Remember that time when a multi-billionaire convinced much of poor
America that his leadership was the solution to their problems? Remember when
that same guy glazed over his lengthy list of bankruptcies, questionable
business ventures and outright scams and touted his business acumen to the
nation? Remember when that same guy, in an era of unavoidable and often
extremely beneficial exchanging of cultures and values, convinced a vast number
of American citizens (themselves almost entirely recent decendants of immigrants)
that their righteous discontent was the product of foreign infiltration? You
might even remember when he got roped into asinine feuds with debate moderators
and politicians, and got so pissed that he bragged about his penis size on
national prime-time television. Remember when he even played footsie with
domestic racist extremist groups while simultaneously telling Americans that he
would win the majority of black and Latino voters? And he had the stones to
call himself presidential material? Jesus Christ, what a god damned shit show
that was.
Yes. It is very easy to be cynical about
Donald Trump. And yes, I hope what I wrote above proves to be prophetic, i.e. I hope he does not get much farther in this election. However, it is this cynicism and
anticipation of ruin that has helped push Mr. Trump farther into his political
career than even he probably expected. But why should he be taken serious? Why do I even
feel compelled to write this right now? He looks and sounds more ridiculous by
the day. He says things and makes decisions one would expect from a fussy toddler.
He is constantly changing his positions to quietly cover the ill-conceived
comments he made publicly only weeks or even days earlier. He is asking to be
insulted and discredited. And his "fans," because I really don't
believe he has a constituency in the traditional sense of the word, absolutely
love it. And if that all sounds a little silly to you, just ask someone from
another country what they think of all this. John Oliver, the British
late-night comedy show host, calls our current presidential race the "Clowntown Fuck-the-World
Shitshow 2016."
Like most historically pivotal moments, the scene was set for this
drama long before the leading lady arrived. As what I will call a history/social
studies "person," I will tell you that the comparisons made between
Trump's rise to prominence and those of Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini are
not based in fantasy. You needn't be a history/social studies person to
understand that. The viral pictures and memes are out there. They are not all
well-presented, and I am sure some of them are outright inaccurate. But upon
fairly basic examination, they point out fairly basic similarities. Folks like
Mussolini and Hitler are the modern versions of "strongmen:" they
feed off of a country's disgruntled, disenfranchised citizens who feel left out politically and economically and don't quite know who to
blame. These leaders' obsession with winning just shows that they care very little about
the means by which they “win.” No serious political figure would run for
leadership of such a country on the basis of "we're in deep trouble because
you're all sort of uneducated and you don't work hard enough." In fact,
the opposite platform usually gains support: "it's everyone else's fault
that you feel like you have no control over your life." Immigrants,
particularly those of unusual religious persuasions, usually get the ass-end of
this rhetoric. This is because they are easy targets, period (see: Jews and gypsies in
Nazi Germany).
This is natural. We humans do not like to
be told that we have to work harder or think harder. If we enjoyed work,
physical or otherwise, we would have never invented even the most basic tools
and machines. But this implies that we don't really want to be compassionate to
other people, because that requires us to understand their perspectives and
struggles. And that's hard. It's even harder when you just got your ass kicked
in a war you started (that's Germany) or are getting your ass kicked in a
economic system you invented (that's us and China). In comes a tough,
shit-talking, guns a-blazin' type who (on paper) has achieved success and knows
what he's talking about. He tells the "common folk" that they just
have to get rid of illegals, or Jews, or "untermensch," and things
will be peachy. History tells us that this leads to things being very not
peachy (see: 60 million people dead). If Mr. Trump seems docile compared to Hitler
now, take into consideration that Hitler was elected during a time of serious
political splintering in a chaotic post-WWI Germany.
On to the financial side of things. I will
make a blanket statement that may or may not ruffle feathers, but anyone in the
world who has almost seven billion dollars in assets is probably a very
dishonest person. And when I say dishonest, I don't mean they necessarily tell
lies. I mean they only tell the truths they want others to hear. It is how
business is done in the modern economy, and one could argue it is how business
has been done since "business" became a thing. No one really makes
money, let alone becomes fabulously rich, by giving customers all the facts (this should conjure up visions of the used car salesman telling you the interior of your new car was just detailed when the transmission is shot). One could say Trump is marketing himself as "the president we never knew we wanted." Recent revelations into Mr. Trump's failed business ventures show he wasn't
even all that great at hiding his omissions of facts. He just did it so many
times and in so many ways that he eventually had enough money to cover things
like a fake university and the bankruptcy of a large casino in Atlantic
City.
