Donald Trump Firmly Rooted in US Political Tradition

A new survey from press agency Reuters found that 87% of Americans are concerned about a rise in political violence. Over two-thirds of respondents fear an outburst of violence following the November 5 presidential election. A significant majority also deplores the lack of civility in public discourse.

Yet, in a quirk of the American character hard to explain, slightly under half of the US electorate is apparently willing, if not eager, to dispatch a man to the White House who has redefined incivility and made it into his personal brand. To call Donald Trump uncouth is a gross, if not monumental, understatement.

This is a man who takes bombastic pride in groping women, hurling offensive names and wild accusations at whomever dares call him out, glorifies ignorance, and dismisses soldiers fallen on the battlefield as ‘losers’. With Mr Trump, there is always a lower low to explore.

Watching US democracy in action, the rest of the world seems convinced that Donald Trump is very much the exception; a fluke of history or a disturbance in the continuum, to be suffered momentarily until someone less unhinged shows up. That assumption is, alas, incorrect. US voters have elected a great many boisterous, factious, and seemingly deranged presidents. That didn’t prevent the country from becoming a great power or gathering allies.

The Ugly American

Donald Trump is the near-perfect embodiment of the Ugly American, a species despised almost universally and characterised by a set of six distinct traits:

• A lack of good manners and loud
• Not particularly thoughtful or smart
• Enjoy the exact same unimaginative lives
• Suffer from an acute superiority complex
• Boast about their money/wealth
• Bible-thumping and hypocritical

I’d much like to add a seventh trait to the already comprehensive list: no discernible perception of self. Americans really do think that they are the absolute best at everything and stand at the very apex of human civilisation. Whilst corporations gorge on the morsels of the depleted commons, they watch the rape of public interests happily munching on a triple-stacked burger and slurping a super-sized softdrink, merrily adding to their already not insignificant heft.

Mr Trump meets the first two traits admirably well: he is exceedingly foul-mouthed and lacks even the most basic notions of common courtesy. His life – the one of a millionaire after seven bankruptcy filings – is predictably filled with golden artefacts, tasteless trinkets, and tacky surroundings that would cause a Russian oligarch or Indian maharadja significant embarrassment.

Mr Trump is also the best at whatever he does and knows more about any given topic than anyone else. Even great experts must bow in deference to his superior brain, his awesome insights, and his thoughtful suggestions dispensed as nuggets of wisdom from the greatest and most magnanimous intellect to ever grace the face of the earth.

Gimme Money!

Trait 5: He only really cares about money, shafting his supporters at every turn of events, skimping on personal taxes, and demanding other people pay for whatever harebrained scheme pops into his vacuous mind. Yes, Mexicans will pay for that wall and Europeans will buy shoddy weaponry from factories run by hill billies and corporate egotrippers. Gimme Money Now! Mr Trump regularly boasts about his billions yet was unable to cough up the $454 million judgment in his civil fraud trial and had to beg the judge, whom he had repeatedly called ugly names, to lower the bond to $175 million.

Trump doesn’t believe in god. He cannot because, after all, there is no being – fictional or otherwise – who can be superior in any way. That is a mathematical impossibility for the already perfect allows no room for further perfection. But, he does love bible-thumping bumpkins who shovel vast volumes of cash his way, just like they do televangelists. The bible-thumpers see Mr Trump as the vanguard of the second coming – its advance party. They are, of course, quite right in that assumption and therefore must be willing to forgive the man’s minor transgressions such as tax fraud and sexual assault. God is merely testing them in their resolve. If not that, then surely satan is at work corrupting the righteous.

The Oafs Have It

Now, here’s the thing the most non-Americans fail to understand: although coarse and boorish, Donald Trump is by no means exceptional. In fact, the United States has a long history of bumping the vulgar into high office. Mr Trump’s behaviour, although extremely uncivil, fits the American pattern.

Americans are suckers for underdogs and those who are seen fighting the system. They also possess a weird fascination for losers who get second, third, and fourth chances – or however many it takes – to make a mark.

Mr Trump is by no means the first president to be harried by allegations of marital or sexual misconduct. Andrew Jackson, Thomas Jefferson, Grover Cleveland and, of course, Bill Clinton, suffered the same ignominy. Just like Ronald Reagan was a B-movie actor and Harry Truman an unsuccessful haberdasher, Mr Trump is a reality-TV star. However, he is unique as the first-ever president to land in the Oval Office without any prior experience in public service or political office.

He shares a belief with Calvin Coolidge that ‘the business of America is business’ and is suspicious of the ‘foreign entanglements’ George Washington already cautioned against. Even Mr Trump’s penchant for mercantilism and protectionism are part of a more distant Republican orthodoxy. When lashing out at allies for their subpar defence spending, Mr Trump merely voices an opinion widely shared in Washington, one not limited to the Republican fringe.

Amiable Dunce

It is perhaps good to remember that Ronald Reagan was often dismissed as an ‘amiable dunce’ and not taken very seriously by either his staff or European allies. Until, of course, he had the last laugh.

Trump’s rowdy personality is nothing special either and no worse than, say, Theodore Roosevelt’s who was always ready to pick a fight with his foes. Insofar as Mr Trump cultivates an interest in US history, his favourite president seems to be Andrew Jackson, arguable the first populist occupant of the White House. Jackson famously lamented – out loud – that he had failed to shoot Senator Henry Clay and missed the opportunity to lynch his own vice-president John C Calhoun.

For his regrets, President Jackson was censored by the senate, the only one to ever suffer such a fate. He did not take the rebuke passively and promptly called the Senate’s move “unauthorised, unprecedented, and unconstitutional.” One can almost hear Mr Trump thundering.

Cover photo: Donald Trump at a campaign rally at the South Point Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada.

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© 2016 Photo by Gage Skidmore