Here is an interesting perspective on Trump, from the Stanford historian Victor Davis Hanson, that I haven't seen or heard elsewhere: The Classicist Who Sees Donald Trump as a Tragic Hero
The whole article is worth reading, but this particular part is relevant to discussion about Trump the man, and his appeal:
I was trying to look at Trump in classical terms, so words like eirôneia, or irony—how could it be that the Republican Party supposedly was empathetic, but a millionaire, a billionaire Manhattanite started using terms I had never heard Romney or McCain or Paul Ryan say? He started saying “our.” Our miners. And then, on the left, every time Hillary Clinton went before a Southern audience, she started speaking in a Southern accent. And Barack Obama, I think you would agree, when he gets before an inner-city audience, he suddenly sounded as if he spoke in a black patois. When Trump went to any of these groups, he had the same tie, the same suit, the same accent. What people thought was that, whatever he is, he is authentic.
It takes at least SOME kind of very grand view of yourself to believe you should occupy the highest office in what is probably still the world's most powerful nation.
No, it is not. Which is why you pointing to TRUMP as a potential sociopath seems odd to me, when our federal government is full of people who probably check off some boxes in that category.The most honest man in DC? LOL not that the bar is very high anyway...
Yes plausible. More plausible is that they used the COVID shut down and fear to cripple the economy. This falls more under classic politics. A booming economy is the best way to get re-elected and a bad one is tough to overcome.
In either case, and despite the organized failures to end Trumps presidency, the response to COVID was an opportunity presented, not intelligently designed.
That the left was willing to make the poor poorer for political gain is an atrocity. That they got “lucky” maybe makes this worse.
It's quite real. Quite a division of opinion. But take comfort in the fact that you side with the great Anderson Cooper and the amazing Keith Olbermann:
https://twitter.com/i/status/1324506114164228098
https://twitter.com/i/status/1324509188647800832
From an expert on the subject, in a conservative magazine. I think it is important to note, just because one has unfavorable personality traits or a disorder, does not disqualify one from anything. Most of these issues are interpersonal and have nothing to do with how intelligent or successful one may come.
Donald Trump and Narcissistic Personality Disorder: An Interview with Sam Vaknin
"I have watched 600 hours of video of Trump. Here are my preliminary clinical observations:
Trump confabulates a lot and has grandiose fantasies, which he has come to believe in, thus partially and intermittently losing touch with reality (delusionally "failing the reality test").
Trump is hypervigilant to the point of paranoia, besieged by conjured enemies and imaginary slights to his person, appearance, or accomplishments. He reacts aggressively and vindictively to such perceived narcissistic injuries and humiliations. His is a siege mentality.
Trump is a compulsive attention-seeker and will go to any extreme to obtain it.
Trump is counterdependent: he abhors authority, rules, traditions, and "The Establishment" and rebels against them vociferously and ostentatiously. He is manifestly defiant and abrasive.
Trump talks about himself in the third person ("Trump will do this") and often uses the royal "we" to refer to himself. His first person pronoun density (the number of times he uses "I," "me," and "myself" in a conversation or in interviews) is the highest I have ever heard from any politician, Obama included.
Trump places a premium on appearances rather than on substance.
Trump is highly somatic and hypochondriac as he emphasizes the way he dresses and refrains from damaging his shrine-like body by consuming substances like alcohol or nicotine. He is self-worshiping and painfully self-conscious.
Trump is disproportionately aggressive, hypersensitive, and defensive, faking superiority which, in all probability is compensatory: it masks a deep and unsettling sense of inferiority and extreme awareness of and an agonizing dependence upon what other people think of him ("thin skin").
Trump lacks empathy and clearly enjoys embarrassing and hurting other people gratuitously. Such antisocial misconduct makes him feel (and, in his mind, actually renders him) all-powerful and God-like ("omnipotent").
Trump has an inordinately developed "cold empathy": the kind of an "x-ray vision" that allows him to immediately spot the vulnerabilities, weaknesses, and chinks in the armor of his interlocutors, adversaries, partners, and enemies and to leverage this knowledge to his benefit by penetrating their defenses. He therefore resonates powerfully and intimately with the hidden hopes, dreams, fantasies, delusions, and negative emotions (rage, hatred, fear) of his "constituencies." He is a consummate predator.
To my mind, Trump is the most perfect example I have ever come across of a malignant and, probably, psychopathic narcissist."
Anecdotally, my school has a system where guys in an infected persons "pod" (shared bathroom space) have to go on quarantine for 10 days after symptoms of the infected appear. So far we've had probably 20 guys who got exposed and were qarantined. None of them ever developed symptoms or tested positive.
I have no desire nor intention to argue or debate your position, only to observe how interesting it is that two people can have completely opposite interpretations of the same series of events.Exactly. Trump is not a real politician. He is straight up honest and sacrificed his luxurious lifestyle to his devotion of the love his country. He saw everything bad about the "swamp" and used his business savvy to become one of if not the most important President of all time.
I'm not saying my view is opposite of yours, but I have friends and family who do, and their assessments are just as valid as yours.
My personal opinion is he was (yes I used the past tense) not a horrible president, but not a great one either. I think Biden will be horrible, but probably not as horrible as we expect.
Just keep an eye on this little gem, and hope the Senate will be enough to keep it at bay, otherwise we may get to test drive those three new justices:
H.R.5717 - 116th Congress (2019-2020): Gun Violence Prevention and Community Safety Act of 2020 | Congress.gov | Library of Congress
This is all bullshit. But this is the most amazing bullshit of all:
So this fool doesn't think the press has spent the last 5 years attacking the man 24/7/365? A siege mentality is a useful adaptation in his situation.Trump is hypervigilant to the point of paranoia, besieged by conjured enemies and imaginary slights to his person, appearance, or accomplishments. He reacts aggressively and vindictively to such perceived narcissistic injuries and humiliations. His is a siege mentality.
I'm not sure the US has seen the likes of anyone like Trump since Jackson was in office. Maybe Truman, although he was a product of the Kansas City dem machine, and in that sense was a complete outsider to the FDR swamp, hence barely tolerated.
None of the three were shy about openly expressing their displeasure when provoked, either in or out of the WH.