THE TRUMP FILE: THE WRONG MAN

He’s just a wee bit conceited, don’t you think?  I suppose every would-be king, tyrant, or dictator shares a marked degree of arrogance but the president of a democracy?  The American people surely have a right to expect better of a leader elected by and presumably held responsive to the people.

 

Of course, we understand that some people have more “arrogance” than others.  It is only when the trait becomes extreme that the focus shifts to studying the why and wherefore.

 

At times we may choose to call conceit by more pleasant euphemisms: drive, ambition, “over-achiever” and the like. Yet at bottom most of us have a limit to our tolerance for someone who acts in too arrogant a manner; indeed, it is one of the ugliest traits we know when it is fully exposed in the sun—public scrutiny—for too long.

 

There are various ways to describe arrogance but essentially it simply means a person who is too self-centered to allow easy, free, and equal inter-play with others.  The potential harm such arrogance can cause is quite great since it both prevents and destroys amicable working relationships in larger social settings.  It is, in sum, merely the old trait of greedy selfishness, however else it chooses to dress itself up in order to fool others.

    

Some personality traits can be kept in check or overcome in time, but the selfish man is unable to control his arrogance.  That is why people often measure the character of their family members, friends, and colleagues with one eye on this most damaging of all traits since it tends to ruin all other positive qualities over time as well.

 

At work or school, few people enjoy being under the supervision of an arrogant boss or administrator; it is well known that they often respond (if only under their breath) with such tidy epithets as “who does he think he is!” or “may he get what he deserves!”

 

Arrogance in an employer or political leader does not lead to team unity, healing, and the promotion of a healthy work or social environment.  Indeed, such arrogance tends to undercut or destroy efforts to build cooperation, progress, and success by failing to treasure the contributions of all members of a team, business, or institution equally.

      

Whether this trait of egotism is found in a boss or employee, family member or friend, acquaintance or colleague, arrogance always remains a terribly ugly distortion of the healthy personality—distasteful to others and almost wickedly disfiguring in its effects upon the body and mind of the person so warped.

          Parents do whatever they can to guide their children toward good values and virtues.  They hope their children will grow up to be honest, responsible, and trustworthy individuals.  To that end, parents know to keep a lookout for those traits that can undermine such healthy, normal growth.

If they see signs of dishonesty, such as lying or thievery, they know they must correct such wayward speech and action immediately.  If they see signs of growing conceit in their children, parents know they must not let this cancerous poison spread further. 

If parents note a distinct lack of empathy in their children, they understand their job is not finished.  It is not unusual for children to act impulsively as they grow; it is not at all unusual for children to act immature at certain ages as they make their uneven progress from one stage of self-understanding to the next. 

Be that as it may, parents and teachers also understand that from the start of childhood to its chapter’d end, an incredible transformation is taking place: when all goes well, the five-year old kindergarten child emerges as a mature young adult graduating high school and ready to enter a new episode of life: caring, independent, and responsible.

            Granted, many children grow up in less than ideal circumstances.  Depending on the home environment, children may have obstacles to overcome of varying degree of difficulty.  If parents are ignorant, superstitious, or racially prejudiced, the home environment can often exert a destructive counter-influence to the higher aims and purposes of the school.

 

A broken home or dysfunctional family will exert a tremendously detrimental influence on the children raised in that home for years to come.  Poverty itself can restrict the progress by which some children hope to advance.

 

If a parent uses drugs or commits a crime, these actions weigh heavily on the scales of the child’s future.  If a parent is unstable with a mental-emotional problem, this too could have a devastating effect on the child’s right to a happy, healthy home.

            Lastly, although it is not always recognized as a “problem”, if parents have wealth and abundant resources, they may spoil a child by over-indulging them and failing to set limits.  This, too, can lead to a child developing an unpleasant personality and an unmanageable ego, someone who does not respect or work well with others.

