Effectively self-centered, bombastic, offensive, brash, loud, crude, opinionated, misdirected, misinformed, arrogant, rude, racist, and misogynistic — is he our bi-product?
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Like millions of people all across the nation, I sit in amazement as Donald Trump keeps barreling down the GOP Primary Highway, destination: Presidential Candidate. And, like millions of people all across the Nation, I DON’T GET IT.
He has shown himself to be self-centered, bombastic, offensive, brash, loud, crude, opinionated, misdirected, misinformed, arrogant, rude, racist, misogynistic, and most of all, effective in this election cycle. He is winning. Why? How did this come to be? We are a nation of bright, thoughtful, careful decision makers that want only the best for our country. We think through our decisions and make the best one for our interests? We want the best and brightest to be leading our country, right?
Maybe not.
Maybe we are getting EXACTLY what we deserve with a Donald Trump nomination.
I don’t have statistical facts to back any of this up, but it is worth a look.
The last year the Daytona 500 kept track, attendance was over 140, 000.
WrestleMania 32 has already sold 84,000 tickets for the April 3, 2016 event.
The latest invitation for a TED Conference estimates attendance to be “more than 1000.”
College enrollment has been down for the last 4 years. 6% down.
Selfies are more commonplace than any other picture type. Someone actually invented a stick to hold the camera so you can get a wider shot.
“You are” has been taken over in letter writing (what is that again?) by UR, and we seem to have lost all ability to construct a sentence, “When you friend want 2 go out, but UR like…”
Even daily speech has become lazy. We pronounce T’s as D’s and barely open our mouths as we utter the least possible combination of words to get out point across. Important becomes “Impordnt” and Mountain is regularly pronounced “Mow-in.”
Trolls are so abundant in the comment section of articles online, that some of us rarely bother to voice an opinion. (Shut the Fuck up you Fat fuck! That’s the stupidest thing ever. Why don’t you put the computer down, go get some rope, and hang yourself in your bedroom closet? I’m sure someone will eventually find you when the smell gets so bad that someone calls the Cops)
We love our porn! Somewhere in the billions of dollars are spent each year to stream any variety of disparaging fake sex that we can. We love it so much, we make our own and share it with the world after we break up. Also, sickos like to steal it from peoples’ secure servers or cell carriers and broadcast it for a fee to anyone willing to pay. If you are a celebrity and take a nude picture of yourself, you better watch out, because someone is looking to hack in and steal it to post on some adult site.
We have not done a great job of educating ourselves about stuff, and we seem to have a really poor idea of how to prioritize based of what actually happens versus what we seem to be afraid of because we saw it on TV. Starting back in the 50’s we built bomb shelters to save us from the nukes the Rooskies would surely drop on us and we stocked it with a full month’s supply of Pall Malls and TV Dinners.
Now, we shout about Islam and Muslims as if they are killing us in droves while we continue to wolf down trans fats and sugar at alarming rates which ACTUALLY kill droves of people every single day.
For every “Carol” and “Room,” there are a dozen “Dude, Where’s my car?” “A night at the Roxbury” and “The Bronze.” Don’t get me wrong, here. I’m not saying there is no room for the latter, but the audience crossover only goes one way. People can LOVE the mastery of “Carol” and still get a full belly chuckle out of a perfectly placed ‘dick joke,” but I would venture a guess that most people who prefer a Saturday night “Jackass” marathon would not tolerate much of the claustrophobic camera work and character study that is “Room.”
Google will blow up as you read the next bit.
No one knows Dutilleux: Violin Concerto, L’Arbre Des Songes, Filament, or Ravel: L’Enfant Et Les Sortilèges; Shéhérazade, but nobody doesn’t know Beiber, Swift, and West.
To be clear, this isn’t a judgement. It just is.
Some of you remember when Bobby McFerrin came to Northwestern University in the 80’s where very few people came (pre-Don’t Worry, Be Happy) so he had everyone move to the front of the venue, right at the stage, for what turned out to be a really superb, intimate vocal improv show. And some may understand what it means to have yelled out “Horns Section!” at a Ben Fold Five show or “Get Back to Basics” just before Counting Crows took the stage. Far more of us know every word to every Jay Z, Bruno Mars and Meghan Trainor song.
There are glimmers of hope as tickets for “Hamilton” are unattainable, and Cosmos and TED ED gain popularity, but sadly, that is a only a slight glimmer.
Maybe, we are finally getting exactly what we deserve this year. Maybe even what we have been asking for. Maybe we have been silently screaming out for below average for years. Maybe the apathetic majority that love Cheetos and Lite Beer and has never really thought they had a say, has finally realized that if they just get out and vote, they can have anything they want, regardless of how much it hurts them, like when they find a porn site that offers up free sample videos without a fee, or they get BOGO coupon in the mail for Hostess Twinkies.
Maybe this is the year that people are finally realizing that they can elect someone who is EXACTLY like them, with all the self-centered, bombastic, offensive, brash, loud, crude, opinionated, misdirected, misinformed, arrogant, rude, racist, misogyny that we all seem to have when we are alone with our closest buds and know that we won’t be judged.
Maybe this is the year that the lowest common denominator will actually step in to the Oval Office and declare that there will be a wall built to keep Mexicans out, and there will be a block on all Muslims who try to come to America, and abortion will be made illegal and women and Doctors who try to give or receive them will be punished, and ugly women will be ridiculed, and names will be called if you disagree, and lies will be told under the guise of pretending not to understand, and maybe a lot of Americas will finally stand up and say with their vote, “I want someone in the Presidency that is EXACTLY like the person that I secretly am in the dark, when I don’t think anyone is watching.”
But we are watching…and apparently, voting.
Photo: Flickr/Gage Skidmore