Copyright © 2016 by Thomas Gangale
When you consider any one thing in isolation that Donald Trump says, you're left scratching your head, "No one is going to believe that, right?" But the crowds at his rallies cheer every word. The more outrageous the remark, the louder the response. Are they gullible? Are they crazy? Are they just enjoying a show, suspending disbelief like an audience watching the latest superhero blockbuster? Is it possible that they have watched so much so-called "reality television," which is so obviously scripted, that they no longer sense where reality ends and fantasy begins? To borrow a couple of Trump's stock phrases, I have to be honest, I don't know.
More to the point, when you consider everything in its totality that Donald Trump has said, you're left scratching your head, "He doesn't really believe that, does he?" I'm pretty sure that if you asked him, he would answer, "Of course I do. I really mean it. I'm a truth teller." And when he walks back a particular statement a day or two later, he declares with equal sincerity, "It was a joke. Don't you get sarcasm?"
What I get is this: Trump actually does believe every word he says, not only at the moment he says it, but even the next day when he emphatically repudiates it. He actually believes "A" and "not A" simultaneously, simply because he made both statements and he is never wrong. In Trump's conception of reality, he has the awesome, cosmic power to reshape the universe to his whim from moment to moment, a power which religious fundamentalists assign to a divine being, although they usually expect it to be exercised with far less caprice.
Since Trump believes two contradictory statements simultaneously, the rest of us cannot take either statement at face value. The safest course is not to trust one damned thing he says. For instance, when Trump says he will have American civilians tried by military tribunals at Guantanamo, neither applaud nor tremble, for it has a much validity as if he had said that he has no such intention. What he says comes not from any principles, but from his need to draw raucous reactions from his rapt followers. He will tell them whatever he imagines they want to hear.
The only constant in Trump's world is his pathological compulsion to attract attention. He revels in being an entertainer, and an entertainer doesn't need to have any political convictions or to offer any realistic solutions. His only real message is, "Dig me!"
He's merely the shock jock of the campaign trail, and I'm beyond being shocked by his vanity insanity. If Trump concocts a new "birther" theory and accuses Barack Obama of having giving birth to Osama bin Laden and having had a sex change operation afterward (why else would he pushing so hard for transgender restrooms?), no one should be shocked at this point. And that's the real problem with the Trump Show. He's pegged the shockometer and people are beginning to switch to another program.
I have to be honest with you. I'm a truth teller.
Thomas Gangale's Lies and Politics
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