 

The children of the very rich can develop an overly-acute sense of arrogant entitlement. True, they may have far more money than the average guy to buy whatever they wish but it doesn’t mean they have developed a healthy and honest personality; they have not reached true maturity of character but instead a botched and caricatured version of it.

    

They may try to act mature, even be partially successful on occasion, but among the worst of the scions of America’s richest families, they fail to achieve those principles of honor and virtue we Americans hold most dear.

 

The one-time “brats” of the wealthy have a hard time finding their way back across the bridge of equality with other Americans; they fail to animate those traits that exist within a person that could lead them to become productive and thoughtful citizens, as we have come to expect from the best among us in our democracy.

 

Their thinking typically remains warped in certain injudicious ways; they believe they can buy anything.  This is a fundamental mistake, a failure to understand that the best qualities of human beings are not traits that can be purchased in a store or online.  Truth to tell, the finest virtues in life must be appreciated, nurtured, and practiced over many years until they become second nature within us.  They have no price tag.

Some people are born with a natural affinity for these virtues; others have to work a bit harder to make sure their best qualities triumph over their worst.   Still, in both instances, the vast majority of Americans understand the sublime importance of becoming honest men and women.  Their word is their bond; they think and act honorably because they understand that virtue must be given precedence over vice.

 

Honesty, integrity, the capacity to love, loyalty, compassion, and courage are counted as chief virtues among human beings everywhere in the world.  To be reasonable, to be willing to compromise, to be able to listen respectfully to another speak--we all share an innate sense of why such qualities are indispensable to a healthy and intelligent society. These are lesson that seem to have been missed in the life of Donald Trump.

 

A great big gaping hole appears where we would expect to see some decorum in civil speech, some attempt at modesty, some degree of restraint upon ego--some indication that he recognizes that flashy in-your-face arrogance is as offensive politically as it is socially when it comes to the measuring of the worth of a man.

 

Here we speak not merely of a degree of self-confidence or self-promotion that we’ve come to expect among certain types of ambitious men and women but of a truly colossal ego that borders on the abnormal and absurd.

 

From early in the campaign, the term “narcissistic” popped up repeatedly as pundits searched for a way to describe the vanity of Trump; they could just as easily have referred to his egotism or megalomania, both terms conveying an extreme arrogance that has burst outside the normal range in the psychological profile of a person.

 

In Trump’s case, his egotism totters on the threshold of becoming egomania all too often.  Herewith are definitions to help place such behavior in proper linguistic context:

·         Egotism: excessive and objectionable reference to oneself in conversation or writing; conceit; boastfulness.

 

·         Egomania: psychologically abnormal egotism.

·         Megalomania: an obsession with doing extravagant or grand things.

Take your pick! Donald is frequently, even continuously, guilty of one or more of these traits, not occasionally but constantly and unrelentingly.

What happened to historic examples of right conduct by past presidents?  In today’s world, gone are references to George Washington’s personal courage and dedication to a cause larger than himself.  Forgotten, too, is his stern repudiation of all suggestions that his new title as president should be like that of European kings when addressed; he kicked out plans to use “your eminence” or “your most serene high excellency” and suggested instead “Mr. President”. 

For all those who have personal contact with the president, we still use this form today.  The president may hold the highest office of the land but he also remains a fellow citizen.  He is not above us in a royal sense nor is he above the law; indeed, for many years the phrase “servant of the people” was aptly applied to the president. 

Gone, too, are references to another president, Abraham Lincoln, as a man of humble origins and self-effacing humility—traits that made his life of principle and sacrifice a sacred contribution to our national history and which endear him to countless Americans, generation after generation. 

The Washington Monument and the Lincoln Memorial are not tributes to these men’s vanity or conceit; they are the people’s memorials to men who were brave, steadfast, honest, honorable, and principled leaders in all matters great and small. 

How have we gone from the courage of a man like Washington--who stayed with his cold, starving, ill-suffering troops through eight long years of the American Revolution--to a pompous and arrogant man like The Donald?

