Who is Donald Trump?
I'm old enough to have watched Donald Trump as popular culture figure since the 1980's. Along with David Brooks of the New York Times, I've been predicting a Trump downfall since the beginning. To my dismay, he continues to roll on like a postmodern steamroller. Trump is the product of a cable news, Twitter, attention deficit world, where yesterday's comments are forgotten and all that matters is the present moment. He is a new kind of entity, a sort of political Kim Kardashian, who shocks by showing her prodigious posterior in new and provocative ways, but fails to offer substance that might help us to think about the long term implications of having an ass so shaped. His policies will sag as time reveals their emptiness. Like Kim, it is hard to take him seriously, yet a tide of scary storm trooper types seem to lurk behind every crazy thing he says. This election year scares the shit out of me. Although, it is unlikely that Trump will be elected, what will happen to the frightening, anger filled masses when that happens?
Hillary comes off as a political animal with umbilicals connected to the forces that really control the country...a.k.a. Wall Street welfare recipients and other fat cats. Both Clintons have always exuded a creepiness endemic to many lifelong politicians, but especially so in them. Sanders is the type of politician I like, but where are the Sanders of my generation? He is old, yet from a distinguished generation, strong on social issues, yet weak, as many on the left are, on foreign policy and Realpolitik issues. The 40 and 50 somethings of my generation that now hold the reigns of power in this country, both right and left...what the hell are you doing and thinking? I want a leader who preaches austerity and conservation and tells me to sacrifice for the good of the future. I want a leader who tells me I don't need seven pairs of shoes or endless piles of low priced stuff from a discount store when one from a higher priced American manufacturer will do. I want a leader who helps us and the world that will follow us to a new energy future that will not only avert climate change, but spur an economic revolution in not just energy, but the way we live on and with this planet.
Hillary comes off as a political animal with umbilicals connected to the forces that really control the country...a.k.a. Wall Street welfare recipients and other fat cats. Both Clintons have always exuded a creepiness endemic to many lifelong politicians, but especially so in them. Sanders is the type of politician I like, but where are the Sanders of my generation? He is old, yet from a distinguished generation, strong on social issues, yet weak, as many on the left are, on foreign policy and Realpolitik issues. The 40 and 50 somethings of my generation that now hold the reigns of power in this country, both right and left...what the hell are you doing and thinking? I want a leader who preaches austerity and conservation and tells me to sacrifice for the good of the future. I want a leader who tells me I don't need seven pairs of shoes or endless piles of low priced stuff from a discount store when one from a higher priced American manufacturer will do. I want a leader who helps us and the world that will follow us to a new energy future that will not only avert climate change, but spur an economic revolution in not just energy, but the way we live on and with this planet.
In the end, I will vote for Clintonesque centrism with the effective leadership it promises. My only hope is that action on climate change doesn't get stifled. Think of what we could do with a president who sets out a "four year plan" to begin the long hard road that we need to travel.
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