On The Donald

Note: the nexus of this write-up is based upon a speech by Barack Obama who touched on some of the same issues that I am writing about.  As he was living and facing some of the problems written about it was obvious that he saw these things much earlier than I did.

About Donald

I was looking back at my comments on Facebook four years ago regarding Donald Trump.  I was calling him a racist, misogynist, xenophobic fascist back then.  Many who thought I was being too harsh and too political at that time were chastising me.  I responded that I was just using his own words to make those judgements.

Four years later, with his completing nearly three and half years of his presidency, in a sad way I find myself vindicated.  I was not surprised one bit regarding these claims.  He has fulfilled every one of those evaluations.  I was lacking in one major area though.  I failed to recognize one other failing that he had.  That was his Narcissistic Personality Disorder.  Looking back at it all of the signals were there.  The way he did business in the public eye and the way he had to put his name on everything he touched.  Most of all, his “Apprentice” program that was a way to put him in the public eye when it was suspiciously not a very cost-effective way for a supposed billionaire to utilize his/her time.  Nevertheless, narcissism is common amongst many high profile businesspeople and certainly common amongst politicians.  Therefore, I missed it.  It was not until after he became President that it became apparent that his narcissism was at a level that can only be described as NPD and that he was suffering at a clinical level.  His erratic behavior in describing crowd sizes that are not supported by facts, making up facts to support his pronouncements, firing anyone who disagrees with him, and tweeting his every thought without any thought to its veracity all seems to stem from this narcissism.

Another thing that has not surprised me is his lack of overall intelligence and knowledge on how to be President.  He was not prepared for the job.  He thought it was just another place for The Donald to conquer and his minions would handle the details.  Given that he lost a billion dollars in one year, I am not so sure that I trust him to do this and I have been proven right.    Also, given the fact that he has had a revolving door of advisors who have been found wanting, both by himself and the job, is another indication that the job is far too much for him to handle. 

Most troubling of all, and this goes back to his narcissism I believe, he had developed special friendly relationships with foreign leaders that have publicly indicated their unfriendly attitudes and overt actions against the United States;  most specifically Vladimir Putin of Russia and Kim Jong-un of North Korea.  I do not know how they have massaged his ego but it is not in the United States’ interest for these friendships to exist.

This friendly attitude with Putin continues even though there is information regarding his country’s continued anti-American activities going back year and continuing to this day.  In fact, it has just been discovered that he placed bounties on American soldiers killed in Afghanistan.  Nice friend for Trump to have.  As for Kim Jong-un; ever since Donny has given him his “thumbs up” they have been developing both their nuclear bomb and strategic missile program without any seeming need for caution.  After all, the big guy in the White House is a good buddy.  Isn’t he.   You know what the most sickening part about this is.  These friendships are the antithesis of the long-time public stand of the Republican Party.  In fact, if a Democrat were friends with these two dictators-in-everything-but-name every Republican, probably with good cause, would call the Democratic President a traitor in every corner of the Capitol Building.  Now we are inundated with the sound of silence.

Why Did He Win

General Caveat

There is a group of voters who vote Republican regardless of who is running and can be dismissed from this discussion because, while their votes count, they have an uncontrollable urge to vote Republican and cannot or will not look at any candidate’s flaws or benefits.  They are a lost cause, just as those people who vote Democrat in the same way.  I am not trying to make a big issue of it, just stating a fact: some people vote a certain party regardless of who is running and will continue to do so. 

In addition, there are those voters who voted for Trump the first time around because they looked at his candidacy on a superficial level, liked his pro-business stance, and did not look any deeper.  They are what I call casual voters.  I hope that they are now exposed to more of the actual issues regarding his personality and character this time around and will look a little deeper.

Let us be honest.  Donald Trump was an anathema to the normal Republican candidate.  Although he was a wealthy executive and maybe conservative in his politics, he was not conservative in his personal life.  He has been divorced three times, an admitted adulterer, admits to frequenting prostitutes, has close business relationships with foreign countries on the no-no list for Republicans (such as Russia), and continues to make inappropriate public remarks that would get him terminated in most companies if he did not own them.  Quite frankly, not a candidate the RNC would have chosen or wanted.

First Blush

At first blush, and the most common excuse, falls on the dislike of Hillary Clinton.  That is somewhat true.  Both Hillary and Bill Clinton have left a great deal of negative feelings with many people in this country and it has shown throughout all polls everywhere.  I personally know people who fall into this category and would not have voted for Hillary Clinton regardless of who she was running against.

We also cannot forget that Hillary Clinton is a woman and there is a lot of objection to any woman being President, especially a strong-minded woman, as she is.  The irony is that a strong-mind person is necessary to be a good President, but go figure.  It definitely did not help that the phony email scandal was a major ancillary issue for most of the primary and general election; including the weekend leading up to the general election (if I were a conspiracy theorist, I could not help but wonder). 