How have we gone from the humility of an Abraham Lincoln (one of the founders of the Republican Party) to a presidential candidate who is boastful, brash, arrogant, self-centered, egotistical, impulsive, condescending, insulting, and vulgar--and given to fits of childish temper tantrums and ridiculous displays of narcissism and egomania?  Can anyone suggest another candidate who was ever as temperamentally unfit to be president?

And not only temperamentally unfit it seems; since the release of the audio-and-video Access Hollywood tapes, Trump is perhaps morally unfit as well. 

His depraved indifference to the equality of women is absolutely shocking.  He openly bragged about attitudes and actions that excuse sexual harassment and assault while speaking of women in the most degrading and vulgar manner—in language so obscene his words had to be bleeped from news reports as too offensive!

The tapes clearly record a man showing a pathological indifference to the basic social values and forms of civil discourse that have always served as bedrock for our greatness as a democratic nation. 

Trump is entirely dependent on the pronoun “I” for all his opening remarks; he sees everything through the “I” prism of me, me, and me: Donald first, Donald second, Donald everywhere like an omnipotent deity. 

He should have been born in the days of the Caesars where his attempt to make himself a god might have had half a chance of succeeding. 

When vice-presidential candidate Dan Quayle tried to invoke a likeness of his career to that of John Kennedy, his opponent, Senator Lloyd Bentsen, promptly nailed him with these simple words: “Senator, you’re no Jack Kennedy.” 

Likewise, in today’s world, we can safely say: “Donald, you’re no Caesar.”  A man who has to have his language bleeped is not fit to hold any elected office, let alone the presidency.      

Trump attempts to repulse all criticism with his own version of reality, even though it is clearly his own poor judgment that opens the door to all such criticism in the first place. 

Here we see his narcissism becoming streaked with a mangled self-defense mechanism, his megalomania fed by an inferiority complex, his arrogance colored by feelings of persecution and paranoia.    Everyone is wrong except him; everyone is out to get him; the system is rigged against him; fellow Republicans are ought to destroy him as they distance themselves from his latest public relations nightmare. 

His antics bring on the criticism, rebuke, and revulsion but it’s never his fault . . . completing the psychological profile of a troubled, mean-spirited, ill-tempered man. 

His narcissism is such a strongly marked abnormality that we need not spend additional time investigating other questionable psychological traits of his that could be added to the list.  Suffice it to say that it is well understood that when one aberrant psychological trait visibly surfaces, such as Donald’s egotism, there are likely other underlying and related traits that further deform and defame the normal human personality. 

Now someone might rightly ask: in judging Donald Trump’s candidacy, should we not also address his beliefs concerning our social, political, and economic system?  Normally the response is yes, absolutely we should. 

There is nothing more important than understanding the basic differences in beliefs and policies of the two major parties and their nominated candidates. 

It is a sad but unavoidable truism, however, that this sensationalized state of affairs has been brought about by Trump himself.  Were it not for Trump’s off-centered personality and his unpredictable behavior--his unstable “psychological profile” if you would--journalists and voters could spend far more time analyzing the platforms over a wide range of topics.

He cannot have it both ways.  He can hardly expect voters to focus on differences of doctrine while ignoring his unbridled arrogance when he constantly insists on making such an ostentatious display of this trait himself.   

Trump the Revelator shows an amazing capacity for self-deception along with his outlandish theatrics and inexplicable outbursts of narcissistic nonsense. 

He throws wild accusations around like confetti at a party; he strikes out blindly like a cringing animal cornered in a cave, lashing out at anyone who comes within range—anyone he suspects of criticizing or betraying him.  This is paranoia alongside narcissism, along with other fault lines in his personality and behavior. 

The American people must not lose their way or let the moorings of the ship of state be broken and tossed asunder by trusting such a callous, ruthless, and arrogant candidate. 

Our democracy began with a historic revolution based on courage and commitment to constitutional principles. 

