I’d like to say we all know the depths of this individual and assume everyone else sees through the madness, but then, not only did he bungle his way through elite corporate realms with teflon skin, turn himself into a beloved network TV Nero-hero figure, and despite openly advocating prejudice, mocking disabilities, boasting about habitual sexual assault and general predatory behaviour, he became POTUS.
There are explanations for this – namely, obviously a lot of folk harbour shared enthusiasm for his brand of greed, narcissism and throwback-barbarism – but I most like what Keller Easterling talks about in her Superbug theory. She describes a general context from which we can view the Donald as just a particularly grotesque, pussy symptom of the globalised patterns of social, structural, technological and economic development where we dutifully subscribe to legally-protected corporate geopolitical manipulation and unchecked power structures that are difficult to challenge. Putting to one side how the fella manages the myth of being a captain of industry while skating on taxes because his business endeavours apparently run at a loss – if not into the ground were it not for reliance on much smarter, more competent (system-gaming) people on his payroll, or indeed inherited wealth to prop him up – he has managed to play that cleverist of tricks, amplifying and solidifying his rabble-rousing agenda by baiting those of an opposite ideological stance into validating and reinforcing his position through their (our) outrage.
Reducing choices to black or white binary positions allows people who may not consciously identify as a racist, xenophobe, sexist, bigot, etc. but are economically disadvantaged, and coupled with, if even to a mild extent, discomfort with certain liberal cultural or ideological sympathies held by those opposed to him, it is enough to throw in with the guy despite the unsavoury overarching agenda. People want change, always. The Donald positioned himself as a disrupter to the politics as usual, and a platform of apportioning blame for economic hardship. The same logic and demagoguery allowed the UK to be sufficiently divided enough to clumsily back out of the EU – the pain and reality of that only just starting to reveal itself. Individuals, if their personal struggles are sufficient are more than willing (or ripe for manipulation) to compromise their morals in the interest of self-preservation. Divide and conquer.
Snarky satirical doodles wont change anyone’s mind, but it makes me feel a tiny bit better so I will be adding to these.
*Clarification on use of the word ‘pusy’. “Pus is an exudate, typically white-yellow, yellow, or yellow-brown, formed at the site of inflammation during a bacterial or fungal infection.” …. not a double-entendre.