The Trump Phenomenon

All the talking heads and political pundits are so off the mark that it is scary to watch. Oh sure Trump is the catalyst but the real juice is in what we are told and the focus of a nation. If you view Trump as a political figure you are missing the real substance. Trump is a personal social issue. Right or wrong, left or right Trump is not about the politics of a nation as much as he is about the feelings of a nation. We bond or reject him not from the stagnant hallows of politics but from a gut intuition and free flow association with what he is doing.

Once I read the story of The Emperor's New Clothes to my young son. He was interested but not amused. He basically just looked at me and said "duh". Of course the Emperor had no clothes on. Of course it was foolish. Of course the little boy in the story was right. My son just did not get the nuance of how blindly stupidly people follow the garbage they are told. My son did not and did not get other people doing it. Trump is that little boy in all of us.

Does what the man says strike you with a feeling? Somebody someplace came up with this concept that our brain and our feelings can and should be kept separate. Very logical indeed. The trouble is that it just does not work. Great idea but impossible. So when we watch and absorb politics we try to turn off our emotions and think logically. And then we get all opinionated and try to convince others of our thoughts but we do it all emotionally. It is very hard for many people to even speak of politics in a civil tone. Bashing the other side is normal and intelligent debate is very rare. But it is not heartfelt, it always boils down to a visceral recitation of some sides rhetoric.

So here we have a Trump appealing, or not appealing to our feelings. It is so brazen and out of political character that we are not appropriately reading it. We just have to put this round peg into a square hole. Well it don't fit!

Let go. Feel Trump. Probably the most normal reaction is going to be that you do not like him. Egotistical, emotional, flamboyant and just too much of the ugly American we have been taught to dislike over the past 3 decades. But perhaps there is that emotional child within you that stumbles and grumbles and says "I wish I had said that". Of course you keep that to yourself. How often through history has it been the case that the leaders were just someone who said what we were thinking but were afraid to say.

Saying it wrong. Well well aren't we the high and mighty ones. As a nation we seem to love to criticize how someone said something not the meat of what they said. "People judge you by the words you use". Well if I came out and said that an illiterate was stupid because he could not speak proper English I would be condemned.Nowadays you can bash a man if he speaks well but in a manner you do not like, but not one who is too lazy to say what he thinks correctly. "It wasn't what he said it was how he said it", tells us that we are more concerned with how we feel than the subject at hand. When are we going to grow up and stop judging something by how it was presented. Give me a wrinkled up nasty old 100 dollar bill any day over a flowery promise to pay me next Tuesday.

The staid and dignified elder statesmen make me sick. Where the hell is the passion and love of life? Do it wrong go ahead, but do it! In my day the polished and groomed proper folk from old money and dignified surroundings brought us the "conflict" in Vietnam. They were so slow to react to things they brought us race riots but they were suitably horrified. If you do not stand for something you will fall for anything. I would really like to see my president pissed off, just once. And I do not mean at a politically incorrect jab at his ego. I mean about something important. I am mad as hell and I am not going to take it anymore.

Hate him, go ahead. But by golly feel something. And I do not mean feel what you are supposed to feel, feel what you really feel.

He is rich. He is a showman. Nobody is paying his way. He is extremely popular. Notice here we do not address the political aspects of the man. We really are not interested. Isn't the election something like over a year away? Don't we have a World Series and a Superbowl in between now and then? Hey if you have a child they will be in a new grade by then. If you just got pregnant you will have an infant by then.We will have had two different labor days by then. Give me a break. If you think what is going on right now is about electing a new President for the USA, wake up.

It seems that about 3 years ago America was tired of the way things were. And I mean tired. Well when you get tired you rest but sooner or later you get up again and are ready to go again. I don't think we are tired anymore. We are starting to get our pep back. We are beginning again to have the energy to care. And we do not care for business as usual.

During my half century or so foray into the business world one thing has become very obvious. Stagnation is death. Our current leaders are not just stagnant they are in a quagmire and their self made swamp needs a serious draining.

Since the mid 90"s everything has changed. This information explosion has created a whole new playing field. Since the 70's our entire structure of the family, churches, business, environment, sports, schools and property has radically changed. But guess what? Nobody has revamped our political system to reflect these changes.If I am the first one to tell you this I am sorry, political correctness is dead, it just does not know it yet. We are sick of this insistence on feeling good about everything. Some things just plain suck. The crap we are fed is no longer a slant of pc way to say something, the crap is just plain lies.We need to start being proud of who we are, not ashamed to be winners and not clamoring to be victims.

I am biased against East Coast people, I hate comb overs, I think anyone who is rich either got it given to them like spoiled brats or they raped their fellow man in order to "get ahead". I hate reality TV shows, especially like that "your fired" one. Egotists are on my pile of people to avoid. I despise folks who seek the limelight.

I sure hope someone comes along and does what Trump is doing that is not Trump.