Donald J. Trump – ‘The Art of the Steal’ (#130)

Donald Trump stole the Republican Party, from right under the Republicans.  

He stole the Party by never being a committed Republican with core conservative values, but was at times a registered Democrat, or an Independent, with lifelong held values that would be considered generally more liberal than conservative. His pro-choice stance (until recently), his anti-gun, anti-war, anti-open trade, anti-immigrant, low commitment to NATO, non-Christian, non-conservative way of life - three marriages, high profile partying and philandering, and superficial to no knowledge of the Bible, which is important to a large core of the Republican constituents and its leadership - and the list goes on - (no judgments here, just pointing out the non ‘conservative’ nature of the man), makes him a poor caricature of a Republican, yet he won the primaries with the largest vote for a presumptive nominee in Republican history.  

Somehow, Donald Trump, with no serious commitment to the Republican Party, known in the past primarily for ‘liberal’ values; and with his recent and present close relationships and associations with the Democrats (closest advisors for instance); and the Clintons; and with grown children that primarily backed Democrats (till recently, most of his children would have been considered Democrats, with their disproportionate backing of Democrats and their causes, in the recent past, with their financial contributions); ends up on the stage with his ‘non-Republican’ children as the top Republican, accepting the Republican nomination to run for President of the United States of America.

As if that wasn’t head-scratchy enough, and to further confound us all, Donald Trump pulled off this broad-day-light political heist in the most improbable manner, by being totally inexperienced in governing, entirely undiplomatic, clueless about global foreign or economic policy, being openly anti-trade, anti-immigration, rude, insulting, thoroughly obnoxious, bigoted, racist, misogynist, irrational, and provably untruthful. For the Republican leadership and elite he was thoroughly unacceptable and thus openly rejectable; which they did, rejected him with no reservations as totally unacceptable. Yet, he rode rough shod over them to the very top and hijacked their Party, leaving them dumbfounded and shell shocked.

Like the other infamous New Yorker – past Mafia boss of the NY Gambino Family, John Joseph Gotti Jr., called the ‘Teflon Don’, because no criminal charges ever seemed to stick to him, the innumerable and seemingly fatal flaws and mistakes of Donald Trump, never stuck.

Just one or two of those flaws would have been enough to sink most normal nomination hopefuls, as they regularly do, and did, with the other recent hopefuls, but ‘The Donald’ sailed imperiously right through it all (Teflon Don), not bothering to explain or apologize for his mistakes, full blown lies, or glaring short comings in his governance experience or knowledge, choosing instead to attack the questioners personally, in such a vicious,  juvenile, schoolyard bully way, as to turn the Republican nomination primaries into a rather gruesome blood sport.  

The political debates quickly became personal insult fests (even the moderators were not spared) and dropped to ever new lows of propriety, where important national policy issues were ignored in favour of delivering ever more personal and damaging body blows. Towards the end of the primaries, comments about personal appearance, size of physical body parts, the candidate’s wives, and other family members (Ted Cruz’s father), were all fair game in a relentless down and dirty, destroy the opponent at all costs, ‘Republican nomination election campaign’. Donald Trump supporters loved the lower level of dirty scratch-the-eyeballs-out type of politics that Trump introduced, into America’s already negative attack ad infested politics, which by now seemed tame by comparison.

Donald Trump rallies became battle grounds of crazed supporters venting physical aggression on anyone that dared protest Trump or his wilfully provocative and inflammatory statements. It was all so insane and unlike what first world politics should be like, and so-far-removed from the staid and proper politicking of yester-years of American politics. Some of the greatest former Republican Presidents Lincoln, Roosevelt, & Eisenhower must be ‘spinning’ in their graves.

The angry, suspicious, fearful of all Muslims and others foreigners, gun-toting, hunting-loving, blood-sport crazy, lets 'shoot-em-up', or 'bomb-the-hell-outta' them Americans, making up a large portion of the Republican base, loved the ‘destroy by name calling, personal attack and insult’ spectacle Trump put on.  

It was his latest and best TV reality Show, ‘The Trump Republican Primaries’, during which he brought out into the open, the fear, hatred, racism and bigotry lurking just under the ‘freedom and equality’ skin of Republican America.  

It was for so many of the blue-collar and lower ranking Republicans, the bikers, the truckers, and the white supremacists, a once in a lifetime must join TV show, where they got to vent and see their anger, their bigotry, their hate, their fear, being displayed almost every day on TV, for months.  

And, they got to see their very own Messiah indulge in crude insults, innuendos, outright lies, treachery, character assignations, public humiliations of the other candidates, and constant shameless braggadocio, and they loved him for it. It was as if a Fox News dream candidate, one with no view point but theirs, and just like them, had suddenly manifested in Donald J. Trump. The Republicans finally got someone that brought out their inner beliefs and fears without having to hide them anymore. Donald Trump, by articulating these hereto socially unacceptable personal feelings and beliefs, plainly, on national and international television, legitimized the open venting against all things that Republicans secretly and not so secretly have abhorred. It was to them It was the ‘politics of division and hate’ that up to now had been practiced mainly in regions of politically, religiously, ethnically and wealth disparity riddled democracies like India, by the most inept and unqualified ‘gangster politicians’. Still, here it was, being practiced in the first of all first world countries in 2016.   

