Thinking Out Loud About Trump

[poliphilo]

He's not a politician. He doesn't have those skills- or those limitations.

He's a businessman. But not a "respectable" businessman. He has no ethics.

He has no ideology either. Just ideas, none of them fixed or deep-rooted. He used to be a social liberal and a Democrat. If he's now a Republican it's because he saw an opportunity and grabbed it. It's all about the deal, all about "winning", all about brand recognition. Some of his ideas may be fascistic but he's not a fascist; he doesn't have the attention span.

He likes to be liked. He likes to be scratched where he itches. He can't handle rejection- which is why he flipped so quickly on the issue of splitting up immigrant families.

He has a huge chip on his shoulder. He resents McCain and the Clintons and all those other blue-bloods because they belong to a club that won't admit him.

(It's club that won't admit us either.)

He is gross and crude and cunning and stupid- and a bit of a pushover.

He has no hinterland, no culture, no class, no allies, no friends. He makes a lot of noise to fill up the emptiness. No wonder he hit it off with Kim Jong-un; these must be two of the loneliest people on the planet.

He's a bull in a china shop. But what they had on the shelves was woefully out of date and nobody was buying. Once he's gone they'll have to restock.

Comments

[cmcmck]

Just about says it all.

He's also a Nazi.

[poliphilo]

He's not sufficiently organised to be a Nazi. He's a populist. And an opportunist. He'll say whatever he thinks will go down well with his supporters. When he does something- like separate families- which disgusts them he back-tracks immediately.

[cmcmck]

National socialist about covers it though.

I suspect his backtracking is more to do with the international reaction- he doesn't give a stuff what his own people think- another sign of a fascist dictator in the making.

[poliphilo]

I'd say it was the other way round. I doubt he cares at all about international opinion, but doesn't want to alienate the people who voted him into office- or his family. My guess is he was swayed on this by Ivanka cosying up to him and saying. "Daddy, you can't do this. It looks awful."

[oakmouse]

I'm not so sure he's stupid. Only semi-literate, yes, and the most gargantuan, straight-faced liar imaginable; he doesn't like realities that don't suit his preferences and he's quite willing to try to ignore or lie them away.

But as to stupidity, I've seen claims by former employees that he's not stupid at all --- the ysay that's a front he puts up, playing the buffoon to trick people, and he's enough of a crude vulgarian that it works.

I've also watched the way he starts a tweet-storm, and then quietly, behind the scenes, implements an objectionable policy, which nobody notices because they're all screaming about his offensive tweets. Although that might not be intelligence so much as a talent for misdirection.

[poliphilo]

You're right. "Stupid" is inaccurate. He's incurious and illiterate but obviously vey smart in his chosen field. He has the intelligence he needs to succeed at what he does.

[oakmouse]

Br'er Fox --- or perhaps Mister Fox, depending on his ultimate fate. "It is not so, nor it was not so, and God forbid it should be so!"

[poliphilo]

He's an old man. In the nature of things he can't go on for very much longer.

As the poet said, "Time ties down even dictators to their dates."