This is what you’ve all been waiting for. A succinct (and plausible) explanation of why a significant slice of our citizens are willing to not only stand in line for a Trump event, but to actually pull the lever, or punch the ticket in a voting booth for The Donald. I will remind you that I’m not a newcomer to the Trump discussion, nor am I in the least an unprejudiced reporter of things Trump. Please see my previous posting Bloviator-in-Chief to validate my credentials in that regard. I woke up from a fitful sleep the other night at the tailend of a nightmare in which President Trump was giving his first State of the Union speech, and had just said, “I”m going to make America really great again.” In this particular nightmare, Trump’s yellowish comb over had morphed into a nest of thin yellow snakes that were writhing about his head. Yes, I know. I really need to lighten up.
Actually I don’t have a single explanation for the fascination of the great unwashed for Trump. I have two, but as you will see they are related. The first is only ten short, easily understandable words. They are: “Yes, I know he’s a jerk, but he’s my jerk.” This is the only explanation for what some refer to his populist appeal. And certainly he is at least a fellow traveler with others of the quirky group that we call populists. You know who I’m talking about. Andrew Jackson, William Jennings Bryan, Henry Ford, Pat Buchanan, and Ross Perot. I hesitate to include The Trumpster into this somewhat august group, but there you are and there he is. Actually, I’ve had dealings with two of the above list (Buchanan and Perot) and can attest that their appeal to The Common People was always a bit of a puzzle to me for neither of them were common in any way. Perot could whip up a shift factory workers at the Chevrolet plant in a flash and Buchanan could speak to the unspeakable fears of “things foreign” for a slice of our population in a way that compelled them to action. And you all know of the apocryphal story of the inauguration of Jackson at which President Andy invited his ardent followers (The Common People) to the White House for some light libations after the official proceedings. They proceeded to drink him dry and thenrun off with the silver to boot. I’ll not try to describe the demographics of the average Trump supporter for I would only get into deep waters, but I do think there are some common motivations. Anger at the existing elite classes, both political and economic, and a compelling desire for someone, anyone, to empathize with them and look out for them. Oddly, many of Trumps policy pronouncements are often contrary to the interests of the very group that supports him. The question that arises for me is how can someone flying around in a private wide body jet and helicopter with their name painted on the side, wearing a $5,000 suit and $300 silk tie, with a bad hair weave and married to an ex-model from Slovenia represent the interest of The Common Man. Go figure. Is there a chance, just a chance that the gullible have been gulled.
The second explanation goes something like this: “Yes, I know he’s crazy, but…”. There are many things that come after the “but” in this explanation. You take your pick. For example, yes, I know he’s crazy, but…he’s a winner. Or, yes I know he’s crazy, but…he tellsl it like it is. Or even, yes I know he’s crazy, but…he doesn’t care about being politically correct. He says things I would like to say but can’t. You get the drift. There are almost an infinite variety of yes, I know he’s crazy, buts. I won’t take your time to try to debunk them all, but…these, at least, deserve comment.
Let’s take the “he’s a winner” first. What exactly is it that he’s a winner at? His four bankruptcies and three marriages have been substantially reported, and I don’t even know if these are the most important metrics. Sounds like a loser to me. Isn’t winning a lifetime thing, and shouldn’t be measured over time rather than at a point in time. Will he leave the world, or his part of the world, a better place. Has he helped his fellow man. Has he discovered and communicated an immutable truth. Has he added to our store of knowledge. Perot used to tell me that it doesn’t do much good to finish the first hundred yards first if the race is a marathon. I would say that jumping on the Trump bandwagon based on “he’s a winner” is at best premature. I’m afraid that Trump is of the ilk that “was born on third base, and claims to have hit a homer”. Only time will tell.
What about the notion that one should be willing for Trump to act like a jerk because he’s willing to “tell it like it is”. I’m sure that phrase covers a multitude of sins, but as far as I can tell, Trumps pronouncements have little to do with the truth. In fact, I’d even say that if The Donald was walking down the street, and saw the truth coming right at him, he would immediately cross over to the other side of the street. According to Trump, every one knows him and he knows everyone and they’re “really good people” even though he may have just verbally slit their throat. He doesn’t just know one Muslim, he has many, many Muslim friends and they are all really, really nice people. He just doesn’t want them coming in to the country. He has many, many hundreds of Mexican friends and employees in the thousands, but they are complicit in sending us the illegal rapists and thieves, and they should all get together and pay for the “really, amazing” wall he is going to build and make the Mexicans (presumably his many, many friends) pay for. He didn’t just see a couple of odd balls in New Jersey celebrating the fall of the World Trade Center, he saw “hundreds” dancing in the streets. No one else saw them, only Trump.
Trump cannot piece together a sentence without a least one superlative. If one were kind, one could refer to these hyperbolic utterances as mere exaggerations. I’m not that kind,…so I’d likely call them for what they are, bull s*#t. I’m no shrink, but a very smart person who knows about this stuff told me that a person who refers to everything in superlatives and greatly exaggerates whatever he is referring to, is likely to suffer severe emotional immaturity. That seems to fit Trump to a T.
And then there’s the eschewing of political correctness, or otherwise said, tendency to extraordinary rudeness to those he doesn’t like. His minions like this trait, because, I guess, they too would really like to say rude things about people, but feel somehow restrained by society, or their employer, or their church. The misogynists among them, really would like to say bad things about women, but are reluctant. Trump can and does describe women with extraordinary negatives, but then says “women love me”, supposedly referring to his mother, daughter and three wives. Those who tend towards forms of racial animus, feel vindicated when Trump demeans a racial class. But The Donald recovers nicely by mentioning all of the “thousands of Mexicans” who work for me and really love me. I’m pretty sure that demeaning and mocking someone’s physical disability is not politically correct. It’s disgusting. Trump can only be described as rude and crass when he does so. I don’t know about you, but removing the restraints of “correctness” political or otherwise does not seem like a good recipe for uniting the country.
My favorite curmudgeon, H.L. Mencken refers often to those among us in society who act without thinking, speak without having anything to say, cheer without reason as the “booboisie”. Of course, I shouldn’t generalize about Trump supporters, but many of them appear to fit this description. They cover a wide array in our society from the Reverend Robert Jeffress of First Baptist Church fame who says that a religious leader should not endorse politicians, but goes on to do so anyway, to the somewhat larger crowd who only know Trump through his TV shows and only are concerned with whether The Celebrity Apprentice is better than the original Apprentice.
I read a piece today about Trump’s lead over Rubio in Florida about which I care not one whit, but somewhere in the article it referred to Trump’s private club Mar a Lago (the old Merriweather Post estate) which is where I met him the one and only time I’ve been around him. It described a recent expansion to the club (to which none of his ardent supporters would ever be admitted). As a part of this expansion a ballroom was added. You guessed it. He named it the Donald Trump Ballroom. I only wonder if it’s big enough to hold him and his ego?
