Monday, April 4, 2016

Please Explain Trump's Popularity

Call me thick headed or just slow but I still do not understand why people like Donald Trump.  How is it that he is considered real presidential material?

I see that people respect him because he’s considered a successful business man.  Yet, wisdom tells me that a person’s wealth is not a true measure of a person’s quality.  Wealth does not automatically mean a person deserves respect.  Besides, Donald Trump is NOT self-made.  Not, let’s say, like a Bill Gates is.  Trump got help from his dad.  I will grant that he is certainly a shrewd man, in his business dealings.  But not all shrewd wealthy business people are good quality people?  Think about it: A mafia boss can be a highly successful and very shrewd man of business; but does that qualify a mafia boss for the presidency?  I don’t see how simply being rich or being a shrewd business man should result in the respect and honor that Trump seems to be getting.

I see that he’s confident and direct.  Supposedly he tells it like it is.  But does he?  Fact-check websites show this to be wrong.  He often backtracks, twists the truth, changes reality, and calls it as he wants it to be, not as it actually is.  This is what I see.  Sure, he says what’s on his mind.  But saying what’s on your mind is not the same thing as honest transparency or speaking direct truth.  Likewise, he takes no guff and he can dish it out as much as the next guy.  So!  Why does it not seem to matter that he comes off as a bully?  Apparently that’s a good thing.  He’s no fan of tact and diplomacy and people applaud him for this.  Why?  Call me slow, but I do not see these as strengths.  Why do Trump supporters see them as such?

I grant you that he is quite a character, but he is not a man of character, from what I see.  He’s proud and arrogant.  And that’s appealing?  I’d say that he’s an egotistical megalomaniac (megalomania = noun: 1. in psychiatry, a symptom of mental illness marked by delusions of greatness; 2. an obsession with doing extravagant or grand things).  Yet, people respect him for it.  I don’t understand this?

I don’t trust the man.  And, I believe that those who do trust him are just gullible.  I have very little respect for him.  For the life of me, I don’t see how anyone can either respect or trust Trump.  I wouldn’t want him as a friend and most certainly would not trust him as a business partner.  I think he is brash, conceited, and impetuous.  Yet people are actually willing to entrust him with the presidential office of the United States of America.  Why?

So, if you support Donald Trump for the presidency, I have to ask: Do you actually believe that Donald Trump is a real man of integrity, a solidly GOOD man?  If so, what makes you so sure that he is?  Where is the evidence of his genuine honesty and integrity and trustworthiness?  I see plenty of evidence to the contrary.  Again, check the facts against his statements whenever there is a controversy over things he’s said when he’s challenged with quotes from his own mouth.

Then I have to ask: Do you actually believe that Donald Trump is a wise man?  Does he demonstrate deep penetrating insight toward hard and complicated problems?  Or are you just assuming that anyone with his kind of money must automatically mean that he is full of deep wisdom and insight?  Or is it that you actually like his simplistic, black-and-white thinking?  For him nothing is complicated; every challenge has a simple answer, requiring no serious thoughtfulness or penetrating insight.  Is that how you see things too?  Are life’s challenges really that simple?  Are the answers to difficult problems really that easy to come by?  Or, does being wise and insightful not really matter to you that much?  If not, tell me why not?

Last question: Is Donald Trump a temperate man?  Is he balanced and even-keeled.  Does he demonstrate appropriate restraint and self-control in hot volatile, explosive situations?  Does this particular quality even matter to you?  For, I do not see such a quality in Donald Trump.  Is this not a serious flaw, not to have such a quality in a man who desires the power of the presidency?

So it seems to me that there must be something more, something else about Trump that the rest of us, non-Trump-supporters, are not getting.  What is that precisely?  What do you see in him that the rest of us do not see?  And why do you NOT see all the red flags, the warning signs, the negative aspects about him, which the rest of us DO see?

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