Stop acting sanctimonious, we totally deserve Trump
“How can this be happening?”
I must see this sentiment every day on facebook and twitter. Men and women, educated professionals and successful parents, lashing out, struggling to fathom how someone like Trump is not only popular, but might actually win. They bellow that Trump is shallow, that he’s ignorant, and that he’s dangerous. They throw their hands up in disgust at the thought of a reality show braggart becoming the leader of the country. Except Trump is America.
We need to have an intervention, folks. We’re in denial about what type of society we’ve cultivated around us. We don’t live in the enlightened beacon on a hill, the shining light of freedom and liberty, the envy of the world. We live in a shallow, ignorant, dangerous, braggadocious, reality show-obsessed culture.
“If you ain’t first, you’re last.”
In America, the best singer is the one who wins the text vote, not the most talented one. The best song is the one that sells the most, not the most musically nuanced. Movies that make less than a billion dollars are busts and everyone involved is worthy of derision. “Why didn’t they do better?!” we post on social media, entitled.
We’ve conditioned ourselves to be this way, to demand entertainment and gratification over substance, and now it’s finally hit the presidency. We aren’t looking for the most qualified president, we want the showboat who sticks the landing and winks into the camera.
“Actions speak louder than words.”
One of the most intriguingly common critiques of President Obama is that he isn’t doing anything— he’s always golfing, he didn’t bomb (insert random country) enough, he didn’t attend (insert random political function). Reagan’s welfare queen has been replaced by the Tea Party’s welfare president: the best president isn’t the one who makes the right decision, it’s the one who makes the most decisions. And that’s what Trump is selling back to us: taking action. It doesn’t matter if the actions are right or wrong, so long as the country keeps moving.
America isn’t a noble eagle, soaring above the clouds. America is a shark, snaking its way through the dark hoping to find its next meal and petrified that once it stops moving, it dies.
“Every nation gets the government it deserves.”
It’s time to recognize our reflection in Donald Trump. We own every crass and vulgar slander, every regressive and mangled screed, every half-baked conspiracy theory, and every hypocritical diatribe. Trump is a disgusting clown, a two-bit con-man peddling fear and hate and for it he’s met with thunderous applause.
In Donald Trump, Americans see themselves. And that’s the ugly truth.
“I have an attention span as long as it has to be.”
