A celebrity for decades, Mr. Donald Trump – a businessman who might or might not be a billionaire and who as presidential candidate hasn’t released his tax returns despite his penchant for transparency – is no stranger to audiences or the media.
Unlike some public figures who shy away from the flash of the camera or the clamor of the crowds, Mr. Trump has always done the opposite, seizing on almost any opportunity to be seen or heard, enabling him to further brand himself as a dynamic deal-maker, a serial success and a luminary who lives lavishly.
The majority of the audiences that Mr. Trump performs for now differ greatly from those in prior years in the sense that he has diminished the quality of his presentation yet these spectators, even after its confirmed that he’s not as advertised, remain gawking, cheering and, more importantly, loyal. In other words, the audiences fueling the candidate have a much lower expectation of him, and it seems as if there’s nothing Mr. Trump can do or say wherein those audiences would, en masse, exit the Trump Chamber of Chaos and disavow him.
To date, Mr. Trump has inaccurately and insulting characterized the African-American race as a monolith regulated to the most dilapidated of dwellings, maligned Muslims and Mexicans as a threat to public safety, fat-shamed women, lauded violence at his rallies, been exposed as the proverbial unlettered Manchurian candidate, encouraged the public to view a non-existent sex-tape, mocked a disabled news reporter, positioned himself as a patriot for his antics which aimed to de-legitimize the nation’s first Black president, endorsed a racist and failed policing tactic, re-tweeted white supremacists, questioned whether a judge could rule fairly because of his heritage, and been proven to be a hypocrite on his more basic narrative – pushing for bringing jobs back to America while continuously utilizing foreign labor – yet he remains attached at the hip to his core supporters, which are white voters without a college degree, and has, according to The New York Times, a “21 percent chance of becoming president.”
How does he do it? The answer isn’t as hard as some pundits make it out to be: many of the uneducated voters who pledge an allegiance to Mr. Trump are incensed with the federal government and the media elite and want to bring about a level of anarchy to quell the status quo. The election of Mr. Trump to the highest office in the land would be, to many Trump loyalists, a big F*CK YOU to the establishment.
A few pundits have said the 2016 election is about change. But it’s really not. This year’s election given that the mainstream choices are between Mr. Trump and Mrs. Hillary Clinton is about continuity – Mrs. Clinton will, with her work, extend the Obama legacy – or anarchy.
Mr. Trump is unhinged and is unfit to serve as President, but, again, his core supporters, some who are indeed deplorable for the things they do and say, don’t seem to care. But that doesn’t mean those individuals are completely heartless does it? They have to be composed of some level of decency, right? There has to be something Mr. Trump could do or say wherein his supporters would disavow him, correct? Regarding the latter question, maybe there is, but many would bet there isn’t.
Thanks for reading. Until next time, I’m Flood the Drummer® & I’m Drumming for JUSTICE!™
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Photos courtesy of the author.
For many, another viable alternative to Clinton.
Less than a month from the election? Not much. “Outlandish” doesn’t even begin to phase them, so it would have to be something utterly beyond the pale. Off the top of my head:
– Nominate Barack Obama for SCOTUS
– Cede Alaska to the Russian Federation as a gesture of goodwill
– Tax incentives for abortions
– Declare himself to be the Antichrist