Such a man who always talks first and foremost about himself--who sees everything through the one-and-only Donald prism--cannot be entrusted to keep our ship of state on a safe and steady course.  He lacks the mature understanding of America’s democratic philosophy needed to provide intelligent leadership for the American people. 

He cannot appreciate, let alone embody, the political principles of our nation that rise high above the petty idiosyncrasies of any one man or woman. 

The first and greatest task of any president is to preserve and defend the Constitution, including its fundamental rights for all Americans as embodied in the Bill of Rights.  This includes the First Amendment’s liberty to speak our minds freely. 

A candidate who slurs and insults, slanders and threatens, mocks and denigrates any person who criticizes him in the slightest degree, lacks the most basic understanding of what the Constitution stands for and who we are as a nation. 

He lacks knowledge, understanding, and compassion—the very qualities we seek in our leaders.  Or does he think it presidential to:   

Act contemptuously toward other candidates on stage with him? 

Mock a reporter for his disability? 

Suggest undocumented workers are rapists and criminals?

Engage in ethnic slurs to impugn the motives of a federal judge, born in America, because the judge’s parents came from another country?

Refuse to honor a Gold Star mother and father whose son made the supreme sacrifice? 

Refuse to release his tax information and brag about how he pays as little in taxes as possible? (perhaps none in recent years, based on an earlier business loss of over 900 million dollars!)   

Gratuitously insult Senator John McCain, a man who survived years of mistreatment-in-captivity and who passed up an opportunity to be released in order to remain with his comrades?

Engage in a vicious twitter attack upon a former Miss Universe winner? 

Speak of women as objects-of-conquest for his sexual gratification?

The list goes on; one can hardly keep up, each new misstatement or scandalous episode pushing the previous one out of the headlines but they are there, all of them, with more to come.  As of this writing, the latest news is of two women coming forward to accuse Trump of sexual advances, inappropriately touching and groping them.  At this point, we should hardly be surprised, should we?     

That is why this election is about something other than political affiliation, other than policy, other than platform: we cannot let 240 years of national effort to improve our country through reasonable elections be sunk by a colossal ego that has no sense of perspective, proportion, or appreciation for the greatness of ordinary Americans everywhere. 

It is they who make up the country; they who performed the labor; they who create a new and evolving democratic philosophy; they who breathe life into words like justice, equality, and freedom; they who sacrifice on the battlefields and the home-front; they who pay their fair share of taxes; they who build and rebuild their houses, roads, bridges, and cities; they who truly make America great and continue to do so today. 

America is great because we the people are America!

We should never knowingly elect a candidate with such a visible pattern of abnormal psychological behavior; there is ample good reason to honor our history and to keep this record of sound and sober judgment intact and inviolate. 

If we wish to put the health and welfare of our nation first, then we must reaffirm in the strongest terms possible that the American presidency is not for sale to the highest bidder. 

One must earn the presidency by earning the respect and trust of the American people, by demonstrating a lifelong commitment to those core American principles that animate out nation at its very heart.  A candidate must be willing to demonstrate that personal desires and interests can be held subordinate to the needs and wishes of the nation. 

Trump lacks the temperament to be a moral leader; to the contrary, he exhibits far too many impulsive, reckless traits that could seriously endanger the nation. 

A man like Donald Trump appears wholly incapable of understanding these larger issues and principles, let alone act in a way to show that he can be as brave as a George Washington or as unselfish as an Abraham Lincoln. 

We as Americans must not endanger our country by allowing this charlatan through the gates.  We have fought too many battles, struggled for justice too hard, to allow our eyesight to become myopic or blind at this late date in our nation’s history. 

As a matter of conscience, as a matter of principle, as a matter of love for our American democracy, I earnestly beseech each of you not to be fooled, bought, or tricked by this man.  Do not sell our country to the likes of him but trust that calmer heads will one day again prevail.

He is making a joke and a travesty of the entire political process.  He is behaving like a clown, a jester, an inquisitor, an egomaniac—and to him we cannot entrust our nation’s future.

           There is only one power that can stop him: the power of the American people!