Trump won with a catchy phrase, Make America Great Again (MAGA), and that slogan fostered a sense of nostalgia and gave people an experience of camaraderie. That, in part, led to his election win in 2016.
During the last four years, Trump demonstrated to us what MAGA meant via his actions. We learned that in the Trumpworld, MAGA represents these elements:
- a leadership team of crooks, criminals, cronies and family members
- a leadership team that is inexperienced
- a focus on Trump team's personal wealth, power, privilege, and pleasure
- a rise in domestic terrorism
- a rise in White Supremacy
- greater bigotry, hate, divide
- great wealth for the top 1% of wealthy in USA
- greater pollution
- lost public lands
- sketchy international relations
- neglect of health care and education
- lies, manipulation, exaggeration
- empty promises
- a gigantic deficit (national debt)
- widening wage gaps
- continued rise in senseless gun deaths
- a President who incites violence and the massacre of innocents via his words and actions
- an unleashed pandemic resulting in one-quarter million deaths and rising, yes close to 225,000 deaths as well as grave illness, unemployment, poverty and lost livelihoods.
MAGA, according to the Trump team's actions and words, is a bogus notion that results in lost privilege, less good living, and little opportunity for most Americans--it was simply a marketing ploy for the Trump team to increase their personal pleasure, privilege, wealth, and power.
Hopefully, most that voted for Trump in 2016, now realize he is a showman, not a leader. His true interest lies in the show. He clearly enjoys telling stories, dancing, and acting on stage. When you learn of his young life, you learn that one of his proudest moments was leading his military school's marching band down Fifth Avenue. Had he grown up with parents that embraced concerted cultivation, he probably would have worked on Broadway in some way. In many ways, he's a modern day Harold Hill--the trickster star of the oldtime popular musical, The Music Man.
Trump, despite his wealth and privilege, has lived a rather sheltered life. He appears to be quite cowardly since he rarely ventures away from his comfort zones of fancy clubs, high rise towers, casinos, hotels, and airport rally spots. I have never seen a photo of him wandering through neighborhoods in the United States or elsewhere. We never see him visiting our beautiful, natural lands or taking a few minutes to throw a ball or play with his children or grandchildren. He doesn't demonstrate a sense of humor or the people skills of a person who has truly chosen a life he believes in--it's all about living up to an image, probably the image his father had for him from an early age.
Trump, like his father and grandfather, is focused on his personal wealth, power, and privilege. The Trump men over time have been showmen who worked for their own power and privilege. His grandfather opened one of the first hotels and brothels out west. His father built his wealth and many apartment buildings by abusing public taxpayer dollars with publicly funded loans and contracts--Eisenhower wanted to prosecute the father, but didn't have time due to more pressing national/international concerns. Then Trump came along and continued the family legacy of draft dodging (his grandfather came to the USA originally to avoid the draft in Germany and then when he wanted to return to Germany, they wouldn't let him since he was a draft dodger) and real estate ventures and wealth that appear to skirt the laws and taxes.
Trump's criminal campaign managers used manipulation and the catchy MAGA phrase to win Trump the presidency, and as President, Trump has continued to manipulate the American people with his lies, exaggeration, and self-serving actions.
He has taken the United States backwards in many, many ways. He continues to trick a number of Americans who watch the corrupt, propaganda station, Fox News, and who are wowed by Trump's irreverent, angry, theatrical words and ways. These people don't realize that Trump is building an economy on a shoddy, sandy foundation--the kind of foundation that collapsed the minute it was challenged by the pandemic, a foundation where the everyday person pays for his follies, not the rich men and women Trump kowtows to day after day.
Trump is a sad tale of a wealthy, but neglected child, who spent his life trying to live up to the family's corruption, manipulation, and greed. Imagine if he had followed his true calling as a showman--he might be able to proudly be who he truly wants to be--the big man on stage, the TV star, the pop culture icon.
Trump is not Presidential--he's laying a path to ruin for our good country including our amazing natural resources, lands, and people.
If you like Trump, be ready to tune into the likely raging post-White House reality show complete with his beautiful women, criminal cronies, wealthy bigots, and more, but please don't elect this showman to lead our good country to ruin. We hold too much potential for what is right and good for all people, too much potential for a vision of positive living that is incredible. Joe Biden and Kamala Harris are the first steps to a positive USA--please vote for them.