However, any billionaire knows how to sell
things. They do this very well, and they will do whatever they have to do to appeal to the largest possible
customer base possible. That is what is taught in every business class in every
college in America (if it sounds sleazy and impersonal, it's because it is). Where Trump and conservatives like him lose their footing is at a simple and irrefutable truth about economics: you cannot
recreate the same market conditions twice, let alone in different decades. Any
political candidate or hobo on the street who says he wishes things were
"like the good old days" (when Ronald Reagan was president) does not
understand that market conditions, just like everything else, are always
changing and are never the same twice. Trump has not had a come-to-Jesus moment
and suddenly recognizes the plight of the working man. He has not taken up the
torch of American conservativism and wants it to flourish again. I honestly do
not think he gives a flying you-know-what if he makes America "great
again." America has been great for Donald Trump, and he wants to keep it that
way. That's it. That's the way his mind works. Maybe a lot of people like that.
I don't.
As an American who is still of military
age (draftable), the title of "Commander in Chief" of the armed
forces is something I can honestly say distrubs me when I imagine it before
Donald Trump's name. As I discussed with my mother recently, the moment that I
began to really see Mr. Trump as a man unfit for leadership, let alone
political leadership, came in a fairly early televised debate when he was asked
a question regarding the "triad" of the United States nuclear
arsenal, specifically which part of the triad would he consider most in need of
an upgrade. This "triad" refers to nuclear weapons that can be fired
from submarines, aircraft, and silos on land. As a geek, I kind of knew that.
Donald Trump did not have the slightest fucking idea what that question even
meant, let alone what his answer to it would be. He proceeded to dance around
with the words of the question, throwing in a few phrases that made it sound as
though he knew how important man's most powerful creation was. He did not
answer the question. He did not address the basic premise of the question. He
did not even have a firm grasp on what the question was asking.
What troubles me the most about this is not
that he knew very little about nuclear weapons. I doubt any president since
Truman had a very clear understanding of how they even worked. What absolutely
infuriates me is that he did not take the two minutes necessary to read the
wikipedia intro about American nuclear weapons policies which would have
allowed him to not sound like a complete ass when asked about it. He decided he
was going to wing it on a question about a technology that has shaped the world
we live in, particularly with regards to military tactics. That goes beyond
simple ignorance into the dangerous territory of conscious negligence. Not very
god damned presidential. If he thinks I will be willing to take
another person's life because he does not even have a remote idea of what he is
doing, excuse me but he can quite literally fuck himself. For his part, Marco
Rubio actually had a pretty cogent answer to that particular question.
I will not even waste much time addressing
the childish mud-slinging between candidates that has gained some steam
recently. While Donald has certainly proven himself to be a master in this
area, his nonsense has revealed which candidates are just desperately clinging
to their hopes of actual political success and don’t have Americans’ best
interests in mind or at heart. Which of course is all of them. Except maybe for
Bob Kasich he's actually been pretty chill about it.
As a categorically cynical and sarcastic person, it’s tough to not
throw my hands up at this entire process. The fact that men like Donald Trump
or even the pandering, canned-response Canadian robot known to humans as Ted
Cruz can gain a legitimate following in a “free, well-educated” country like
ours is, in a word, disappointing. The more facts, figures, historical
comparisons, and plain common sense one throws in the direction of people
who support these candidates and their ideologies, the more they push back.
According to Facebook, some of this is just to “piss off their liberal friends.” Maybe so. I will argue that at least some of it has to do with a number of our fellow
citizens that have not quite come to grips with the fact that the guy calling
the shots in the white house has black skin. They are entitled to that mindset.
Donald Trump, or at least the persona he has occupied for the last year or so,
is scared of all this. I can say this because he has behaved the way any animal
behaves when it is scared: it goes out of its way to show everyone how incredibly
not scared it is. Most of his “huge” base of support is scared too. They’re scared
of what will happen if their cities and towns are controlled by Muslims and Mexicans
because they have not taken the time to understand a Muslim or a Mexican, and
as such they lump them all in with what they see on TV: generally not the most
flattering context for foreigners.
I can only say that there is certainly a place for conservative
politics and conservative social values. Losing sight of fundamental, unifying
principles has gotten us into a bit of an ideological quagmire as a nation. But
denying that things are changing and will continue to change is absolutely
bananas, and anyone who tells you that they can change things back to the way
they were is a.) a wizard, or b.) a liar. Our grandparents did not die
thousands of miles away from home fighting fascism for that garbage. Trump will not make America
“great again.” He is saying that because he thinks if he gives us easy slogans,
easy talking points, and easy solutions to easy problems, we will buy what he’s
selling. He thinks things like making an effort to be compassionate and understanding
are a little too hard for us. You could say he’s banking on it. Thus far, he
hasn’t been very far off the mark.
