Today's (not very) Secret

More than just the flavor of the month in the parade of Monsters From The Id that driftglass talks about, Trump is a real threat to the system of legalized bribery that we've evolved.  Which, btw happens with every system eventually - political or religious or whatever. The unused battery goes dead; your freeze-dried backpack chow gets moldy; and the unopened pop bottle contains nothing but a little dust (and, if you're lucky, a desiccated mouse carcass so you can sue somebody and at least die with a few bucks in your account).

But anyway, entropy is a real thing and unless we're willing to do the work of tending and conserving and replenishing (like what Madison et al tried to give us the means to do), then we can count on the whole thing cratering in on itself.

So why is Trump the enemy, really? The GOP will say it’s because he’s a clown, he has no experience, he can't win, he’s more a celebrity than a politician. This might all be true. But there’s another big reason they’d rather not talk about.
At the debate and numerous public appearances, Trump has matter-of-factly stated that he is an equal opportunity donor to Republican and Democratic candidates—not for the purpose of civic duty or altruism, but in exchange for influence. He has openly deemed his gifts to politicians a business expense. He went so far as to declare, before 24 million viewers at the debate, that he uses his donations to obtain favors from legislators who are all too eager to bow to his requests. He not-so-subtly implies that politicians are bought and paid for by him and other financial moguls. And he expects a fair return for those dollars, measured in policy rewards like zoning adjustments, subsidies for building projects and long-term tax relief.

In short, he lets the cat out of the bag about something the political system has spent more than a century to disguise.

Representative democracy can only remain legitimate in the eyes of its citizens if they believe that those who seek and hold public office are independent actors. We have tolerated well-funded lobbying organizations, most of which get their money from rich donors and corporate investments. Hillary Clinton admits she receives huge contributions to her campaign from Wall Street titans. But she adamantly denies that these millions of dollars influence her political decisions.

Not to put too fine a point on it:

"If you can’t take their money, drink their whiskey, screw their women, and vote against ‘em anyway, you don’t belong in the Legislature”. --Molly Ivins

And it scares the crap outa everybody - which is why (I think) Hillary has been kinda reticent on the subject of The Donald so far, and why she's starting to float a few of the older concepts from her past life as a Hippy-fied Moderate ConservaDem - plus she has to have time to figure out the triangulation.

We should be grateful for Donald Trump, despite his silly, derogatory statements and obvious contempt for the process in which he has chosen to engage. He has opened the door to a new debate about what American democracy is actually about. His posture unintentionally parallels how Occupy Wall Street exposed the power of capital to rule our country.(*)

In national elections, nearly half of registered voters stay home. The conventional explanation is apathy. But if people believe that politics is run by big money and have little faith that their vote can produce real change, they respond to someone who at least seems to be telling the truth. Trump is no saint, but we have to admit that he has tapped into a collective revulsion for politics as usual.

I'll go along with that last bit - about how Trump "has tapped into a collective revulsion" - but drawing a conclusion that it might actually be kinda good for us is fuckin' stoopid.  Trump isn't holding some kinda flashlight and showing us how fucked up the system is.  As always, I could be wrong and I hope I am, but since this shit is always about something they don't tell us it's about, I think it's way too probable that Trump is saying, "This is how we do things in the real world of Free-Market Democracy - fuck you; what're you gonna do about it?"

The kicker is that there're boatloads of rubes out there thinking, "I know he's gonna fuck me with my pants on, but they all do that; at least Trump's being honest about it".

(*) and let's be sure we get in the obligatory Both Sides bullshit, too!