Donald Trump the Right Man at the Right Time [Warden]

If you didn't already know that today's media is nothing more than a propaganda arm for the left, an easy giveaway would be their reaction to the Trump presidency. Just about every mainstream political analyst will tell you how much he loves the history, strategy and workings of politics. That, of course, isn't true at all. Media members are passionate about their political opinions and they certainly do get excited when they think they've won a political victory, but that is simply common partisanship, not a true interest in politics as a field of study.

To a truly dispassionate observer of political strategy and history, the rise of Donald Trump would be the event of a lifetime. His emergence and later success would evoke interest, not animosity. His presidency was a Black Swan event that any non-partisan would be immensely motivated to deconstruct.

How and why did this blustering, uncouth, under funded, politically inexperienced outsider succeed when the odds appeared to be so stacked against him? I'm not qualified to say, but I do think he has one quality that is critical to understanding his impact and it is that Donald Trump is the only person I know in America that actually possesses fuck you money.

You've probably heard people talk about fuck you money. Maybe you've talked about it yourself -- the idea of having enough wealth that you don't have to take any shit from anyone ever again. It's an attractive proposition, to say the least.

But for Americans not named Donald Trump, fuck you money is a myth. There isn't one single high profile wealthy person that can't be made to bow to the right kind of pressure. We've seen this demonstrated countless times as the social justice warriors of the left target, isolate, and humiliate powerful people into giving public apologies for the most trivial offenses.

Why, you might ask yourself, don't these people just stand up for themselves? They've got plenty of money. They should be untouchable.

The reason is that fuck you money isn't just about the money. It's about how one values money.

Wealthy people are usually materialistic, but they're not primarily interested in the utility of material things. What they're interested in is the status attached to the things that they buy.

It's true that money doesn't buy happiness, but having a good deal of it helps. The problem is that diminishing returns apply to the amount of satisfaction it can purchase. Does a $500,000 car bring five times the happiness of a $100,000 car? Its pretty clear that it does not. At a certain point, the primary difference between luxury goods is the status that they confer upon their respective owners.

What wealthy people value primarily is status. And that is why they do not truly have fuck you money--because they care what people think and this is not something that money can buy.

Which brings us back to Donald Trump. President Trump has fuck you money because he defines success differently than do other people at his level of wealth. He cannot be shamed into or out of a particular action or position because he simply does not care how the chattering class views him. This, alone, makes him a fascinating character and one deserving of study. I also believe it's what makes Donald Trump such a uniquely effective politician.

It's this quality that has Trump's opponents spinning like tops. They've gone back to the same playbook for so many years that they don't know how to adapt to someone who is immune to their historically most potent attacks. Trump has ripped back the curtain on the wizards of public shaming and revealed them to be powerless crybabies.

But he's the only man who could do it. He had both the money and the attitude necessary to the task. His supporters grasped the importance of this unique advantage early.

I am not alone in this assessment. What is less obvious is exactly what it is that makes Donald Trump tick. He loves to talk about winning, but how does he define winning for himself? My best guess is that it's getting things done when other people say you can't. It's an internally motivated, fuck you approach to life that I don't think most politicians possess.

Pundits on both the left and right have asserted that Hillary Clinton is the only possible candidate that a guy like Trump could have beaten. While I think that she was a terrible candidate, I also believe that they have it backwards. I don't think a single GOP candidate could've beaten Hillary other than Trump, as he was the only one who inspired enthusiasm within the frustrated and dispirited base.

I've heard rumors that people who actually know Donald Trump say that the man they know is nothing like the one you see on television. I suspect that this is true and that most of what you see is a clever act designed both to appeal to his supporters and to frustrate his opponents.

I also believe that Donald Trump is far more intelligent and capable than his opponents and even many of his supporters believe him to be. This video of a young Donald Trump on the David Letterman show in the 1980's gives some insight toward the man. It's worth noting that he was banging the drum about our "allies" taking advantage of us 30 years ago. Also notice how intelligent and well spoken he is. Did he somehow lose all his smarts as he grew older or is this interview a glimpse of the man behind the mask?

The big question as we move past Donald Trump's first year in office is whether Trumpism is a force that is dependent on the man bearing its title or whether it's a cultural and political wave that will retain its power when he leaves.

I don't have the answer to this question, but I think it can be confidently asserted that there is no returning to the status quo after Donald Trump has exited the stage. We are at a different place now--one that is simultaneously more visceral, raw and honest.

posted by Open Blogger at 08:03 PM

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