I am not worried about Donald Trump. After all he is just an individual with no decent principles, a narcissistic sociopath who can insult families of dead soldiers, mock the movements of disable people, attribute the mood of a female journalist to her menstrual cycle, call his opponent ‘the devil’, counsel his daughter that if she is sexually harassed at work she should find another one, compare the sacrifices of a soldier’s family with his sacrifices in the building industry, call the Russians to hack US systems (of course that was a joke), being a national embarrassment and a few other interesting traits. These should not worry us at all.
The worry is the thousands and thousands and potentially millions who will endorse him and vote for him. The ones in position of power who ‘disagree’ but remain silent otherwise, the Senators and other patricians who genuinely believe that, quote, a guy who has run Miss Universe, The Apprentice, Trump Towers, construction, golf courses, casinos, hotels (…) a guy who runs that every morning’ has all credentials to hold the nuclear codes bag.
Dangerous men, dangerous leaders, are only so when they have an audience. The problem is the audience.
One of the terrible features of this century is the erosion of trust in people holding public office, the assumption that all politicians work in self-interest, and the corrosion of character in favour of an individualistic and Darwinian jungle, whether macro-social or inside the organization.
The trumpanites are seriously fed up with ‘the system’ and politicians. Reality TV seems the solution. Everybody else is corrupt, according to them. So here we are Donald’s corruption of character is not a problem.
What we are witnessing in the USA presidential politics is not a classic bipartisan struggle for principles and policies. It is a colossal petri dish of unprecedented toxicity which, even if defeated at the polls in November, cannot be longer ignored by anybody, including people like me, non US citizens, not living the US.
Donald Trump is a bad joke; his followers don’t make me laugh.
Donald Trump has lifted a veil, and the contents of the Pandora box are very ugly. He does not worry me, after all I have spent more than 15 years of my life as clinical psychiatrist.
The content of the box does.