By Patrick
As far as US politics are concerned these days, there is still only one thing I really want to talk about: The appeal or non-appeal of Donald Trump, who might be the most awkward (current) front-runner in Republican presidential primaries in living history.
Why do I want to talk about him, again? Because his continuing popularity exposes some major fundamental issues which everybody should be concerned about, for example:
1. Illegal immigration is an issue which apparently can very easily be exploited in US elections, if one is only ruthless enough to go "all the way."
2. Being a "celebrity" seems to be more important for many voters than actual policy issues.
3. Many voters do not care about details. They are easily won over by "buzzwords", and this is certainly not going to change in the future. The "Donald Trump phenomenon" proved this simple truth, again.
The list could go on and on.
Even without Donald Trump, the current line-up of GOP-candidates has never been scarier. The pure thought alone that one of these people could be the the next US president causes nightmares. So how did it come to this point? What went wrong?
While I do not have the final answer, I think I have some clues. Voters need education, Voters need guidance. Voters need good role models. These things are obviously in short supply. Don't get me wrong: I do know that there are millions of highly educated people living in the USA. In the USA, we find many of the best universities in the world. However, this did not stop very large parts of the Republican party to go crazy. They also seem to get crazier by the day. They might not win the general election next year, however, this large group of misguided and manipulated people is not going to disappear quickly. They are here to stay, and they are obviously the product of many years of propaganda.
The human brain is controlled by emotions. Thinking, the intellectual process, always come second. The brain is basically asking to be exploited, and if "political morals" are low, politicians are only too willing to comply, as well as their henchman and henchwomen in the media
I am living in a country where it is frowned upon, to put it mildly, to use any "demagoguery" in politics. The reason is of course that Hitler and his Nazi-party ruthlessly were very successful demagogues, and promptly led their country straight into the abyss. The memory of how the Nazis abused a democratic political system is still very much alive in Germany.
I do not like any of the GOP-candidates, but it still gives me some hope when for example Rick Perry says things like "Trumpism A Toxic Mix Of Demagoguery, Mean-Spiritedness That Will Lead The Republican Party To Perdition", and that other Republican politicians made similar remarks. However, the GOP has nurtured the "crazy" part of their constituency for many years, and now this group of people has simply become too large and cannot be ignored any more. They have "built it" themselves, and now they have to deal with it.
I always find it interesting to listen to "unfiltered" opinions of citizens about politics. Such kind of statements are often "cringeworthy", everywhere, in every country, however, they still contain some "truth" in it, they still reflect to a certain degree what the "man and the woman on the street" is thinking - and how they are thinking.
I found the following youtube-clip very interesting, because the interviewer does it right and asks questions which are "open", and therefore receives honest, unfiltered opinions, without putting too much in people's mouths. The interviewees explain why they love or hate Trump:
I find it interesting that Donald Trump is mostly "remembered" for his comments about the "Mexicans", the illegal immigrants. It is obvious that this is a subject which bothers a lot of people, and they "like" it that Trump is talking about it. This is of course exactly where responsible politicians have to step in: If it becomes an acceptable talking point that millions of people should be deported, and that huge "fences" should be built everywhere, the country is definitely in trouble.
Today, the following article was published, and it is really worth reading:
Well, virtually all the bad things you suspected of Donald Trump are obviously true - examples:
3. As a kid, Trump was a major bully — and he admits he hasn't changed.More:
As shoddy as Trump's behavior at debates is, just be glad it doesn't include any of the following:
Erasers hurled at teachers and cake flung at birthday parties were notable examples of the problem-child behavior that separated Donald Trump from the other kids at the private Kew-Forest School ... He once said that he gave a teacher a black eye “because I didn’t think he knew anything about music.”
What's worse than all that is that Trump point-blank admits that he hasn't evolved beyond that age. "When I look at myself in the first grade and I look at myself now, I’m basically the same," Trump told the author. "The temperament is not that different."
Where did this temperament come from? Two sources, really: a tough-as-nails father and a coddling mother. What we think of today as quintessentially Trumpian language is, D'Antonio says:
A family trait that may have been handed down by their tough-talking father. Donald Trump saw a world inhabited by winners and losers, allies and enemies. When displeased, he would indulge in tirades spiced with expletives. Employees, rivals, critics, and associates would become, in his words, “stupid,” “dumb,” “losers,” or “wimps.”
The Donald's behavior was set from childhood; he credits the respect he got from his father to the fact that “I used to fight back all the time.” As for Trump's Scottish-born mom, Mary Anne:
[British TV journalist Selina] Scott concluded that as a mother who had known true hardship in her childhood Mrs Trump had spoiled her son. “He was Mummy’s boy,” said Scott, “and terribly spoiled as a child. He had everything he wanted and never had much taken away from him.” Trump reminded Scott of bullies she had known in her school days: “I came across embryonic Donald Trumps. Usually people lose that trait of saying, ‘I want it. You give it to me, or I will smash you.’” Trump, she said, had not lost that trait.
4. Violence, and the need to win all games at all costs, dominated Trump's life at school.
Trump was faced with far worse than his father's anger when he was sent to cadet school in New York. There his bete noir was a "screaming US Army war veteran" named Theodore Dobias:
“In those days they’d smack the hell out of you. It was not like today where you smack somebody and you go to jail,” said Trump decades later. “[Dobias] could be a fucking prick. He absolutely would rough you up. You had to learn to survive.”
Dobias, who coached Trump in baseball and football, had no love lost for the kid either. "He always had to be number one in everything," he told the authors. "He was a conniver even then. A real pain in the ass. He would do anything to win.”
Later in life, this manifested itself in a skiing incident with his first wife Ivana, who was an internationally rated skiier (but may have lied about being in the Olympics). When Ivana beat him down the slope just one time, here's what she said happened next:
"Donald was so angry, he took off his skis, his ski boots, and walked up to the restaurant. So we find his skis down the mountain with the instructor. He went foot bare up to the restaurant and said, ‘I’m not going to do this shit for anybody, including Ivana.’ He could not take it, that I could do something better than he did.”
Read many more details at "Mashable,"
Again, it is frightening that this man has become so popular.
I do not believe that he will win the GOP-nomination in the end, but who can be certain at this point?
Here is another video with unfiltered opinions of Trump's supporters - this clip is very funny:
Haha! :-)
We really need a good laugh these days.
Finally, this is a great clip as well - the Rap-video "I won't vote for Trump":
Have a great weekend, everybody!
