The Donald, and Hope

Found this piece I wrote in 2015, and am impressed by the clarity of my thoughts; I was right. 

I've been doing some deep thinking about the popularity of Donald Trump as a potential Presidential Candidate, and I have concluded he represents a final hope to the Working Poor and Middle-Class that they can achieve the Big Dream fed them by Madison Avenue and Wall Street. Never mind that Trump actually built almost none of his empire, but was given a fortune and the family corporation as a starting point. Obviously (to minds hungry for a possibility of an out from their wretched existences), if HE can say whatever he likes and be rewarded for it, so can anyone. And therein lies the ultimate half-truth of American Culture, for certainly the *possibility* exists for anyone to succeed here, but everything is stacked against it - with more and more impediments all the time. 

We have a beautiful mythology in the United States that says with enough hard work and ingenuity (something our mythology says we Yanks have a lock on), anyone can become a millionaire and maybe even President. Never mind whether becoming President is a good thing or not, and let's solidly ignore gender, race, or religion as roadblocks to THAT aspect of the Dream. The latest alteration to the Dream is that if you HAVEn't become wealthy, it's because you haven't worked hard enough.

The truth is, The American Dream is a White man's dream, and this is at the heart of the reason Trump is such a hit. With the perceived assault of gender questions, - Straight or Gay, Male or Female, racial tensions - Black lives DO matter, why aren't our police protecting rather than killing us, and ideologies - religion as a tool of divisiveness rather than unity. people feel more and more alienated from one another. Straight White men (and women), having been the Ruling Class for a VERY long time, are feeling more and more disenfranchised by society and culture, and thus are latching onto false icons such as Donald Trump as an essential tool to assuaging their fears of irrelevance, and ultimately, of complete loss as measured by the aforementioned Dream. To put it in simpler terms, people on all sides of the issues facing our Culture are scared, and all desire strong leadership out of the Box Canyon in which we currently find ourselves.  And love him or hate him, Trump DOES present the appearance of strong leadership.  Of course, so did General George Armstrong Custer, and  Moussilini

What we, as a Nation, Society, Culture, and People must do is find a way to help everyone feel included; a common ground upon which we can all agree. In the past, that has taken the form of a Great War, and that is something the World simply cannot afford.