“I would build a great wall, and nobody builds walls better than me, and I’ll build them very inexpensively. I will build a great, great wall on our southern border and I will have Mexico pay for that wall”. Those words were spoken by than non-other than the 45th president of the United States.
Read those words once again and see whether or not it makes any more sense than the first time you read it, pretty unrealistic right? You are not watching a movie, nor are you listening to a badly scripted radio serial – you are listening to the words of a man who is now president of the United States. The same man who said “I could stand in the middle of 5th Avenue and shoot someone and not lose any votes.
Do those words betray the poise and wisdom of an elder statesman or the recklessness and intemperance of an angry old man? You be the judge. But what if this guy is faking it? What if this guy has aggregated the cunning and experience of wheeling and dealing to the degree that he feels confident in trumpeting – the ultimate bluff? That ultimate bluff is the stuff of hubris, money, and power gone awry.
Reflect with me on Donald Trump’s ascension to his party’s nomination and then the presidency. Didn’t your gut tell that he said and did everything to disqualify himself? Yet that insane recklessness engendered him to a constituency of voters’ who echoed his refrain of “Make America Great Again,” while embracing neo – nazi’s and other relics from America’s shameful past who “spewed hate again”. The ultimate bluff consists of the following ingredients: disrespect, pomposity, rudeness, intransigence, impenitence, insults, deprecation, and misogyny – all without giving a damn. That is high stakes poker – minus the rules of engagement. He had nothing to lose, but everything to gain – the ultimate prize – presidency of the United States.
Trumposity – belligerence and bombast won the day! All because political hacks (all and sundry) were blindsided by a candidate who didn’t care for politics, the people or the country he claims to want to make great again. Is there a cynical, calculating and cunning mind behind the belligerence and bombast? Has he calculatedly used the power and the might of his uncouth and irreverent rhetoric to stoke the echo chamber that resonates with him? Is he so diabolical that he is certain his ultimate bluff will terrorize and immobilize his victims?
Consider this; his rhetoric alone has put the brakes on immigration and refugee policies, causing people to stay the hell away or go into self – deportation. His pronouncements have become the de-facto laws of the land as congressional republicans play Pontius Pilate, all this, while traditionally respected treaties, bi-lateral agreements and strategic diplomatic alliances are disrupted through Trumposity. He refers to any negative reporting on himself and his administration as “Fake News”. His rhetoric and invective has maligned his predecessor, President Obama’s status to the extent that to this day 20% of Americans still think he is foreign born, 29% think he is Muslim and 43% of republicans agree. Now as I write this piece, this wanna – be dictator just tweeted, “North Korean leader Kim Jong Un just stated that the “Nuclear button is on his desk at all times, will someone from his depleted and food starved regime please tell him that I too have a nuclear button, but it is a much bigger & more powerful one than his, and my button works.”
Even to the Trump voter, that must seem crazy. To the average voter like you and me its really, really, really CRAZY! Be assured that crazy knows crazy and in the world of cards, crazy will continue to raise crazy while we hold our collective breaths. Imagine, our beloved United States of America held to ransom by a ‘depleted’ Dictator and a wanna – be Dictator, go figure!