Compound this with lies that were being fomented by the Russians on Facebook and other places.  The scope of this is still hard to quantify or understand but it was significant (as a comment one must wonder why the Russian government would back a Republican, but go figure).  There were also factions, most notable the Bernie Bro’s (I like this name better than the Bernie Backers I have be using), which I personally suspect may have been fed from the self-same Russian sources.  Thus, she had problems going in.

Even with this misinformation and lies being distributed, most legitimate news agencies seemed to be doing their job and after looking into them, dismissed the more crass and mean-spirited garbage that was being bandied about.  In fact, even conservative pundits were looking at Donald Trump and were worried enough to publicly call for 1) voting for a third-party candidate, 2) voting for Hillary Clinton, or 3) not voting at all.  They could not fathom electing someone so obviously unqualified.

At that, Hillary Clinton won the popular vote quite handily but still lost to electoral vote.  I will not give any credence to calls of electoral impropriety as all responsible groups have dismissed this as being without proof or foundation.  I know there are always conspiracy theorists out there that will look for these possibilities but this is probably without merit.  Let us face the facts.  While it is not all that difficult to envision manipulating electronic voting machines but widespread voter fraud is just too darn hard to hide because there are too many big mouths.  It would eventually come out and it has not.

Deeper Look

What has never been really looked at and understood was the core level of support that he had that defied all logical understanding.  That was the group of people who supported Trump that did not fall into the auto-Republican voter or the anti-Hillary voter group.  There were just too many voters supporting Trump, especially with the lukewarm support of the Republican Party to account for his numbers.

If one takes a deeper look at the aftermath of the election, looking at the reactions of both Donald Trump and his followers, you realize that there was an underlying message that Trump’s campaign was able to establish and many of his followers were able to grasp.  He was “The Great White Hope”.  His misogynist, racist, xenophobic attitude resonated with way too many voters. 

The Republican members of Congress had set the ground in the previous few years of the Obama Presidency.  As is often the case, the opposition party garnered a majority in the mid-term election of 2014.  With a lame duck president and an opposition majority things do get a little (if not a lot) testy.  This went to historical heights in 2015-2016 with the Republican leadership acting high-handed and childish.  They even blocked the nomination of a Supreme Court Justice so that the incoming President could nominate one, which was historically unprecedented.  All because they knew that Obama was attempting not to make more enemies before he left office as he was trying to avoid a racial divide that seemed to always be hanging over his administration; never more so than in those last two years.  My comments at the time is that if I had a child that acted like those congressional representatives, I would have sent them to bed without their supper.

Compound this with the first national recognition of the “Black Lives Matter” movement in the previous few years and many, many people of a certain bent wanted to go back to a “better” time.  Guess what: their candidate was right there in Donald Trump.  The first public recognition I had of this was when I started seeing such things as “Deplorable Lives Matter” hats and t-shirts.  Oh yes, it was a slap against Hillary Clinton’s description of some of Trump’s followers.  However, when you dig a little deeper into what it was saying you get an obvious message that they, the white conservative supporters of Trump think that they have been left behind and they were be given short shrift and it was about time they were being heard.  As an aside, I cannot help but comment that there is something instantly suspect of any person of group of people who embrace the title of deplorable.  Deplorable cannot be construed as anything to strive for or be known for, period.  That some people do so is pathetic at best.

Hell, his choice of Vice President, Mike Pence, signaled that he was trying to attract that type of voter.  Mike Pence championed the position of hate groups for years: whether it be anti-LBGT, anti-abortionist, or whatever.  He has a track record of not only supporting those positions but supporting those fringe elements that take their positions to the extreme.

Now I am not saying that Trump would not have won in traditional Republican states.  They would vote Republican regardless of who was running (as proven by Trump’s numbers in those states).  This despite most pundits speaking out against him.  What I was not prepared for, nor most others, was that his racist, misogynist, xenophobic message resonated in enough swing states to take the election.  Even after the fact, I was not really in tune with the fact that there was enough of a racial backlash to affect a victory.  It really did not seem all that clear at the time and only became clear when you examine the subsequent actions of Trump during his administration, but most importantly studied those actions of his followers.

Since His “Victory”

Showing His True Self

He delivered what he promised by his actions during the election: his first actions were to misrepresent the number of attendees at his inauguration.  It has gone downhill since then.  He has used his Twitter account to daily self-aggrandize his accomplishments even if he has to invent them.  He makes fun of the infirm, people’s physical traits, looks, and ethnic backgrounds.  This is the type of attitude and actions demonstrated with schoolyard bullies and is generally something you see disappear post-grammar school.  Yet we are seeing this as a daily occurrence from the President of the United States.  It took a little while to discover, via his off-the-cuff comments and tweets, that he suffered from NPD but it has become more and more prevalent, as time has gone on.  Ironically, I, like many others, originally put this down to his being a powerful businessperson who was used to always having his way.  While this may be the start of the problem, it certainly is not what is being displayed today.  Nothing demonstrates this attitude better than his often expressed idea that the President (he) is not subject to the law; that he is above the law.

