Response to Toward a Unified Theory of Trump

(See: Just Above Sunset: Toward a Unified Theory of Trump)

I happen to disagree with Albert Camus' statement, that “There is but one truly serious philosophical problem, and that is suicide.” Right now, the only truly serious philosophical problem is what the hell we are to make of Donald Trump.

Trump's latest was that morning-after whiney explanation of how he flubbed a question from conservative talk-show host Hugh Hewitt about whether he knew of Quds General Qasem Suleimani:

“And by the way, when you say Quds vs. Kurds, I thought he said Kurds, this third-rate radio announcer that I did the show [for],” Trump said Friday morning on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe.” ... "I thought he said Kurds. By the way, I do think the Kurds, while we’re on it, I do think the Kurds are not being utilized properly and not being treated properly by us.”

Brushing past the fact that his thinking Hewitt said "Kurds" instead of "Quds" is obviously beside the point, one has to start noticing a pattern here -- that if someone in the media, even someone nominally on "your side", asks you a question you don't like, the thing to do is to call them names when talking about it afterwards, and then go ahead and answer the question you wished he had asked, even though he didn't, some question you've prepared a glib answer for that makes it sound like you at least have some opinion about something, diverting attention away from the fact that you just snookered yourself.

True, this episode comes nowhere close to ending Trump's bid for the Republican nomination, but it does add one more straw to the camel's back, and I think those straws will continue to pile up until, as Kevin Drum says, people "get tired of his act."

But while Ben Schreckinger, at Politico, may have a point:

Tolerance for ignorance has its limits, as Rick Perry learned when his first presidential bid collapsed after he failed to name the three federal agencies he planned to axe in a 2011 debate.

We still need to remember that Rick Perry's sin was not ignorance, per se, it was his "Oops!" -- his public expression of embarrassment at not being able to answer a question that he had just asked himself. Not being able to remember one of the three governmental departments you just now said you would close is like being asked by the troll just one question, the correct answer of which will keep you from being thrown off the bridge to your death, and his question is, "What's your favorite color?", and your answer is, "Green! No, no, wait! Blue!"

Trump never would have been caught in that trap, of admitting embarrassment. He'd have just shrugged his way through it, then emerged safely out the other side.

Drum again, on Trump:

His ignorance – and his shameless lack of interest in fixing it – has always been obvious. He doesn’t even try to hide it. He’ll hire good people. He’ll delegate.

We have to wonder how long he can get away with this idea that "He'll hire good people" -- to do what? Make the right decisions for him? Have we learned nothing from electing George W. Bush, who thought he was being smart by leaving all major decisions to his generals, or to Dick Cheney and his merry band of neocons? Yes, we expect whoever we elect to hire good people who know how to do whatever needs to be done, but not to hire people who can make the right decision on what to do. That's pretty much what we hire presidents to do.

And what does it mean that Trump has now signed something promising not to launch a third-party bid? Here's Josh Green, who seems optimistic:

...rather than quiet the attacks against him, this gives the GOP license to amplify them tremendously without fear of repercussion down the road. A Trump third-party bid, if perhaps unlikely, was a possibility that Priebus had to take seriously. He doesn’t anymore. Everyone can, and probably will, start wailing away on Trump, secure in the knowledge that when he slips from first place he won’t have an obvious recourse for revenge.

Not so fast there! We're talking here about the guy who literally wrote the book on the fine art of making deals!

First of all, I think it's pretty obvious that Trump's best reason to drop the threat of going it alone was that, at some point soon, he might be facing the danger that states won't allow him on Republican primary ballots.

Second of all, on signing it, he sort of gave his own version of a "signing statement", saying that he had only held off on the pledge on the condition that he be treated fairly by the Republicans -- which, he claims, they are now doing. But he could very easily change his mind about that, especially if everybody starts "wailing away on Trump", and maybe even if he interprets not being "treated fairly" as not getting the nomination.

So what if he goes back on the pledge later? What are they going to do, sue him? But if they foolishly feel free to wail on him, and he, being Trump, breaks away to run on his own, they're really dead in the water, and the Democrats will win.

But would Trump do this? That depends on whether that humongous head of his is filled mostly with brain or with ego. If it's the latter, then he'll go it alone, really convinced that he can beat both the Democratic and Republican candidate, whoever they be. If it's the former, and it turns out he's actually smarter than he is arrogant -- well, then, that will be a first.

But that other question, of what we are to make of Donald Trump, remains.

Put simply, is he one of us, or is he one of them? And when I say "us" or "them", I mean that this is a question that could be asked on both sides of the aisle. After all, Jeb Bush has a point when he says Trump has a history of being more of a liberal Democrat than a conservative Republican.

But if that's true, why don't I like him?

For one thing, he's a natural-born bully -- which says right there that he's more conservative than liberal. It matters not whether or not he actually believes, or is just pretending to, that illegal immigrants commit more crimes than the rest of us (they don't) or that they come here to plant "anchor babies" (they don't, since having their children become citizens does them virtually no good; they have babies for the same reason everyone else does. It's a birds-and-bees thing). But real liberals aren't bullies.

For another thing, he's too lazy to think things through, and so he settles too quickly on simple answers -- which, once again, is something conservatives tend to do. What to do with ISIS? Just defeat them! Take away their oil! Immigrants? Build a big wall! Deport 'em all, and do it fast, and then just let the good ones back in! These aren't thoughtful solutions, they're emotional knee-jerk reflexes, designed to appeal to conservatives, not liberals.

In other words, the things that I find repellent are the same things his so-called "populist" base finds attractive. Those people don't care whether or not he wants to raise taxes on the rich or protect Social Security, what they like is that he's a politically-incorrect bully who plays to their fantasy that we should just do something, not talk a lot about it, and for god's sake, don't waste too much time thinking about it.

As to the other question, of whether Trump's followers are mostly Tea-Partiers or even libertarians?

I don't think anyone's figured that out yet, but I tend to think not. I'm wondering if both of those crowds may have had their 15 minutes of fame and it all kind of pooped them out, and while some of them may be following Trump, most of them probably just went back home to watch it all on TV.