Donald Trump (Gage Skidmore)
A few years ago I told a good friend of mine that the average American is not that smart. I was quoting from Christopher Hedges’ dire book, “Empire of Illusion: The End of Literacy and The Triumph of Spectacle,” which suggests the average American is so poorly educated, they can’t tell the difference between reality and fiction. She was offended, but now after witnessing the rise of presidential candidate Donald Trump, she agrees with me. This is not the first column I’ve written about Trump’s “presidential campaign.” I use the quotation marks, because I’m still not convinced he’s really running for president. I think this has all been a huge branding/marketing campaign which has given him free press to push his latest project. (He has a new book out.) Trump has offered few specifics about what his administration would offer. He seems to have a sketchy campaign platform which includes cracking down on illegal immigration, banning Muslim immigration and “making America great again.” However, he has not offered any specifics about how he plans to achieve any of this. His answers are notoriously vague. When he was confronted with a question about how he planned to rid the country of Muslims, he answered by saying people “were looking into things.” His solution to ISIS, the terrorist group currently waging a war against the Iraqi government, was to “bomb the s**t out of them.” Really? I kind of think allied forces are already doing that. I keep asking myself, why are people falling for this? Who are the people okay with his lack of experience in actually running a government, his terrible business record, messy personal life and habit of insulting anyone who disagrees with him? And let’s not forget the racism and bigotry directed at Latinos and Muslims. Who are these people that say, “He may be racist and sexist, but …” There is no but! When someone says things like “I hate black people,” there’s no but! That should be the end of the conversation. One of the most frightening videos I saw from 2015 was a CBS interview of Trump supporters explaining why they backed him. Several of them said they liked him because he was “entertaining.” Since when did that became a sought after presidential trait? Even Frank Luntz, the Republican messaging guru who conducted the focus group, said he was shocked at some of the comments.
Trump supporters exist in the truth-free world. You can show them all the negative information in the world and they won’t care. You can show them the PolitiFact data that says 77 percent of his statements are incorrect or point out he speaks at the fourth-grade level, but it won’t mean anything to them. They like him because he looks like he can get things done. (Even though he hasn’t actually achieved anything politically.)In an interview with CNN’s Jake Tapper, Trump denied knowing anything about the KKK or David Duke, probably the nation’s most famous white supremacist. He also went on to say that he couldn’t condemn the group, until he learned more about them. A few hours later, when he realized the error of his ways, he condemned them. The likely reason why he failed to condemn America’s preeminent terrorist group is because he appeals to them. Trump rallies have become seething cauldrons of hate. A black man who protested at a Trump rally in Alabama was beaten up in front of police, another Black man who was wearing an Arab-style headdress was forcibly removed and an Indian man wearing a turban was ejected. Trump supporters also assaulted a Latino man. He said they were just “passionate.”
Trump has encouraged his supporters to beat up protesters at his rally.What’s behind the success of Trump? Well he might be the scion of a millionaire, who grew up in privilege, but he is a skilled demagogue who understands what racial buttons to push to get white Americans riled up. He knows there are a lot of angry white people upset at the nation’s changing demographic, the declining fortunes of blue-collar workers, illegal immigration and outsourcing. Trump’s trick is convincing these people that blacks and Latinos are to blame for their fortunes. This is not new, the Republican Party has spent years avoiding actually doing something about stagnating wages and disappearing jobs by convincing Joe Six Pack, that the reason why things were bad for him was because the government was giving his tax money to lazy brown and black people. If Joe Six Pack did some reading and also possessed some critical thinking skills, he might realize that black and brown people are not doing so well. The black unemployment rate is still twice the rate of white people and black people lost most of what little wealth in the 2008 housing crash. And most of the people who shipped jobs overseas and tanked the housing market are not black! But Trump doesn’t care about real solutions to problems. He just wants attention. And he has being doing this race-baiting act for a long time. Back in 1987, he called for the execution of a group of Black and Latino youths who were accused of raping a jogger in Central Park. The boys were later exonerated of the crime, and the city of New York had to pay them mutli-million dollar settlements. More recently Trump reinserted himself into national headlines by jumping on the birther bandwagon and claiming President Barack Obama was not born in America. He claims to have sent detectives to Hawaii “who couldn’t believe the information they were discovering.” He also said there was “something there” on Obama’s birth certificate. However, Trump was humiliated when the president revealed his birth certificate, showing for the umpteenth time he was a natural-born citizen. Now, Trump refuses to talk about it. Trump has two things going for him. He’s rich and he’s a celebrity, traits Americans worship. Rich Americans have long thought they are somehow better than us average working stiffs because they know how to turn a nickel into a dollar. What many of them fail to realize is they were often handed advantages that helped them get wealthy. Many of them, like Trump and his loathsome sons, were born into wealth. Trump, in his own words got “a small loan of $1 million” from his wealthy father, who left him $300 million when he died. He has also counted on his family to bail him out when he ran into financial difficulties. If you combine those advantages, it’s easy to see why he’s a billionaire. Financial experts say he would have just as much money if he simply invested it. Trump was a celebrity a long before NBC started running his reality show “The Apprentice.” Like most other reality shows, large segments of “The Apprentice,” weren’t real. Former contestant Penn Teller said the climatic scenes where Trump “fires” contestants were not shot in a boardroom, but actually filmed on a set. “The Apprentice” is about as real as professional wrestling. But it was great for Trump’s image. It added to the idea he was a high-flying tycoon and great for his brand, which is his main business now. Nowadays, Trump makes a lot of his money from simply putting his name on projects, while other people put up the money. The investors assume, since the Trump name is on it, it’s going to be successful. But backers of the Trump name have been burned several times. In a scathing put down, HBO show host, John Oliver described him as “selling BS.” Rolling Stone’s Matt Taibbi called him a “an above average conman.” Trump airlines, Trump steaks, Trump mortgage and Trump University all failed.
Trump University was a particularly ugly project, where Trump persuaded rubes to spend up to $30,000 learning the secrets of making money. (I guess he neglected to include the part where he inherited $300 million.) Former students of the unaccredited Trump University are currently engaged in a legal battle with Trump claiming they were ripped off.Four years ago, the 2012 presidential election, which featured the insane fundamentalist Michelle Bachmann, was headache inducing, but 2016 is even worse. Trump has even managed to persuade Evangelicals to support him. Bear in mind, Trump is a thrice-married adulterer, who can’t quote the Bible properly, curses like a sailor and used to operate casinos! This election is making America the laughing stock of the world. I keep thinking Americans are not going to vote for a narcissistic, racist, vulgarian, conman. But then I remember the central premise of Hedges’ book: Americans are not too smart. Be afraid.
