingly painful beyond description is to find the poison pill to the Kool Aid and drop it into MAGA’s collective pitcher. They have to bring down their own hero.

Shooting unarmed or disarmed people that oppose the presence and tactics of Homeland Security agents seems to be a key ingredient for the poison pill. Being unapologetic about a racist video that demeans his predecessor appears to be another. But the additional ingredients aren’t available. They have yet to occur. It would be so much easier if the pill could be formulated by a change in thinking and priorities. But it would be unwise to hold out for that transformation. At present, too many MAGA members still say, as the president does, “I didn’t make a mistake.”