In addition, Trump's style of expression, especially in his short Tweets, can be likened to the American novelist Ernest Hemingway's famous terse style of expression in his novels and short stories. In the book Tough, Sweet & Stuffy: An Essay on Modern American Prose Style (1966), Walker Gibson (1919-2009) describes Hemingway's prose style as that of a tough-talker. Trump is a tough-talker who at times uses uncensored stream-of-conscious association to communicate effectively with his supporters by evoking some of their deep hates and fears and resentments.
Arguably one of the most perceptive portrayals of resentment as a motivating force in a person's life is the American novelist William Faulkner's portrayal of the character named Thomas Sutpen in his novel Absalom, Absalom! (1936). Faulkner also portrays Sutpen as a highly competitive white racist and sexist motivated by resentment with fixed ideas -- maladaptive characteristics that may be features of Trump's white working-class supporters without college degrees.
Finally, to counter Brooks' diagnosis of Trump as supposedly suffering mild from "the classic symptoms of medium-grade mania," I want to call attention to two books, one by a psychiatrist and the other by a clinical psychologist: (1) Peter C. Whybrow's American Mania: When More Is Not Enough (2005) and (2) John D. Gartner's The Hypomanic Edge: The Link Between (a Little) Craziness and (a Lot of) Success in America (2005). If we were to believe Whybrow and Gartner, certain classic symptoms of hypo-mania are not uncommon and do not necessarily lead to a hypo-manic episode and hospitalization.
So rather than focus on Trump's style of expression, I would urge Brooks and others to focus on the extraordinary claims and proposals Trump makes to appeal to his supporters, as Blow does.
CHARLES M. BLOW'S OP-ED PIECE
In "Trump Reflects White Male Fragility," Blow, the only African-American columnist featured regularly in the New York Times, makes several salient critiques focusing on Trump's claims and proposals. Then he concludes, "Trump is an unfiltered primal scream of the fragility and fear consuming white male America" -- or at least certain white working-class men without a college degree.
Now, Blow does not happen to advert explicitly to Martha C. Nussbaum's widely known book The Fragility of Goodness (1986), even though the key term "fragility" in her title appears in his title and in his concluding sentence. According to Nussbaum, our goodness is fragile, because we as human beings are fragile. According to Nussbaum, the fragile of goodness can be manifested not only in men, but also in women. In theory, African American men and women, including Blow and Toni Morrison (who is quoted by Blow), and all other men and women, may experience the fragility of their own goodness.
In more psychological terminology, we could refer to the fragility of our ego-strengths.
But what about the killings of African Americans by members of African-American gangs? Aren't those killings a manifestation of the fragility of the goodness of the perpetrators? Aren't the killings carried out by terrorists of various kinds a manifestation of the fragility of their goodness?
Now, in the spirit of giving credit where credit is due, something my mother often encouraged us to do, I want to suggest that Tom Brokaw's so-called "greatest generation" that was victorious in World War II included many white working-class men without a college degree, including my own father who was decorated for bravery in battle more than once in WWII.
Disclosure: I come from a Roman Catholic background. However, for many years now, I have not been a practicing Catholic. I mention my background here because some of Trump's white working-class men without a college degree reportedly come from a Roman Catholic background and may be practicing Catholics.
For decades now, the American Catholic bishops have promoted anti-abortion zealotry, which Republican politicians exploited to their electoral advantage. Because Hillary Rodham Clinton, the Democratic Party's presidential candidate in 2016, supports legalized abortion in the first trimester, will anti-abortion zealots refuse to vote for her and instead vote from Trump?
More recently, many white working-class men without a college degree have served in the American armed forces, alongside African Americans, Muslims, women, and others.
So if certain white male veterans today are supporting Trump, is it perhaps the case that they are thereby manifesting, to one degree or another, the fragility of their goodness (as Nussbaum puts it)?
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