(This post started out as a comment in response to Donald Trump: America’s Scapegoat at K. S. Bowers Blog, but got too long and tangential, so I moved it here.)
The biggest problem I have with Donald Trump is that he is like looking into a fun house mirror. He is a distorted version of ourselves where we might listen to something he says and think, “Hmm, maybe there’s a point there.” Then he’ll keep talking and you’re like, “Woh! Woh! Woh! Woh! Woh!”. Thus, throwing out any seed of a good idea for the Left and forcing the Right to scamper through their “double-speak” dictionary so they may reiterate his words in a more palatable manner.
Naturally, this leads me to realize the next biggest problem with Trump. Not only is he a crackpot who takes everything three steps too far, it’s that there aren’t enough Americans who are self-critical enough to reach the, “Woh! Woh! Woh! Woh! Woh!” conclusion.
Why is this a problem I have with Trump? Well, honestly, it’s a problem I have with all politicians. It seems like they’re taking advantage of people who cannot think for themselves or are politically apathetic. Rather than leading them like horses to water so they can drink, politicians spray them with a fire hose in order to chase them off or distort their vision until the fun house mirror seems clear and insightful.
I have never registered as a democrat or republican because I don’t believe the rhetoric of either side. A good idea, should be a good idea and ought to be the result of sensible discourse and compromise. Slowly, over the past few decades we’ve traded the idea of compromise for the fun house mirror. Our politics (life) has begun to imitate reality TV (art); to the absurdity where both sides have adopted a default position of, “Why should I be the one to compromise?”
Why, indeed?
Making these difficult compromises is why we elect politicians. Our citizens revel in our pluralistic society and the “Great American Melting Pot”, until they’re asked to accept it.
I could go on and on about Trump, but I’ll finish with this last observation: He is very proud of paying for his own campaign, but one of the primary reasons he is able to get away with this as cheaply as he has thus far is through his abuse of the fun house mirror.
Because our modern media laps up Trump’s words faster than a starving abandoned kitten does milk, they perpetuate the problem and Trump is taking advantage. Rather than reporting the news with a sensible eye, the media sensationalizes it for more eyes.
After this opening salvo of reporting, people are then forced to listen to “experts” muckrake how ridiculously polarizing and distorted Trump’s views are, (as if this were actually news!) until Trump comes out with his next daily quote.
Trump has been the best thing to happen to political news sources since the internet. And they are the best thing for his campaign as he is in the news 24/7 for free.
While the two dance this macabre parasitic Macarena, it is unfortunate the fun house mirror makes it look like a Viennese Waltz.
