Before Donald Trump threw his hat in the ring in 2015, and the campaigns for the party nominations commenced, I didn't like him. To me, he was a mediocre blowhard, a clown with a clown's hair. Like most clowns, his schtick wasn't funny. His schtick was a blustery, pompous, self-important and utterly insupportable jerk who made and lost fortunes in real estate and hosted a reality TV show that, just like most of the other reality shows, brought out the absolute worst in its contestants. But the attention that he got from the show seemed to boost his monstrously overinflated ego. Whether or not he knew the quote by Oscar Wilde, he certainly sought to live up to it: "There is only one thing worse than being talked about, and that is not being talked about." Wilde, however, who sought anonymity in his last days, learned the very hardest way that being talked about was sometimes worse than not being talked about.
Trump's motives for running for president were probably inspired by the celebrity he enjoyed from The Apprentice. He was fixated on ratings, on the size of his audience, believing it was a gauge of actual worth. He may also have been enticed by the idea of power, which was something he never had before. Having enjoyed extravagant wealth and privilege all his life, and the dubious celebrity of his TV show, he probably thought that power was the next blandishment to his ego. What he clearly didn't realize was that celebrity cuts two ways - that his image was not simply that of a phenomenally successful business tycoon, titular author of a best-selling (ghost-written) book, but it was also that of a collossal buffoon. I, like many other - probably a majority of - Americans, didn't like Donald Trump in 2015.
Then he began his bid for the Republican nomination. Choosing the Republican party was a calculated move. Since he was running against a few heavyweight contenders, like Jeb Bush, Ted Cruz, and Marco Rubio, I didn't think Trump had a snowball's chance in the Philippines of winning. Besides, on a practically daily basis, he was managing to insult not just individual people in his off-the-cuff remarks, but entire swaths of the voting public - Hispanics, blacks, women, Muslims. And something unaccountable began to happen. Despite his offensive remarks, which I believed no decent person could possibly countenance, Trump started gaining in the polls.
Then the primaries and caucases arrived. I even predicted on this blog that Trump would quit before or just after he lost in Iowa or New Hampshire. One by one, the lesser Republican candidates dropped out as soon as it became clear that they couldn't win anywhere near enough delegates. Trump's offensive jibes at his fellow candidates plumbed new depths of depravity with each succeeding day of the campaign.
By the time the Republican National Convention took place, the party was clearly in a treacherous position. Since victory was all that mattered, the Grand Old Party hitched its wagon to Donald Trump. At the time, I wrote on this blog that the party of Abraham Lincoln had handed its nomination to a man who would bring back slavery if he could. Many true conservatives, who were as disgusted by Trump as I was, withdrew in horror. The National Review, founded by William F. Buckley, the Knight of the Right, refused to endorse Trump.
My politics are unshakably progressive, but I'm able to acknowledge the legimacy of my political opposites - reactionaries, conservatives. Although they seem to be trying to pull America in opposite directions, the Left toward a better, improved society in the future, and the Right back to some dimly-remembered golden age in the past (Make America Great Again), we each have the happiness and prosperity of all Americans in mind. Trump is a pantomime conservative. He is using traditionally conservative issues (cutting corporate and wealth taxes, deregulation, and curtailing immigration) like dog whistles to fool voters. I watched him addressing an anti-abortion rally recently, saying things he would never have said a few years ago when he was a private citizen of New York City.
In 2016, I wrote about Trump eight times - the last time on October 25. Here are just a few of the things I posted on this blog prior to the election.
October 15, 2016: "I have always thought that he is an obscenity as a human being, let alone as a candidate for president. I knew that his disgraceful character would eventually become an issue in the campaign and that it would be his downfall."
"Donald Trump is incapable of seeing himself as virtually everyone else (except for his slavering supporters) sees him: a relatively undistinguished man who was lucky to be born rich, who has spent his life pursuing self-gratification, squandering several fortunes, marrying and disposing of attractive women (who bear him occasional children), and philandering without fear of any consequences - even if it comes in the form of a substantial divorce settlement."
September 30, 2016: "How this clownish billionaire became a populist hero of the American middle class is another of history's mysteries. Michael Reagan, son of the late president, has speculated that Trump has been listening to alot of conservative talk radio, knows what's on the minds of its listeners and has cleverly shoveled it back at them."
Just ten days before election day, my sister died suddenly, shockingly. Still reeling from the loss, I watched in stunned disbelief as Trump's victory was predicted (on CNN). Watching him get elected was the last catastrophe of 2016. The Democrats are entirely to blame. People who would normally have voted Democrat were obviously fed up with the Clintons' watered-down neo-Liberalism, the same Centrism that did nothing to solve the social problems created by globalization. I found the Democratic National Convention almost as insufferable as the RNC. And there is enough evidence to question the DNC's treatment of Bernie Sanders. Who knows but that Sanders, a bonafide American socialist, could've beaten Trump. The strange thing is Trump has been publicly vocal about Hillary Clinton's loss. He is the only president who claims that his opponent "should've won." It's as if he is saying, "Don't blame me, blame Hillary!"
I didn't watch CNN for months. I still find it hard to watch, even if I'm convinced that they're engaged in a good fight against the worst election outcome of my lifetime (I was born during Eisenhower's 2nd term). I mentioned Trump on this blog only twice in 2017. I was reluctant, I think, to stir the shit.
He has learned a little about the disadvantages of always making headlines. The number of people who actively, passionately hate him is enormous by now, and he can't possibly believe it's only because the press have misrepresented him. I'll give him the benefit of that doubt anyway. The damage he is doing to the country, to the environment, and to the image and standing of the United States as the leader of what used to be called the free world is not irreparable. His successor - a Democrat - will have to put back all the things he tried to throw away. The pendulum swings. Unfortunately, American politics is now about revenge. When Trump was elected, I heard some of the people who support him say, "Now it's your turn to suffer. Eight years of Obama was hell." Three more years, however, may be all the time Trump needs to do as much damage as possible.
As I wrote at the beginning of this piece, before we were plunged into this miasma, I didn't like Donald Trump. Knowing that hatred is too important an emotion to waste on someone I don't like, but that a lover of the light must also hate the dark, I can now say, a year into his term, that I hate him with what my dad would've called a purple passion. Even a tragedy has an ending. This feels more like a farce, and I'm looking forward, as H. L. Mencken promised above, to an uproarious conclusion.
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