When I was younger, I remember watching a few episodes of The Apprentice and it’s far superior spin-off Celebrity Apprentice. I’ll never forget watching Meat Loaf scream at Gary Busey over paintbrushes while Lil Jon struggled to keep the peace, all under the watchful eye of Donald Trump. Now that Trump guy might just be the next President of the United States. Life is weird.
If it were anyone other than Trump, then what he’s accomplished would be awe-inspiring. With only pure strength of will and determination, an independent political outsider went up against a handful of senators, career politicians, the CEO of a company and a doctor and handily defeated all of them for the Republican nomination. He’s campaigned without the help of donations, using only his own money (which, y’know, is billions but still) to pay for his campaign.
Unfortunately, the Trump campaign is based off of fear, racism, sexism, and xenophobia. He’s managed to tap into the ugly sides of people and has been able to ride on this wave of fear, anger and hatred almost all the way to the White House. Pundits and journalists work hard to make sure that people know Trump is an idiot and would be a terrible president. Average people get so angry at the guy that riots break out at his rallies, even in our own home state. Almost everyone will tell you that Donald Trump should not be president and must be stopped at all costs. Unfortunately, Trump is seemingly bulletproof and his campaign keeps chugging along like the juggernaut that it is. What’s his secret? Trump is a monster right? It should be obvious not to vote for him, shouldn’t it?
Trump is much more complicated than he lets on. On the surface, the secret to Trump’s success is that he says the things that some people, his “silent majority,” can’t because it isn’t “PC.” He’s that guy that makes you say, “I’m glad someone finally said it!” He appeals to people’s fears in order to win their votes.
While the things he says and the beliefs that he claims to hold win him quite a few fans but have also earned him the absolute hatred of everyone else. People are horrified and angry that someone who’s seemingly as dim-witted and bigoted as Donald Trump can have a shot at the White House, especially by using his hate-fueled rhetoric. Surely this is a man who will bring about the end of the world if he is allowed into the oval office, right? This is the real secret to Trump’s success. He’s made all the anti-Trump animosity work for him, rather than against him.
I don’t buy Donald Trump as a true bigot. Make no mistake, I don’t support him at all and his comments about Albuquerque after the riots that broke out made me angry, but in all honesty I think Donald Trump is nothing more than a troll.
For those not on the up-and-up of online culture, a troll is basically a person who’s main purpose in life is to say hurtful, hateful and idiotic things for the sole purpose of pissing you off for the rest of the day.
An example: I really enjoy watching Game of Thrones. I love the books, I love the show, I think it’s awesome. After an episode I’ll sometimes read an article about it online, seeing if maybe the author caught some Easter eggs or plot points that I missed.
Sometimes I’ll take a look at the comments on the article to see what others have to say and occasionally there’s one comment that essentially says, “That episode sucked! There weren’t any boobs!”
The angry nerd in me awakens. Game of Thrones is one of the greatest television shows to ever grace our screens! It is beautifully shot, well acted and the writing is excellent! It’s based off a fantasy series that’s on par with the works of genre masters like J.R.R Tolkien and Robert Jordan! And then there’s this guy just narrowing its quality down to boobs? Just like that, my day is ruined. The troll fulfilled his purpose.
This is all Donald Trump is doing. He doesn’t mean anything that he says; he just wants to rile everyone up. He says it to make us journalists sit down at our computers and write articles about him and make sure that his antics get out there for everyone to read and get angry about and argue with each other. Donald Trump is a master of manipulating the media.
Which makes it odd that one of the things he’s promising to attack while in office is freedom of the press. A few months ago Trump said at a rally that he plans to “open up our libel laws so when [newspapers] purposely negative stories…. We can sue them and make lots of money.” Now, I’m fully aware that publications and media love stories filled with negativity and fear mongering, but why is Donald Trump biting the hand that’s feeding him? Like I said, Trump is a master of manipulating the media.
I mentioned earlier that Trump did an excellent job of exposing the ugly sides of the average person, but he’s also done a far better job exposing the true nature of the voting process and the media. Remember how, despite Trump clearly being the people’s choice for the Republican candidate, it looked like the Republican GOP, a.k.a the establishment, were still trying to find a way to keep Trump from being the candidate? Had the GOP not allowed Trump to be the Republican candidate, they would have shown a public that already distrusts the establishment that their voice really didn’t matter.
The same can be said for the media. It’s very tough to practice a fair, objective and impartial journalism regarding Donald Trump. Most of the media isn’t even bothering to do so. A lot of media outlets launch outright attacks on Donald Trump and then Trump uses this to fuel his campaign. His threats against the press seem justified in this case, since these threats usually only encourage the press to get even meaner.
I could go on more but we need to wrap this up. Honestly, Donald Trump reminds me less of the antichrist and more of Mayor Quimby from The Simpsons. Mayor Quimby is of course a cartoon character, obviously designed to be a satire of politicians and their stereotypes. He responds to questions without really answering them and he never seems to have a clue about how to handle any real situation that he comes across. Trump is simply another cartoonish stereotype of politicians. I’m not sure if it’s hilarious or terrifying that the human doppelganger of a Simpsons character is the thing that’s allegedly threatening all of humanity.
I really don’t think that Trump would do much damage if he were elected. I doubt very seriously that he knows much, if anything, about the political process. There’s a whole system of checks and balances that can prevent him from building walls and abolishing amendments and being the angry, bullying independent that Trump is, I doubt he has many friends on the other branches of government.
Working in a democracy means working with others, specifically congress, the senate and the Supreme Court. The President is not the CEO of a company, not the head of a business, and most importantly he is not the absolute ruler of the United States of America. He’s the leader of the executive branch and the face of the United States. If he doesn’t learn how to play nice with others or use this honor responsibly, then he will not last long.
That’s how I’m honestly seeing a possible Trump Presidency, as something that won’t last long. It’ll maybe last the full four years at best, but I can’t imagine that he’d be reelected and I’m sure he would be impeached if he does anything that could potentially threaten the world. I’m honestly not too worried about Donald Trump. I’ve compared him to both an Internet troll and a cartoon character. I just don’t think he’s “real” in any way.
So those are my thoughts on the 2016 election. As you can tell, I’m not really enthusiastic about our candidates but they don’t really threaten me either.
Now, I know for a fact that I haven’t given “the last word” on either of the candidates I’ve just discussed. Am I missing something? Is Donald Trump someone to be feared or admired? Who is the lesser evil, Trump or Hillary? Am I taking all of this too lightly? Let me know what you think in the comments of this article or on Facebook.
