Donald Trump, March 2015. Photo via Wikipedia by Michael Vadon.
By Jill Chapin
August 16, 2015
Wherever we turn, the news seems to be all bad, all the time. Worldwide unrest and violence, the threat of Iran and North Korea making a nuclear bomb, horrific domestic shootings that seem to be a daily occurrence, the certain realization that our government is working primarily to improve the lives of the elected and not the governed, pollution of our air and water supplies. For so many, just the act of opening a newspaper or turning on the evening news creates a visceral tightening in the gut that can become downright unhealthy over time.
Until now. With summer reruns and nothing much exciting to look forward to, Donald Trump has suddenly and deliciously made us positively giddy with anticipation over what will come out of his mouth unfiltered, unflattering and utterly unbelievable. For once, we are pretty much all united as a nation – republicans and democrats – awaiting Mr. Trump’s next bombshell. And we know he will never disappoint us as he thankfully seems to have no control over his verbal spillage.
For those who believe that President Obama has inflamed our enemies and made enemies of our friends, can we imagine what a President Trump would do? Yes, we can! As horrifying as we certainly know his outbursts would become on the world stage, we are nevertheless in hopeless agreement with one sentiment: We are mad as hell and we aren’t going to take it anymore! Of course we don’t really want him setting fire to already burning embers around the world, but still . . . it’s a diversion to daydream.
We are rooting for The Donald to stay in the race for a while longer; we need him to remain in the public arena long enough to calm our collective edgy nerves by giving us respite from the real and the serious with a media that is working 24-7 to feed our insatiable appetite for the outrageous, the petty and the meaningless.
What does our infatuation with him say about us? I would like to believe that our delight with him is our way of letting the other candidates know that they had better get real too. We want someone genuine, just not as snarky and as unrefined as Mr. Trump to lead our nation out of all that is ailing us. In the meantime, we are immensely enjoying the paralysis of the other candidates who can’t seem to get a foothold on propelling their campaign into relevance. As the contrast between their measured sound bites with The Donald’s brutal words continues to grow, we as a nation get to sit back and enjoy the unexpected gift heaped upon us –a presidential campaign once considered mind numbing but is now a welcomed shot in the arm to get us out of the doldrums.
And if we are being honest, watching Donald spouting off his mouth before he fully engages his brain makes us feel better about ourselves. Sure we can be tacky at times, but never at the level that this presidential candidate reaches. We get a chance to watch from the safety of our homes, just what an ego-inflated personality looks like – the kind that seems to say, I don’t care if you talk about me, as long as you talk about me. He’s the classroom bully who everyone is afraid of because he will bring you down with his caustic vitriol. We know he is not nice. Are we watching because it is fun to see him pick on people other than ourselves, or are we watching because we are hoping to see someone who can cut him down with a sharper tongue than his own?
Who cares? He is tapping into our bursting frustration that our politicians are over handled and over scripted. Donald Trump is incapable of being handled and he plays by no script. So there are no reruns with him; we never know from what angle he will approach a familiar topic. Too often his stated visions for a Trump presidency are truly cringe worthy but like a traffic accident we can’t help but peek at, we are drawn to his pileup of abrasive, mean-spirited words.
Even those who can barely breathe at the idea of a Trump presidency are for the moment, screaming at their televisions yelling, “Go Trump!” As long as he is seen as a temporary diversion and not a serious contender for President of the United States, we are not yet ready to say “You’re fired!”
The Hunger Site
August 18, 2015 at 7:27 am
Phineas T. Barnum, showman and founder of the Barnum & Bailey Circus, supposedly once said, “There’s no such thing as bad publicity.” With this quote in mind, consider that Donald Trump is garnering more publicity — good or bad depending on your viewpoint — than all the other presidential candidates combined. Or maybe it just seems that way. I suppose Trump appeals to those voters who see the world as black and white, good vs. evil, us vs. them. There’s no room for political correctness or rationalizations in Trumpworld. For some, that’s the ideal version of the world. While Trump won’t become the GOP nominee, he certainly is making the Republican party a bit nervous.