Of all the traits of the so-called president trump, I'd like to focus on some of his personality traits which most would agree he exudes. I will then show how those traits combined with his position of power leads to a situation which causes myself and many others to be very concerned.
Donald Trump is a narcissist. He think
he's the greatest thing since sliced bread. He puts his name on
things in great big block gold letters. He tells us he's the only one
who can defeat ISIS. He tells us he's going to bring America (back)
into a golden age of power and prosperity which none before him have
been able to achieve. Even assuming for the moment that all that were
true, how frequently he feels the need to tell us about it goes a
little bit beyond that of the average Joe.
He demands attention. Even in his
previous life, The Apprentice, his twitter feed, his books, lying
about being his own publicist, goes to great length to be not
only noticed, but paid attention to. Positively or negatively, he
doesn't seem to care.
He will disparage anyone or anything
which he feels is not inline with his desires or beliefs. This is
evident by the numerous lines in his tweets and speeches to the
effect of “...The so-called Judge...” or “,
which/who is highly overrated” (substitute Hamilton, Bill O'Reilly,
The Atlanta Falcons, had they won the superbowl, Mother Theresa) is
so pervasive in his speech, as a tactic he uses it about as much as
he takes breath.
He does not have a problem lying, and
worse has seemed to successfully wiggle out of his lies with an
interpretation of reality which denies the existence of objective
truth. The number of times he's said he never said something only to
state, bald-faced and un-repentant that he never said it is shocking
really.
He is a conspiracy theorist, and is
generally unwilling to accept information which goes against his
beliefs. Like all conspiracy theorists, any attempt to show him
otherwise is either futher evidence of “the coverup” or “the
dishonest media” or elicits a further refinement of his belief
which encompasses the presented information. Take for example the
“birther” conspiracy. Or the investigation into Clinton's emails.
Or voter fraud. Or one of any number of similar thoroughly
investigated and documented cases. The level of evidence he demands
to be “proven wrong” is so far beyond reasonable that it is
practically impossible (thus giving him an out to say “you can't
prove that). In the birther conspiracy, he, after seeing his long
form birth certificate and numerous other pieces of information
demanded something along the lines of “a high-school year book from
his graduating class, signed by a teacher”.
So in summary, he is a narcissistic,
loud-mouthed, unhinged (to whatever degree you wish to believe)
conspiracy theorist who the only thing he loves more than attention
is an audience.
I tried to think of a crazier person to
try to, by analogy, illustrate just how bizzare a character he is,
but everyone I could think of prior to his Presidency pales in
comparison. Kayne West was the first person who came to mind, but I
feel that does him a great disservice being put in the same arena as
Donald Trump. Maybe Charlie Sheen during his “wild” phase. Or
anyone from the cast of The Jersey Shore. All these people love
attention. All these people have views on the world which are on the
best of days, fringe, and on the worst of days, schizophrenic. They
have their spheres of influence, but it's limited.
The leadup to his election was
troubling for so many reasons, but the thing that stuck with me was
we gave a crazy person a megaphone and an enormous captive audience.
In such a situation, how could a person like Trump not
spiral out to bigger, stranger, more provocative things?
Despite
that, roughly half of the fraction of people who voted decided there
was something there worth exploring. To the half who didn't vote for
him, we were able to see this pattern evolve and where it would go.
Now, not only did we give him a megaphone and an audience, we gave
him the loudest megaphone and the largest audience possible (the
world), but we gave him power. Offhand remarks must now be actually
considered for their implications because the person making them
controls the largest military in the world.
Some
have said that the system of checks and balances would prevent a
truly tyrannical presidency from evolving, but again, that seemed
unlikely before the election and even less so now. Refer back to the
start of my writing. If he disagrees with something, he will
disparage, insult and circumvent until what he wants is realized. If
that means signing an executive order, that's what he will do. If
that means blasting anyone in government with the balls to stand up
to him in every theater possible he will do that. If it means firing
qualified individuals to replace them with personal friends to whom
he has promised power, that's what he will do. As a single man, the
things he can do with his own two arms is limited. But that is not
what a President is. A president is a coordinator, with a hand in
everything this government does. He may not be able to unilaterally
decide to drop a nuclear bomb on whatever country he wishes, or
repeal the civil rights act, but he can absolutely fire anyone in his
cabinet who doesn't step in line, and make life hell for those he
can't directly fire. He has already proven that. He fired the woman
from the justice department for standing up to his ill-concieved
executive order. He has slandered and insulted members of the public,
the media, and the government. He has made life as difficult as he
possibly can for anyone who opposes him and he is well within his
rights to do so. Those individuals, many of which are in Congress,
the house of Representatives or the supreme court are faced with the
tough decision of potentially having their entire life turned upside
down and dragged through the mud for the next 4 years, or shape up
and kiss the ring.
What
would you do? I can't say I would do any different than many are.
Getting your life turned upside down as a Congressman could end your
career in politics. It could ruin your marriage, children's
upbrinings, financial and psychological well being. And there's
always the belief which, as I said I personally feel is misguided,
that things won't be that bad. This is politics. Politics is and ugly
duplicitous game. Sacrifices are always made even by the best among
us, to say nothing of those in the middle of the bell curve. As Pablo
Escobar used to say, “Plomo o Plato”; Lead or Silver. A bullet in
the head or a bribe in your pocket. Standing up to his insanity will
get you a bullet to the head (metaphorically speaking... I hope).
Whereas support does not go unnoticed. Trump has certainly kept many
of his promises to those who helped him become elected (think Steve
Bannon, Vladimir Putin). And even the lesser among those getting in
line are at the very worst, be left alone. A shimmering prize for
simpily turning a blind eye to the overt insanity the man preaches on
a daily basis.
This
is what it boils down to. We have set all the pieces in place for a
very tyrannical looking 4 years. Whether we have death squads,
curfews, military law, remains to be seen; I don't think we will. But
as I've hopefully made clear, we have installed a government with all
the pieces in place to commit serious abuses of power, and there is
almost nothing we can do to stop it should we desire. We are
essentially at the good will of the administration, and given who
that administration consists of, we should all be very concerned.
