As Trump just declared a national emergency in order to grab more power and get more money for his vanity border wall, let us remember that this man is and always has been a con artist, bent on mastering whatever manipulation he can get away with in order to get his way.
When he became prominent on the national political scene, he was not above tapping into and manipulating the anger and frustration that millions of Americans feel, and distorting the realities of our modern life. Instead, he gave a very skewed, biased, and distorted version of reality, actively fostering a polarizing "us versus them" mentality among his most staunch supporters.
Tragically, it worked. His greatest scam was winning the presidency to begin with. Now that he is president, the scams have grown more transparent, and they are there for the entire world to see. The image that the world had of the United States - whatever the negatives and limitations which may have existed before - have taken a hit with this man in office. It is difficult to view this lying scam artist and his countless and oft-repeated lies in a serious manner, and it is extremely challenging for billions of people around the world to make sense of what Trump supporters seem to feel is logical. Indeed, the entire world has a difficult time making sense of the skepticism that dominates tens of millions of Americans towards science. There is also difficulty in understanding and/or sympathizing with this notion that the solution to gun violence in America is introducing more guns with even deadlier potential to more and more people, especially while gun violence has been effectively reduced in other nations that have struggled in the past with major episodes of gun violence by making guns more difficult to obtain. The rest of the developed world also cannot understand how Americans keep rejecting the possibility of a universal, affordable healthcare system, and keep in place the privatized system that they have had, which keeps tens of millions from being able to afford healthcare, and tens of millions more with low quality healthcare, all while the nation as a whole has the dubious distinction of having far and away the most expensive healthcare and prices in the entire world.
There are other such instances of an enormous and glaring disconnect between what the rest of the world understands is reality, and what tens of millions of Americans choose to believe is reality. And there is no one person who symbolizes these paradoxes more clearly than the elitist Trump, who pretends to be the champion of the middle class, of the working white man, in particular. When you see this man and his exaggerated sense of self-worth, when you hear his legendary megalomania in action, he looks and sounds absolutely ridiculous to anyone with even an ounce of objectivity. That is why so many within his own parties, who normally would be political allies, have roundly criticized this man and his entire approach to governance. When you see the kind of opposition this man raises even among those who should be political allies, and when you see that even his hand-picked team seems to be filled with shady types just like him, it is basically impossible to take this man seriously - again, if you have an ounce of objectivity.
Unfortunately, tens of millions of Americans do view Trump as serious. Despite a well-established and irrefutable past reputation of lies - and even his staunchest allies at FOX admit that he lies - there are tens of millions of people who actually believe this ridiculous excuse for a man, let alone a so-called "leader."
The consequences of these tens of millions of people believing him have proven to be tragic. Hate crimes have spiked since Trump became a force in American politics. The nation is more polarized than ever before, and once again, the entire world is watching.
Trump supporters often reflect their chosen leader's inflated ego and false sense of entitlement. They feel like they own the country. After all, they keep talking about taking the country back, which in our "ownership society," clearly implies that it once belonged to them, as opposed to belonging to all Americans, including those who look and think differently than they do. This is the mythical golden era that they want to return to, to turn back the clock to when they were in control. That is what they mean when they say that they are going to "Make America Great Again."
And they really hate not being taken seriously, even when they make little to no effort to actually adapt views and positions - and candidates - who could be taken seriously. Denying science is not a serious political position in real life. Pretending that an unfair healthcare system is the best system, and even the only system, available to the country is not a serious approach, when so many other systems around the world yield clearly better results. Pretending that the only solution to gun violence is adding more guns into the picture. Ignoring the blatant unfairness and inequalities that exist in this country, and pretending that they are not a big deal or are unimportant, and dismissing those who speak out as liberal crybabies and snowflakes. Then, acting shocked when they are labeled as close-minded and bigoted in their thinking, or often dismissed as dumb and simplistic in their own right.
The rise of Trump has indeed seen a spike in violence in actions and in mentality, and this is not coincidental. Trump and his political allies did not happen to stumble upon this. They actively fostered the increase in violence by their manipulation. It is no accident.
So, when a member of the media is grabbed at one of Trump's rallies, is anyone really surprised? After all, he has pointed them out to his supporters before, and gotten them to boo, as if all of this were some kind of game or gimmick. As if this is the real-life, political version of the professional wrestling spectacles that Trump himself was proudly a part of before he reached the White House.
Again, this is a dangerous and absolutist mentality. There is no flexibility in the mind of Trump when it comes to getting what he wants (although he is a master of being flexible in what he is willing to do or claim in order to get what he wants), and little to no flexibility among his most loyal supporters. They indeed feel that they own this country, and they also feel that this is their time, that this is their moment. Clearly, they do not intend to waste what they see as their golden opportunity. And this is the danger that the United States is facing, where one-third of Americans polled believe that some sort of civil war will become a reality in the near future.
That is why this story is not surprising. That is why, in fact, the most surprising aspect of this story is that it did not happen sooner.
BBC cameraman attacked at Trump rally A cameraman was attacked by an audience member while covering President Trump's rally in El Paso, Texas, according to the BBC.
No comments:
Post a Comment