His revolving door of critical appointed positions point to his problems with criticism.  If you disagree with him or do not toe the line (and I believe the line is a moving target) you are gone.  This is compounded by the situation that many who follow his edicts end up being prosecuted for breaking the law.  I do not know if records have been broken for prosecutions of government appointees but if they have not, the administration that holds the record must be extremely corrupt.

He has never used overt racist language but he definitely supported racist ideas and organizations.  He has overtly supported the “right” of white supremacist organizations, including KKK, to express their ideas.  At the same time, he calls minority protests, including “Black Lives Matter”, terrorist organizations.  One notable issue is his call for labeling the “Antifa” movement a terrorist organization while never saying anything about violent right wing organizations.  Most of his support is by omission, admittedly, but I am not reaching when I say the support is there.

His attempts to “govern” generally fall into the category of accusing the other side of wrongdoing.  He does not try to create anything positive.  Most of his administration’s goals are to tear down what has come before.  Most of the legislative proposals are to eliminate laws and policies that other administrations have put in place.  In short; tearing down instead of building.  It is not sustainable but he does not care because he is in it for the short-term.

I will not speak much on his mismanagement of the Covid-19 Pandemic, except to say that he shows his incompetence to lead the country.  It has said that during a crisis the office can make the man.  Well, it has not happened in this case, as there was not enough of a human being to start with.

His Core Support

He has never been a very popular president.  He did not win the popular vote and he has never reached out to win anyone over.  In fact, he has dissed them more than reached out to them.  Over time, as his true self has shown more, his popularity amongst many conservative voters has waned as well.  They either have been directly affected by the actions of his administration or cannot support his statements or attitudes anymore.

Even so, he had a core of support that has never wavered and has become more and more vocal.  I would say that they have become even a little radical in their support as expressed in a few incidents around the country.  I have come to call them M.A.G.A.t’s.  Obviously, that is because they are prone to wear the “Make America Great Again” or “M.A.G.A.” hats and attend rallies for “The Donald”.  It does not take a rocket scientist to know what “Make America Great Again” means to them because they are not shy about expressing their ideas.  That was when blacks and browns knew their place, Christianity was the “state” religion, abortion was not tolerated, and you did not have to put up with gays.  In other words, an all-white America of a 1950’s sitcom.

The love Donald.  He is the answer to having a Black man in the White House.  He kept a woman from being President.  My goodness, maybe another minority could be running the country next.  They want a WASP in the White House who understands their ideals and is willing to do everything he can to roll back those nasty progressive ideas that have messed up their nice world.  They do not want a level playing field because they might not win.  They want Donald.

M.A.G.A.t’s are racists, pure and simple.  Regardless of how much they protest that classification, actions speak louder than words and they are racists and xenophobic.  Most are pretty misogynistic as well; including the women.  Right up Donald’s alley.  My only surprise is that the number of racists in this country is as large as it is.  This is sad, really sad.

 They tolerate his friendly relationship with the Russian and North Korean leaders even though they have a lifetime loathing of communism; so go figure.

The one thing I have the greatest difficulty understanding, I must admit, is the almost universal support he has from Christian Churches.  I have always wondered how Churches could support the Republican Party so whole-heartedly even though I know it hearkens back to Falwell and his “moral majority” movement which was an anti-abortion, anti-gay movement that supported the Republican Party; despite the Republican Party’s lack of support of social programs that are a core value of Christianity.  Nevertheless, to openly and aggressively support Trump, with his personal background and his negative actions, seem to be even more of an anachronism.   However, this does contribute to his core support.

The Republican Politicians

These people have supported his outlandish behavior from Day 1.  With few exceptions, most notably Mitt Romney, they have formed a wall of support for his actions and excused his most outrageous behavior, no matter how disgusting.  This includes their party-line vote during his impeachment. 

The fact that they took credit for the continuation of a robust economy that started in the previous administration is nothing new but the politicians knew better.  They could see that Trump was a negative influence on the country and on society as a whole.

Yet they support him, despite knowing what he is.  They know better and they did nothing and continue to do nothing.  They care more about their party than the country.  They know he is a racist and xenophobe.  I know many Republicans are as well, but not all.  Even so, there is not break in the support of Trump.

Case in point: despite the fact that Trump was extremely unpopular, despite the fact that Trump was taking the country down the rabbit hole; there was no legitimate, realistic candidate to contend against him in the Republican primaries.  The Republican Party let him run generally uncontested knowing that 1) he was likely to lose and lose badly against any Democratic candidate barring some surprise or dirty trick, and 2) the down ticket (them) will suffer a catastrophic defeat.  I can only think that they are hoping for an October Surprise or are hoping for some more help from Putin.

I have never advocated voting for party.  That is how some idiots vote every time and that is how many votes went to Trump.  I have always said I vote for the person.  Admittedly, I generally vote for a Democrat but that is merely based upon my ideas coinciding with them more often.  However, I have crossed party lines on multiple occasions.  I cannot envision myself doing so this time.  The Republican Party lost its cache and does not really need to exist anymore.  Hopefully, the defeat will be so devastating that a new Republican Party will rise from the ashes and be a reasonable voice of conservatism that is unhampered from this internecine crap created by the Trump debacle.