El Trumpo

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.