Well at long last, a few days before Super Tuesday, the Republican field and the Republican party decided to take Donald Trump (or as John Oliver says "Drumpf") seriously. The arrogant idiots deserve what they have got. The truth is that Trump always took himself seriously. People have to understand that he is a developer. Call him a project developer, not just a real estate developer. Two things you have to understand about developers. First they take themselves very seriously. They believe in their dreams. They believe in their projects. Second, they will lie, cheat and steal to bring those projects to fruition.
In politics this seems like hypocrisy. On the one hand he really believes what he says when he says he wants to make America great again, that he's going to build a wall, that Mexico is going to pay for it. But most importantly he believes in putting himself in the White House and putting his name on the Presidency. He gets all excited when he thinks about the "Trump White House" or the "Trump Presidency" or "President Trump." On the other hand he continuously lies in order to get to that goal. The media and the political "establishment" doesn't get this. Nor do they understand the attraction of someone like him.
The establishment and the media are used to people who are utterly insincere. But these insincere people won't tell bald faced lies, because they don't want to be embarrassed by getting caught in those lies. Because they are insincere, they don't want to get caught in their insincerity. Trump is in fact sincere. That's his great attraction. That's why people like him. He isn't insincere. He just lies. There is a huge (YUUUUGE!) difference.
The media and the politicians are cynics. Trump is a dreamer. The reason he can sell ice cubes to Eskimos is because he really believes they need ice. Politicians and the media are used to people who don't really believe what they are saying and they parse words to make people think they are cleverly not "lying." In fact people see through this and they are tired. Trump is a breath of fresh air. Who cares if he lies. They all lie. At least he believes in the results. Wouldn't it be nice to have someone who actually believes? That is his attraction.
The problem of course, to paraphrase Monty Python, is that he is that most dangerous of people, the cleverly sincere lier. In other words he beleives in his project. The only difference between a developer and a con-man is that a developer believes he has something to sell, he believes in the project. A con-man knows he has nothing to sell. Donald is dangerous because he doesn't care how he gets his project (putting the Trump name on the White House so he can make America great again) off the ground. Trample the constitution, no problem. Lie, no problem. Call people names, no problem. Be vicious about the competition, no problem. Send mixed signals to racists, no problem. He only cares about the result. As he would put it "Winning."
Those of us who care about America more deeply find this frightening. This is why people compare him to Hitler. Hitler wanted to make Germany great again. And he tried, at the cost of humanity, civilization, decency, justice, and millions upon millions of lives. He didn't care. He cared about the ultimate result. Thank God he never got it. Trump raises the vision of somebody who doesn't care. He believes the ends justify the means. That morality takes a back seat. That decency is secondary. That the constitution is just a piece of paper.
That is the problem with Trump. That is what makes him so scary. Not that he is a lier in the usual political sense, or even a con-man. Trump should be feared because he believes in his goal, putting his stamp on the White House, to the exclusion of all else.
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