Donald Trump is an excellent salesman and showman who mimics the anger voters have at the failed promises of the Washington, D.C. establishment, as he plays to the “we aren’t going to take it any more” voters. He frightens the Republican-Democrat theme of don’t-change-the-status-quo.
Trump is perceived as a man of action, not just words, and voters want action whereas the establishment does not. The Donald knows how to threaten a temper tantrum and mayhem as part of his pitch that scares or excites, drawing many to his crowds, from first-time voters to long-term supremacists.
When you see Trump’s statement that if there are any backroom deals or any attempts to stop his candidacy his people will riot, does he mean with marches and protests or with violence? Does he mean “punch in the face” literally, or not. As these are his words, he owes voters his explanation.
Voters are similarly confused by Bernie Sanders call for “revolution,” or before that Barack Obama’s call for “transformation” of the United States, and Hillary’s claim to want to continue what the president started. What does she mean?
Showman and entertainer Trump wields his words with shrewd calculation, as did eager leaders of the past, from Caesar and Hannibal to Napoleon, and the legion of 19th Century industrialist barons, and the 20th Century’s eager beavers: Lenin, Stalin, Mussolini, Hirohito, Tojo, Mao Tse Tung, Pol Pot, and the array of Vietnamese leaders from Ho Chi Minh in the North to Diem, Ky, and Thieu in the South, up to today’s wannabes in the Middle East and North Africa.
The Donald has shrewdly watched the shift in standards that now accept things from one group of people and reject the same when done by others. If President Barack Obama, in 2008 and 2012, said his followers would riot if their standard of fairness was not met, they would have said he was not qualified to seeking the presidency. All of Black America would have been indicted.
Donald the showman understands the angry mindset of his audience. The analogy of Hitler storming protesters out of Munich beer halls has intriguing similarities, as he did what many in America now do, both Republicans and Democrats: author a book about his political ideology and future plans and then run for office.
Hitler wrote Mein Kampf , which means My Struggle. He too understood how to play psychological frustration and anger towards politicians who failed to keep their promises. His original title is telling: Four and a Half Years (of Struggle) Against Lies, Stupidity and Cowardice.
Trump has tapped into that anger of today. Many have followed that formula: book of political philosophy and goals and then run for office, as did Mao, Lenin, Stalin, Pol Pot, Apartheid proponents and opponents in South Africa, as well as those seeking to be Republican and Democratic candidates for U.S. president.
I have a nominee for an Oscar for best actor in a political campaign for victory in 2016. And if it wasn’t so serious, I’d also nominate him for a political comedian of the year Oscar.
To bring his script to life, Trump has mastered all the skills of an executive producer, director and leading actor, and calls out, “Elect me president of the United States.” He has done very well in marketing himself and building his Trump Political brand.
We, as Americans, need to look inward and ask how is it people accept the expectation he presents with his PT Barnum type campaign (instead of Jumbo the elephant, he has his big airplane).
This presidential election is a serious test of our ability to select a worthy leader for our nation, one who will follow the Constitution, protect the Bill of Rights, and never play us for fools or suckers, working to unite all Americans. Which way will whoever is elected go: follow our constitution and Bill of Rights or follow the traditions of Mein Kamph and Mao’s Little Red Book, which would be bad for all of us and the future of America.
Stay tuned
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