It didn’t matter to Donald Trump’s fans that he spoke in fractional sentences, made no sense, was factually wrong, didn’t know the subject matter, flip-flopped on statements and issues, contradicted himself and made U-turns; made short sharp bold statements that were for most part nonsensical, meaningless and undoable, unconstitutional, probably illegal, bigoted, racist and immature to boot; it really didn’t matter, they had their man.

Donald Trump is rich; he himself has stated it emphatically often enough. But he isn’t the richest, or the smartest, the steadiest or the most moral of businessmen. In fact, on all those scores he gets beaten handily by too many more successful men and women in America, and outside of America. He has quite a checkered business record with multiple business failures, and bankruptcies, and on the personal front he wouldn’t qualify as the most ethical or moral of persons. And while that doesn’t necessarily disqualify one from seeking the highest office in the land in America, it usually makes for a short run for those that do. But not for ‘Teflon Don’, he out-lasted and bested all those running against him that may have beat him on most of those normal minimal bar setting standards of acceptability.

His greatest weakness though, is his personality. He is perfectly in his right to live the life he pleases, but when he seeks the highest office of the most powerful nation on earth (by far), he becomes a concern for the rest of the World, and his personality, not his business record or his personal life, becomes an issue.  

It is in such a circumstance that one gets concerned about his lifelong petulant narcissism, his willingness to use half-truths and outright lies to either promote himself and/or destroy others. His willingness to use whatever is necessary, however un-savoury, to other more balanced human beings, to get the impact he is looking for, and to achieve his goals, becomes of grave concern when viewed from the perspective of the Presidential office.  

And his penchant for judging others from a different set of rules book than himself, or the classic bully trait of dishing it out liberally, but not being able to take his own medicine, makes for a poor specimen for the highest office.  

His notoriously famous thin skin makes him extremely vulnerable to the constant barrage of criticism leveled at the leader of the free World (justified, or more often than not unjustified; ask Obama). And that level of insecurity and low self esteem, and his over-the-top reactions to such criticisms and slights, may make him nothing more than an irritant, or comical, in ordinary everyday life, but in the context of the President, a rather dangerous a man with that much power at his finger tips.

Yet, improbably, he has his Republican supporters convinced that he will be a steady hand on the tiller as he surely and deftly steers America to some form of lost former greatness and grandeur.  

He has convinced them that he is smart and rich enough to do whatever he pleases, in the manner he pleases, and when he pleases, even as the President of the United States. It is the height of naivety, but he has them convinced. And because they believe that of him, they think he can pull off even the most outlandish things that he so flippantly promises. They don’t understand, and neither does he, frankly, the soul-sapping, mind-bending constraints and challenges put on the President in trying to govern a big messy, fractured, bureaucratic Democracy like America, where just about everyone has a strong opposing opinion, and a gun to back it up (or access to one) with any number wanting to shoot you (the President) on any given day, for ideological, political reason, or just to gain their fifteen minutes of fame (Ronald Reagan’s attacker).  

The mere fact that Donald Trump, as the President of the United States, will not be able to do whatever he pleases, when and how he pleases, seems to escape all those that think he can.  

In the end his supporters don’t care for such minor, confuse the main issues, irritating ‘liberal’ pesky details; they just yearn for more of his style and couldn’t care less for the startling lack of substance in it.   

They found him and his politically incorrect style liberating. It gave voice to their own bottled up frustrations, anger, bigotry, racism, self interest, and their need for radical change now.  

Not Obama style, politically-correct, accommodate-the-World kind of change, but the real American-style kick-ass (‘bomb them into the stone age’) type of change.  

You know, the REAL American kind of change, not the Black Kenyan-born, Muslim-named and therefore surely Muslim, Ivy League nerdy, spineless, sell out America kind of change, that two terms of Obama and the snivelling Country and economy ruining Democrats had given them, and in doing so had lost them their beloved ‘real America’, but the kind of change that only the impudent, brash and trash-talking, close the borders, hunker-down, and let the foreigners pay for everything, kind of Donald Trump change.  

That portion of the Republican base, that wanted the REAL change voted with their hearts, and gave Donald Trump his nomination, without ever asking him the crucial question about his promises - how?

They wanted a man in their White House who really didn’t give a sh*t, except for what concerned and benefited him and his own. They, the base of the Republican Party, considered themselves, and their Country to be ‘his’ own. They wanted themselves and the real America put ‘first’, and, at the Convention, he promised to put them and America ‘first’. And of course he was also going to “Make America Great Again!” He had promised to do that from the very first, repeatedly.  

The question that goes begging - how do you make a country great again when it is already the greatest political, economic, cultural and military super power on earth? The whole idea is an oxymoron but it sounds good.    

The fact, that not much of what Donald Trump says daily really matters much to him, and that to him it is simply a tool-for-the-day, to get what he wants and then he can change his mind or just back track without apology, as he usually does, also seems to escape his supporters.  

The Republicans that decided to elect him as their nominee don’t care about his insincerity in what he utters daily, his politically and factually incorrect straight talk, and wild improbable promises, were enough for the supporters to let him steal their Party from them, while the Republican leadership and elite, admonished, lectured, distanced and rejected him to no avail, and floundered helplessly, totally aghast, while their constituents simply ignored them, elected him in record numbers, and handed him the Republican Party!  

It was priceless to watch.