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Trump’s Sins
Because I try to be reasonably self-consistent, I occasionally find myself wondering about the apparent inconsistencies in the way I felt about President Obama and the way I feel about President Trump. In particular, I ask myself why I’m willing to give the latter a pass on so much with which I really don’t approve while being much less lenient with the former.
I wanted to know about the terrorists and bigots in Obama’s past, about his affiliations with socialists, about his speeches to anti-Semitic groups, etc., because I thought that Obama himself was motivated, at least in part, by animus toward the country I love. I have always believed that he thought America is too big for her britches, a country in need of being taken down a notch, too proud and too self-confident — a country that must atone for her sins. I think his past associations hinted at that, and I think he often governed with those motives in mind.
I don’t think President Obama really liked America very much, at least not the America I grew up in and love.
In contrast, I have little interest in knowing about President Trump’s past, because I think I understand the man well enough without it. I think he’s a narcissist, a self-promoter, a rambling promise-anything hustler, a man with essentially no ideology, and also a man who wants to be loved and admired. I think he has, for whatever reason, identified success as a patriotic, pro-business, get-the-job-done conservative as his path to the love and admiration, the greatness, he wants, and playing that role is more important to him than anything else.
That works for me because of the role he’s chosen, and again, for whatever reason, has him pursuing goals congruent to my own interests.
My interest in Obama’s past was that it might help me to expose him as the anti-American progressive I thought (and still think) he was. And, now that he’s out of office, I don’t even care about that.
I have little interest in Trump’s past, since his behavior now is self-evidently, and usually, the kind of behavior I want in a President, and I don’t expect it to change. I don’t think he’s a particularly complicated man.
Obama was a private, secretive man. Trump, the good and the bad, is transparent.
I think that’s why Trump’s sins don’t bother me. We want good character in a President in large part because character is a predictor of behavior. We don’t need a predictor with Trump: he’s driven by an unflattering aspect of his character, his pride, in such a way that he feels compelled to do things of which I happen to approve.
That isn’t ideal, but I think it’s reality and it works pretty well, so I can live with it.
Published in Politics
Trump’s been interesting since his early NYC days in the spotlight, in that he wants to be liked by 50.1 percent of the public, but really doesn’t care if the other 49.9 percent hate him. Before becoming president, that usually meant going where the swing voters were — his more liberal periods tended to coincide with when the swing voters were with the Democrats, while his more conservative ones meshed with when the moderate voters were leaning the GOP’s way.
I suppose its easier to do when you’re not the guy in charge of doing it, and have to stand behind your actions. But for whatever reasons, Trump’s been steadfast on several conservative issues even as the swing voters went to the Democrats in 2018, which for me at least has been a pleasant surprise.
If you think about it, Trump’s manner is somewhat similar to that of other popular media figures on the Right, like Bill O’Reilly and Rush Limbaugh. They are bombastic, blunt, self-congratulatory, and confrontational.
It’s not an exact match, but perhaps signifies the Right perpetual longing for politicians and media representatives who are eager to fight back against the Left’s ever-absurd talking points.
When Trump can rely on speechwriters, his rhetoric is much better. Considering how disjointed my own thoughts are when not writing them down, I can hardly blame him for sounding like an idiot in off-the-cuff remarks.
In his pre-presidential life, Trump was a showman, a guy who liked to see his name on gaudy buildings and be seen living an outsized life. He was a television star, and it’s hard to imagine a more show-me-the-love field than that — save perhaps politics.
As several have suggested — and I’ve often observed myself — we can’t know what goes on in the hearts and minds of others. We’re all just guessing about Trump. That’s something I usually avoid trying to do, with Trump and pretty much everyone else. But the topic of this post was my own reflection on my feelings about Trump and Obama, and so it’s necessarily going to touch on the assumptions that inform, or misinform, those feelings.
Others’ mileage may vary.
If you go back to the mid-1970s NYC media, you’ll see that much of Trump’s persona was borrowed, right down to the ‘You’re Fired’ phrase, from bombastic, mercurial New York Yankees owner George Steinbrenner. He bought the team in 1973 and pretty much within a year gained the media reputation of being a crass lout … whose willingness to do anything necessary got the Yankees back into the World Series for the first time in a dozen years in 1976, and had them on their way to their first World Series win in 15 years in ’77, when Trump first hit the spotlight with his Grand Hyatt project.
It was also abut six months after Rupert Murdoch bought the New York Post, and he and Trump had a mutially beneficial relationship — Trump as a businessman, would say the things about NYC political incompetence and corruption the Post was saying in its editorials and columns, and Murdoch took Steinbrenner’s back page sports personality and transferred it to Trump on Page 1. Murdoch and the Post didn’t give Trump his combativeness, but they did frame him as the guy who challenged the NYC elites and the conventional wisdom, and that’s pretty much the same template that’s in place 43 years later.
Reagan was able to get past Newspapers by using TV. I have no interest in Twitter but it seems to be Trump’s only way to get an undistorted version of what he wants to say out to the voters. TV is even more hostile than newspapers these days. Even Fox News, which makes an effort at balance, is drifting left under the influence of the Murdoch boys. Tucker Carlson and Maria Bartiromo are the only ones worth watching. She had Steve Bannon, who I regard highly, on her program this past weekend.
https://theconservativetreehouse.com/2020/01/12/sunday-talks-steve-bannon-discusses-senate-impeachment-trial-and-connects-to-bigger-picture/
I have wondered for years if it was Saudi money but he has taken the Shia side so I don’t know. Somebody greased his path.
At this point, any politician who doesn’t use social media to bypass the “news” filter is a fool.
On the other hand, anyone who fails to filter oneself before expressing thoughts on social media is a fool.
Essentially, it should be part of a broader communication strategy.
Obama has some admirable qualities and he made a lot of Americans feel good about themselves and their country. But in 50 or 100 years time his main legacy will be that he and his Party paved the way for Donald J Trump. In that sense at least, Obama was consequential.
I’m sure he had his good parts. He was probably a fine father and husband.
I think he was wrong about almost everything, at almost every level: a fractal disaster, in terms of policy and ideology and goals. I expect him to vanish in history.
I can’t go so far as to say Trump’s sins don’t bother me, but I can say they don’t bother me to the extent many people I respect think they should. I think you’ve explained that phenomenon for me. Thanks.
Wow, this is something new! A politician who is narcissistic, who is a self promoter who lies and exaggerates. Where did we get this strange creature?
Trump is not a bigger narcissist or liar than many of our previous presidents. His respect for women exceeds that of JFK and Bill Clinton. His outreach and help for minorities exceeds that of any Democrat in memory. LBJ gave them handouts and destroyed their community and their families. Trump reduced their unemployment, making them beholden to no politician.
Trump certainly has his faults, but I prefer to have him go on appointing conservative justices and judges, cutting regulations, boosting economic growth and opportunity, staying out of new wars, and so on. I don’t understand people who want to hand power back to the Democrats who openly want to reverse all that, who hate America and hate us.