From The Ugly American, by Eugene Burdick and William Lederer:
"For some reason, the [American] people I meet in my country are not the same as the ones I knew in the United States. A mysterious change seems to come over Americans when they go to a foreign land. They isolate themselves socially. They live pretentiously. They are loud and ostentatious."
Sound
like anyone we know who's running for President?
Donald Trump seems to live in a foreign land, a land he does not really know,
yet thinks he knows it implicitly. His bombast is aimed at that portion of
Americans - the white, lower middle class wage earner who thinks that any man
who says he's worth $6 billion is actually worth $6 billion. "The
Apprentice" reality TV star and casino real estate mogul has so much to
offer! In other words, Trump's base is most of the people who watch - and
believe - Fox News.
"Trump, who believes that excess can be a virtue, is as American as
Manhattan's skyline," wrote George Will. Of course, that was in the
"greed is good" 80s. Trump's brand of Americanism is not as well
respected today.
How well does Trump know America? He may know its crudeness, but not its
sensitivities. He may know its bootstraps mentality, but not its compassion for
the downtrodden. He may know its excesses, but not necessities.
He may know - and count on - some of its gullibility, but not its skepticism.
Banking On The Gullibility Factor
But Trump is second in the national polls! How can that be? Perhaps it's the
gullibility factor that helped elect George W. Bush to a second term. But
whereas half of America was blinded by shallow patriotism, right-wing voters
are blinded by bravado.
Temporarily.
Sean Hannity should know, since he shares that bravado: "Donald Trump is
telling a truth that you cannot stand. "Donald Trump is right!" His defense of
Trump's "Mexican Rapist Speech" as it is could be called, is a show
of solidarity for Trump's lack of knowledge of America. Hannity is no stranger
to the kind of arrogance that makes up an ugly American.*
"The Republican clown car finally has a driver"
The bravado of Trump - the persona of a chest-thumping martinet - has begun to
wear thin: his "who's
doing the raping?" interview
with CNN's Don Lemon proved to be nothing more than a shout back to a
legitimate question.** And his "proof" - a woman in San Francisco
killed by an illegal immigrant in what is described as a "random act of
violence" - only proves that The Donald will shamelessly exploit just
about anything for his kind of stereotyping.
His insistence that he and only he can secure the border, he and only he can
create more jobs, he and only he can defeat ISIS will ultimately bore the
American public who will hear his bloviations mocked repeatedly on late night
shows.
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