This essay may make me sound like what is now pejoratively referred to as an "elitist," and if it does, so be it.
One of the reasons that not-particularly-intelligent people (there, I said it) who hated Obama gave for voting enthusiastically for Trump was, "I always felt that Obama was talking down to me; Trump speaks my language." Translation for most Trump voters: "I resented the fact that Obama was way smarter than me, and made me feel dumb." Translation for Southern white Trump voters: "That Obama sounded like an uppity n--ger."
But here's the thing that neither Trump nor many of the people that voted for him failed to grasp, perhaps precisely because of their lack of perspicacity: It's hard being president. If it were easy, anyone could do it. Let me rephrase that: it it were easy, anyone could do it well. We've certainly been witness to more than one unintelligent president who did the job poorly.
But we've never had a president so completely unsuited to the job as Donald Trump. Even George W. Bush, a man praised by some for being the kind of guy you'd want to "go have a beer with" -- the irony being that he was a recovering alcoholic -- had some vague understanding of what it meant to be president, and of how a president was supposed to act. Sure, he froze when his Chief of Staff told him that the nation was under attack while he was in the middle of reading My Pet Goat, and he was easily manipulated by truly evil men into starting a pointless war that destabilized the entire Middle East, and he waited three days to visit a drowned New Orleans (and then flew over it in a helicopter instead of meeting stricken residents face-to-face). But he reminded us that we were at war with terrorism, not with Islam itself, and he didn't go out of his way to divide Americans and turn them against each other.
"But wait," I hear some of you say, "you must admit that Trump is a shrewd businessman." Sorry, I don't consider someone "shrewd" who has gone through six bankruptcies, and who stiffs the people he hires to work for him; I consider him a crook. Thief, con artist, flim-flam man -- insert any synonym you prefer. Besides, how does anyone manage to bankrupt a casino?
Ironically -- and, perhaps, sounding "elitist" again -- the fact that so many Americans identified with Trump, and saw themselves in the way he spoke and behaved, is precisely the reason why he remains totally unfit for the presidency. The vast majority of us hoi polloi just aren't good enough to be president -- we're not smart enough, or capable enough, or self-possessed enough -- and too many of us are too prejudiced, misogynistic, or just plain bigoted. Mocking the disabled? Boasting about molesting women? Hell, don't we all secretly want to do that? That's what Trump voters thought, all the way into the voting booth. Trump took the behaviors for which all these folks had been rightly made to feel ashamed, and made them acceptable again. After all, if the President of the United States does it, well then.
So, as the saying goes, here's the thing: When we were told that, "In America, anyone can grow up to become president," that wasn't entirely true. They weren't talking about the kid who made fun of the disabled boy, or who later cornered the girls and groped them, or who failed his college entrance exam but got in anyway because daddy made a big donation. They meant that it didn't matter what your ethnic background was or how much money your parents had. And Obama proved both of those to be true. Choosing a president shouldn't just be a popularity contest -- and even if it were, Trump lost that one too, by a not insubstantial margin of three million.
We need a president who is smarter and more capable than most of us because the country doesn't run itself, as Trump seems to think it should. We need a president who thinks about the consequences of his actions and his speech, and doesn't blurt out whatever fool thing pops into his head in 140-character segments at three in the morning. Because the country is facing serious challenges, and most of us wouldn't have a clue as to how to handle them -- but the president should know. And when he doesn't know -- and, worse, doesn't know that he doesn't know -- we're all in serious trouble.
One of the reasons that not-particularly-intelligent people (there, I said it) who hated Obama gave for voting enthusiastically for Trump was, "I always felt that Obama was talking down to me; Trump speaks my language." Translation for most Trump voters: "I resented the fact that Obama was way smarter than me, and made me feel dumb." Translation for Southern white Trump voters: "That Obama sounded like an uppity n--ger."
But here's the thing that neither Trump nor many of the people that voted for him failed to grasp, perhaps precisely because of their lack of perspicacity: It's hard being president. If it were easy, anyone could do it. Let me rephrase that: it it were easy, anyone could do it well. We've certainly been witness to more than one unintelligent president who did the job poorly.
But we've never had a president so completely unsuited to the job as Donald Trump. Even George W. Bush, a man praised by some for being the kind of guy you'd want to "go have a beer with" -- the irony being that he was a recovering alcoholic -- had some vague understanding of what it meant to be president, and of how a president was supposed to act. Sure, he froze when his Chief of Staff told him that the nation was under attack while he was in the middle of reading My Pet Goat, and he was easily manipulated by truly evil men into starting a pointless war that destabilized the entire Middle East, and he waited three days to visit a drowned New Orleans (and then flew over it in a helicopter instead of meeting stricken residents face-to-face). But he reminded us that we were at war with terrorism, not with Islam itself, and he didn't go out of his way to divide Americans and turn them against each other.
"But wait," I hear some of you say, "you must admit that Trump is a shrewd businessman." Sorry, I don't consider someone "shrewd" who has gone through six bankruptcies, and who stiffs the people he hires to work for him; I consider him a crook. Thief, con artist, flim-flam man -- insert any synonym you prefer. Besides, how does anyone manage to bankrupt a casino?
Ironically -- and, perhaps, sounding "elitist" again -- the fact that so many Americans identified with Trump, and saw themselves in the way he spoke and behaved, is precisely the reason why he remains totally unfit for the presidency. The vast majority of us hoi polloi just aren't good enough to be president -- we're not smart enough, or capable enough, or self-possessed enough -- and too many of us are too prejudiced, misogynistic, or just plain bigoted. Mocking the disabled? Boasting about molesting women? Hell, don't we all secretly want to do that? That's what Trump voters thought, all the way into the voting booth. Trump took the behaviors for which all these folks had been rightly made to feel ashamed, and made them acceptable again. After all, if the President of the United States does it, well then.
So, as the saying goes, here's the thing: When we were told that, "In America, anyone can grow up to become president," that wasn't entirely true. They weren't talking about the kid who made fun of the disabled boy, or who later cornered the girls and groped them, or who failed his college entrance exam but got in anyway because daddy made a big donation. They meant that it didn't matter what your ethnic background was or how much money your parents had. And Obama proved both of those to be true. Choosing a president shouldn't just be a popularity contest -- and even if it were, Trump lost that one too, by a not insubstantial margin of three million.
We need a president who is smarter and more capable than most of us because the country doesn't run itself, as Trump seems to think it should. We need a president who thinks about the consequences of his actions and his speech, and doesn't blurt out whatever fool thing pops into his head in 140-character segments at three in the morning. Because the country is facing serious challenges, and most of us wouldn't have a clue as to how to handle them -- but the president should know. And when he doesn't know -- and, worse, doesn't know that he doesn't know -- we're all in serious trouble.
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