THE DOING
Everyone misread him. They saw the NYC playboy- builder…apartment houses, hotels, casinos, even golf courses. A self-promoting playboy who used an assumed name to promote his own social activities.
They even knew about the bank problems but he just kept going…a man so successful he owed tens of millions to so many banks no one could shut him down.
He had ambition. He wanted to run against Andrew Cuomo for Governor and was told by the Republican Party in New York that he would have to be in a primary. He told them to go to hell…he would run for President.
And when he did few understood what he knew: he knew exactly who his audience, his followers, his voters, would be. Because he had spent 15 years as the host of a very successful reality TV show…15 years…more years than MASH or Archie Bunker, or Seinfeld or Mary Tyler Moore. You don’t spend 15 years on TV without knowing your audience and exactly what they want.
And what they wanted was what they saw on TV. A Boss. Someone who would save them money if they were rich; someone who would fix their grievances against a changing America. A supremely confident, successful businessman, with ultimate power, strong ideas and the ability to make things happen in every show; the confidence to direct people and get what he wanted or else “You’re Fired”.
There he was for all to see. So many years. Building an image that fit his personality, his very pathology to a T. For Trump.
THE SUCCESS
And so armed with key people to instruct him…Steve Bannon, Roger Ailes, the Murdochs and Fox, Steven Miller… he made two major moves that established his entire attack – both based on what he knew his audience, his political base wanted:
Damn people of color especially immigrants. Damn politicians who were losers only caring about themselves. Promise the monied class – the big corporations, those with 401Ks – a tax cut like no other they had ever seen.
This is what else he knew in that first campaign: Hillary Clinton was not popular enough; that besides the fact she was a woman, she stood for very little that the Democratic Party had always projected. Thanks to her husband’s policy successes there wasn’t much left of the Democratic Party’s focus on the middle class, the working class, the blue collar worker, the white population without a college degree. The Democratic Party didn’t seem to care anymore…but they were exactly those who were listening to Trump’s pitch; exactly those who would become his base.
Never a party man, never a man who respected politicians or government, Trump was just Trump and for so many millions that was just fine.
And then there was the inspired decision to have Trump always be Trump…to blow his own horn – his favorite pastime. He didn’t need media anymore, he had social media…where he could tweet endlessly and because of what he said and how he said it – make news every single day. He would reach millions in his own voice without anyone or anything getting in the way.
He never gave up that approach and we have spent every day with Trump for the last four years… his thoughts, his noise, his desire to create chaos when he thought he needed to, whatever he wanted to say.
As President he learned from a new adviser William Barr, former attorney-general in Poppi Bush’s administration, that as President he could say and do anything he wanted and no one could stop him. And nothing has…even an impeachment.
The tax cut that was quickly passed was unprecedented. He had fixed his main complaint about government –too much taxes – without much effort at all.
He convinced people that he would bring back manufacturing…that the Democrats have given America up to China and others and we would no longer make anything of use, no longer hire people to work to produce things. He gave those who once did, hope.
He convinced people that he could keep out illegals by building a wall two thousand miles long on our southern border and that the wall and an increased Border Patrol would do the job…would get rid of the brown horde of invaders.
He convinced people that he, the Master Builder, would undertake a vigorous program of fixing our infrastructure and Democrats indicated their willingness to work with him.
And he told us – though he knew better – that this viral disease which suddenly began appearing in the World in January 2020 would soon be wiped out. He told us not to worry that he and his advisers would fix it.
THE UNDOING
If chaos is the protective strategy, fear is the tactic that works best. And fear is everywhere in America.
Fear that the pandemic continues to get worse…killing and sickening people, closing businesses, destroying our children’s education, keeping people isolated. And yet as Trump keeps telling us it is all going away there is fear of that mindset.
Fear of a suddenly suspect election process…all ballots mailed in will be part of a conspiracy to cheat him out of the election. That ballots will be lost, discounted; that millions of fake ballots will bury the Post Office on Election Day “If I do not win, it was a crooked election…it is the only way I can lose.”
Psychologists and psychotherapists agree that America has had a President who is psychologically incapable of thinking or feeling about anything else but himself
Calling Trump a narcissist is not enough…the field says he is a malignant narcissist who believes that nothing can exist without him…nor should it. Think Hitler they say.
And the promises he has made? Well the tax cut made the rich richer by billions of dollars and kept those with 401 Ks happy. But all the rest have been words with no real results. The Stock Market loved all that available money but since then has crumpled under the pandemic and the inability of the government to provide financial help to needy people.
Yet there is still every indication that his supporters remain undaunted; that despite the fact that so many of the promises have not been kept, despite the lies and misstatements and mind changes and frantic panicky reactions to polls which may or may not be accurate; despite the fact that recent studies show that only 15-20% of the public show a genuine interest in day to day events despite all the noise…that the support remains firm; that his populations remain the same; that an Electoral College victory remains very real.
Richard Rovere, who wrote extensively for the Atlantic Magazine in the 1980’s and 90’s, predicted that by the mid-21st Century, the Democratic Party would be the party of color and that ‘white America’ would essentially be Republican.
Whether that is true now or not, it is closer now than it was at the end of the 20th Century and there are those who believe that Trump leans heavily on what may be the greatest fear of all…that people of color will eventually overwhelm white America.
Today there is no World War but instead a war against technology which now takes work away from too many; a war against capitalistic globalization which has made profit the sole reason for doing business and the American worker be damned.
Biden is reaching deep to reimagine that Democratic Party and talks about putting people to work in a new economy based on taking advantage of change rather than succumbing to it.
Will that promise be enough to get voters to the polls in places like Florida and Pennsylvania so that forces that have frightened and divided America can be turned back?
As Presidential elections again force Americans to look at themselves in the mirror of reality, will the fewer again continue to overwhelm the majority?
Will the strategy of chaos and tactics of fear be enough to push back against the essential goodness of our people?
If not, remember that Trump did not create our fears or our greed, he just exploited them. As Shakespeare said ”The fault is not in the stars…but in ourselves.”
As we look in the mirror, what do we see?
Nicely crafted message here but nevertheless it’s preaching to the choir. Do “unbelievers” see this website?