The sad thing is that inaugural presidential speeches are meant to be the embodiment of calls for national unity, binding the wounds of a divided people, and sending a message that would allay the fears of the rest of the world. Not so for President Trump. There was no gracious acknowledgement of his defeated opponent, Hillary Clinton, no hand outstretched to those who didn't vote for him. In fact, he threw more red meat to his supporters and doubled down on the insular, nativist message of his campaign making what was supposed to be a major speech just another insipid campaign rabble-rouser idiocy with chants of "USA!" "USA!".
It is now clear that with his control of all three parts of government Trump want to cement his absolute power. This was evident by his attacks on the media that he now views as his enemy having gotten Hillary Clinton out of the way. His words still egg on a national depression that started with his rise to power and the fawning, genuflecting media that reported ad infinitum his every word, while failing to call him out on his many embellishments, untruths, and contrived "facts." It serves them right that he's attacking them now and has very little respect for a cowardly bunch of fatted reporters that never held him to account for his long list of transgressions.
The harangue was bitter, banal, and arrogant, and riddled with the sourness of resentment and contempt for traditional politics, and the checks and balances of United States democracy. Political pundits have argued that American voters chose President Trump because they believe that he will challenge the system, but at the same time confident that the system would protect them from the worst consequences. Perhaps he'll do just that. We shall see. Still, you underestimate Donald Trump as your own peril -- just ask Hillary Clinton and the DNC. He is -- and intends to be -- different from past American presidents: by his personality, his working style, his way of communicating and, most important of all, by his political agenda.
Trump starts his presidency with his approval ratings in the toilet -- the lowest by far of any American President. He begins to transform America with national and global protests against him -- something that threatens the very legitimacy of his presidency. The con man that he is, he's not going to go quietly, and he still has many cheap tricks to play for the benefit of his gullible supporters. Expect many loud, big smoke and mirrors events and blandishments. Signing executive orders to great fanfare has already started. Expect his policies and actions to take on a reality TV-like atmosphere. Look for sleight-of-hand distractions, blowhard name-calling, and off-the-top accusations without proof or reason. It's the Internet troll thing. He can't help himself.
But President Trump is in for a very rude awakening. Repressive and oppressive behavior creates its own resistance and we're already hearing that world bandied in the public discourse. The huge marches and rallies around the country served notice that people are not going to be cowed by midnight tweets, petty attacks, and other cheap political "tricks of Trump's trade." The media, if sufficiently pushed, may "grow a pair" and also start to push pack. I believe that with Trump controlling three branches of government it is the role of the media to keep his feet to the fire by reporting on ISSUES and not be tempted, though that will be very hard, to focus on the comic relief content that he'll create every day.
Finally, I would recommend a book to President Trump. But I don't know if he's a reading man. I doubt it though, since "reading makes a wise man." Anywhere, the book, written in 1999 by Chris Hitchens, is called "No One Left To Lie To" in which he scientifically describes American politics. Hitchens said that when rendered down American politics is all about "the manipulation of populism by elitism. That elite is most successful, which can claim the heartiest allegiance of the fickle crowd; can present itself as most 'in touch' with popular concerns; can anticipate the tides and pulses of public opinion; can, in short, be the least apparently 'elitist.' Indeed, the smarter elite managers of today have learned in the interlude that solid, measurable pledges have to be distinguished by a reserve' tag that earmarks them for the bankrollers and backers."
That's where Trump lives. In that elite world that can present an untrue front to voters and supporters. But that does not mean that this is a one party act. No sir. It cuts both ways -- Democratic and Republican -- with minor differences. True, the Republicans don't manipulate pseudo-populism in the same way as the Democrats do. The Hillary Clinton debacle exposed a dismal, dollar-drenched party that is outwardly liberal and diverse but also a many-colored cloak of slick, Hollywood- , Silicon Valley-, Ivy League-and Upper West Side-approved bicoastal multiculturalism. By contrasts Republicans are radically regressive and reactionary and sell and practice their manipulation more to backward white "heartland" nationalism, sexism, hyper-masculinism, nativism, rabid evangelism, false family values, and barely concealed racism.
Finally, this elite populism spawns its own kind of hatred and arrogance. In the 2016 presidential elections Democrat Hillary Clinton stigmatized millions of white working class and rural voters as 'a basket of deplorables, racist, sexist, homophobic, xenophobic, Islamaphobic -- you name it'. This silly and politically ignorant abuse was handed out at a LGBT rally as part of her cynical campaign to win over minorities by abusing a white mostly working-class majority. That was a very clumsy attempt to divide and rule. Trump also had his "Mexican rapists and criminals" moment. But, the reality of the 2016 presidential elections was about one kind of hate -- the "heartland" white nationalist Republican version -- trumping another kind of hate, the more bi-coastal and outwardly multicultural and diverse Democratic version.
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