In the year since Donald Trump rode an escalator down to his Manhattan version of a political lobby, frustrated and, often, horrified, American analysts have searched for his soul everywhere from Weimar Germany to grammar school playgrounds, trying to explain the unlikely appeal of a demagogue in our democracy. As it turns out, we — and he — are just living on the wrong island…. He is ripped from the pages of Lord of the Flies, the 1954 novel (and later film) that illuminated raw and terrifying truths about human nature and helped Sir William Golding win the Nobel Prize in Literature…. For Donald Trump, whose third-grade vocabulary and schoolyard insults reduce any opposition to a “loser,” it makes perfect, simplistic sense. “The world is a vicious and brutal place,” he wrote in 2007. “We think we’re civilized. In truth, it’s a cruel world and people are ruthless.”
It’s a pretty sad commentary on the state of American culture- a “kill or be killed” mentality in which the means justifies any end. If you don’t grasp for the brass ring, someone else will, and Lord only knows what evil, horrible, unspeakable things that person might be willing to do to beat you to it. Therefore, the only sensible option is to destroy your opponent before they can turn their guns on you.
That anyone could credibly link Donald Trump’s Presidential campaign to Lord of the Flies is itself an indictment of the American Sheeple’s tolerance for hucksters and liars. It seems the truth matters little to (angry, White, poorly-educated) Americans…as long as you tell them what they want to hear, justify their fears, and promise them you’ll make their problems disappear. Donald Trump is the candidate of angry, poorly-educated Whites who believe their unquestioned superiority and Divinely-ordained position at the top of the socioeconomic food chain is under siege. That he’s willing to do and/or say whatever he believes the Sheeple want to hear is his “gift”- if being a shameless demagogue can even be considered as such.
Politicians lie; it’s an accepted part of the job description and hardly breaking news. What makes Trump’s dishonesty and lack of integrity so appalling is that not only will he lie…he’ll lie about the lie he previously told. Lying about lying seems like some weird some of meta-dishonesty, the gift of those possessed of no moral filter…something Trump does repeatedly. He does it with such fervor and conviction that one wonders if he actually believes he’s telling the truth. This raises a disturbing question: Can America survive a President so thoroughly and completely dishonest that he would lie about lying…to the degree that he himself would fall for the prevarication?
Trump is clearly a proponent of the Big Lie…but even Josef Goebbels understood that the Big Lie was, in fact, a lie. He understood that the People were being deceived in the service of a political agenda. Donald Trump seems incapable of recognizing that distinction…or perhaps he just doesn’t care. His Big Lie is so big, he’s able to convince himself that he’s telling the truth…and so in his mind he is.
Has America ever had a Presidential candidate so thoroughly, completely, and willfully dishonest, so openly malevolent, or so completely lacking in self-awareness? Worse, has there ever been a time when so many Americans have fallen for someone so transparent lacking in integrity and respect for humanity?
