Author Note
I started writing this in March, 2016. I just finished it and published it today (January, 2017), because as I read it, I realized that it was far ahead of what anyone was writting at the time. A lot of people wrote similar stories...but 8 months later...after the election.
Another Davestrodomus article if ever their was one. But some predictions still remain in this article, that likely can't be judged for another 4 years. We'll revisit this article at that time, and see how we did.
Trump is a phenomenon.
The voters are speaking. They are sending a message. Some might tell you that the message they are sending is that they are "haters" or "racists" or "stupid people". But is that in fact the truth? Or is there something else? Is there something that as Americans, we just aren't hearing or willing to hear? We all have a lot of opinions (me especially), but are we able to first LISTEN and then OBJECTIVELY THINK to determine if our opinions are based in fact, or our own agendas?
How did this happen?
Let's face it, Donald Trump seems to operate at a middle school level most of the time. He insults the way people look, talk and act. He has temper tantrums. He acts out. But much like a middle school child, he has a naive innocence about him, that allows him to speak freely and passionately about his world view. That "innocence" also seems to somehow make him teflon to traditional examination.
Perhaps it is the fact that he was born rich and remains rich for his entire life that provided this environment of shelter? He has been coddled and cared for since a young age. If he didn't get what he wanted, he had a temper tantrum. If problems weren't rectified; people got fired...but something does get done.
He then took that privledged upbringing and the millions of dollars that his father gave him, and turned himself, and his ego, into a household word. Even though most people agree, that his investments were not good, his procedures poor, and his ethics in business, horrible. Despite all that, he still managed to make himself into a celebrity as a businessman.
And Americans today value celebrity above all else.
Obama was perfect for his time
I started following the career of Barack Obama after he delivered the keynote speech at the 2004 DNC convention. I immediately said to myself, "Why are the Democrats running Kerry, and not this guy? He's awesome!" The next day, I went to iTunes, downloaded the speech and it is still on my iPhone today. It's a great speech. If you haven't heard it, you should look it up, It will make you love Obama all over again (or, for the first time for some Republicans).
Obama was perfect because America needed to get over the race/woman hurdle. He was/is charismatic and smart and a wonderful communicator. He didn't have what I would consider traditional political resume. Starting as a "Community Planner" was always kind of amorphous as a career in my estimation. It always made me skeptical of his financial acumen, considering that he funded everything in his life directly through taxes. I prefer a man who has had to earn his money via free trade...but that's just one of my biases.
In addition, Obama had the ivy league schools, birth certificate debate, middle eastern sounding name...it all helped. It all helped paint that picture Americans want for America. That, "Anyone can be President of America...as long as they try hard" image. The image we all love, and can't live without. Because if he can't be whomever he wants to be, does that mean that we can't be whoever we want to be? That couldn't be possible. Say it isn't so.
So the dubious past, multi-ethnic, charismatic, fiscally dubious guy won. And that was perfect for where America was at that point in history. He seemed like he would be more peace loving than Bush. Obama seemed like he was less of a clown and doofus than Bush. Not since Clinton, have we had someone with an ounce of cool. Obama seemed to care. That caring was interpreted by some as his willingness to deliver more "free stuff" from government. America wanted to get out from the wars and memories of 9/11 and back to being a place that was hopeful of the future and fun and well....cool. Obama represented that image perfectly, and our form of representative government plucked him from the masses...and gave him to our country when we needed him.
Trump is perfect for this time
Go foreward in time 8 years since Obama was first elected. What is the landscape? The Jersey Shore TV show started in 2009. Keeping up with the Kardashians started in 2007. This is a period of time when you can be famous, for a sex tape, or lude behavior or simply for being famous. The past 8 years have been filled with reality shows (because the are cheap to make, and people of all races love them). This is one of the factors that define the time...like it or not.
Trump has been created in an environment of 20+ years of a Political Correctness agenda. An agenda that seems to value appearance over accuracy. Inclusion over competence. Characteristics over competency.
Trump is appealiing to many, in a world that no longer values truth, or accuracy or frankly...reality. He is the perfect representative of our time. Representative government really does work! When you have had an entire lifetime of being called "racists" because slavery existed 200+ years ago. Or when you are told you have to bake cakes for people at your business - even if you don't want to. Or if, "The glove don't fit: you must acquit". Or "safe spaces" or "Trigger words" or Feminism that gives men no avenue to be "good guys".
After a steady diet of mandated falseness that becomes common pop culture realities: what do you expect to happen?
A person arrises that embodies all these things. Trump does not embody "PC", but he does embody nonsense, and authority and name-recognition and confidence and a certain style. These are the things that America has become. Substance be damned. Truth be damned. Logic be damned. Social justice warriors and those who worship celebrity created this present situation. People are tired of having a certain nonsensical agenda rammed down their throats by legislature. And this present rebellion is a poorly thought out attempt to show that frustration. Social justice warrior types will never own up to their responsibility in creating this mess. Some people never admit how they played their part. But they did. And now we are here.
Don't worry: Donald Trump will give us what we need
An unlikely Buddha of sorts, Donald Trump will teach America listening, thoughtfulness and process.
Listening: Trump isn't much for listening. That's why America is going to now have to do it for him. Whereas in the past, Americans could feel content to sit back and wait for some bit of news to come out of Washington, that we could feel confident in it's accuracy; with Trump, we are going to have to listen carefully, and queston.
Thoughtfulness: After listening, Americans are going to have to think more than ever before. With so many new sources with so many different agendas to appeal to their specific market segment, Americans will need to gather and process more information than ever to achieve any likeness to a reasonable fact. Those accumulated facts will then need to be weighed against what or leader tells us to determine if he's in reality, or not.
Process: Americans will need to learn those things, because if we don't, we will suffer. Donald Trump is going to make every American (especially the young ones) have to go back on their own time, and learn those civics lessons that the public schools no longer thought were important. Because Donald Trump's behavior, is going to make each American need to understand our options, should he get too far out of line. And from that forced learning situation, will arrise a better America. An America that understands how great a system we really have, and how much vision our Founders had to create such a system.
Bottom Line: America will be a better place after Trump
We had years to learn the above valuable qualities on our own. Unfortunately, that's not how people work. When everything is "safe" and "comfortable", the population tends to go to sleep. When that happens, sharp characters see opportunity for plunder while the people snooze. After Trump, the people will be awake. And an awake population governs better than a bunch of zombies.
So thank you Donald. Our representative government worked perfectly again, and plucked out what we needed most, right when we needed it most.
References and sources:
Video of family of a criminal who was shot blaming the homeowner for protecting their property:http://www.conservativeoutfitters.com/blogs/news/93332609-video-burglars-family-blames-homeowner-for-shooting
Article about the protected environment Trump has created for himself:
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/03/16/us/politics/donald-trump-butler-mar-a-lago.html