Like most people, I haven’t been able to figure out how to think about Donald Trump. What is he?
The birther phenomenon, plus a few remarks by his supporters about the media “taking the bait” have clarified things for me, and it’s actually very impressive.
I think that Trump is actually very similar to the likes of Jon Stewart, Stephen Colbert, Sarah Silverman, and especially Sasha Baron Cohen. One might also add even Lenny Bruce and George Carlin to the mix. He is similar in his approach, in that he bases his schtick on taking the prejudices and expectations of his audience to their logical but absurd conclusions, with a totally straight face. Let me explain further.
Apparently—and if this is true, it is amazing—the entire birther thing has been an act for Trump, a way of sticking it to the hippies and the proles at the same time.
(Since the 60s, I’m pretty sure that Trump has despised both hippies and proles and probably views the world as being divided up between hippies, proles, the ruling class, and others (who don’t really count). For the purposes of simplicity, I’m going to use the word “hippy” to refer to any European-looking person to Trump’s left, which is probably more or less how it is used in Trump’s internal lexicon. To achieve pejorative parity, I’ll use the word “prole” to refer to any Euro-looking non-hippy to the right of Hillary Clinton and who has a net worth less than a decamillion or so.)
Remember, Trump didn’t start birtherism, and in fact, it had died down considerably by the time he picked it up. And when he did pick it up, there was a deafening howl from the hippies and endless media coverage from the hippie-dominated media. On the other hand, the proles, equally credulous, covered Trump with praise for his views. For the next five years, if people began to forget about him, or maybe just whenever he needed a good laugh, he’d say something else about Obama’s birth certificate, and he’d get the same reaction every time.
I suspect that most of his buddies in the ruling class have been laughing at the credulity of the hippies and proles right along with him, just like the hippie audiences of Jon Steward et al. have been laughing at the proles, and the prole audiences of Fox news and talk radio have been laughing at the hippies.
Imagine it, please. Let the image soak in. Trump creates a Stewart/Colbert-like skit based on the credulity of the hippie/progressive and lowbrow/proletarian communities in which he pretends to believe the birther theory that Obama’s birth certificate was missing, forged, or otherwise not a true birth certificate. I can easily imagine a parallel skit about this or that odd wingnut belief. The skit is successful beyond his wildest dreams. Not only that, it keeps on being successful, because the neither the hippies or the proles can see that they’re being made fun of. They actually believe him, and it either outrages them or pleases them immensely.
So, he continues on with it, and with a perfectly straight face, adds on a number of additional skits, each one wackier than the previous one. Expel eleven million aliens. Build a great wall along the US/Mexican border. Convince the Mexicans to pay for that wall. Make a religious test for entry into the US.
But no matter how wacky, no matter how completely unbelievable, we hippies and proles just.don’t.get.it. All we can talk about is Trump. It’s Trump in the media, Trump at the water cooler, Trump here, Trump there, Trump everywhere.
So, Trump runs for president, like Colbert did in 2012, and like Pat Paulsen did in 1968 and several times later. But unlike them, he starts winning debates. He starts winning primaries. Like them, he stays in character and continues his schtick. But, still unlike them, he decimates his opponents and actually receives the nomination of the GOP. So, he continues on, into the general election. By now, although he must occasionally fall on the floor laughing at the absurdity of it, he understands that he could actually become President, and he probably likes the idea of it. Why not? It’d be a great experience and add immeasurably to the brand. And all he has to do is to keep a straight face for a few more months.
There are actually two major candidates for the presidency this year, but you’d hardly believe it by measuring the volume of air being consumed by the campaign. Hillary Clinton has written probably tens of thousands of words delineating her position on a raft of really important issues, but no one is talking about them. Even Hillary Clinton probably spends more time thinking and talking about Trump’s antics than she does any one of those issues.
How would Trump be as a president? Well, he’s a billionaire, a card-carrying member of the ruling class. He probably wouldn’t do all that much as president, he’d rely on his staff for everything. Would he really try to build the Wall, expel the undocumented or block Muslims from entering? Who knows. I doubt it. I don’t know if he’d continue his schtick if he were inaugurated. But, he might.
If any of this is true, then you have to admit, the man is a comedic genius. His real audience—a handful of ultra wealthy and powerful Americans—are surely rolling in the aisles. For the rest of us, as long as we don’t realize it’s all an act, we are also being well entertained. It’s fun for us to be outraged, and it’s fun for the proles to believe in solutions to national problems that are simplistic, politically incorrect, and embarrass the intelligentsia.
Once the veil is pierced, the fact will remain that he has had us all, and had us good, for a long time. And although we will be embarrassed (and the country may well be in ruins), we will all have to admit that this was a kind of comedic genius that in its extent is sui generis. On the other hand, no one really likes being made the butt of a joke, especially not one as long-lasting and extreme as Trump’s. In fact, he might be continuing on, Wizard-of-Oz style—partially out of fear about how people will react once they understand the extent to which they’ve all been had.