A Reality Show Presidency?
By Thom Hartmann A...
From the backstabbing to the petty drama, the Trump presidency is starting to feel an awful lot like a reality show.
Was that the plan all along?
The drama continued at the White House Thursday as Reince Priebus resigned or was fired as Chief of Staff after just 6 months.
The President announced via Twitter that he had named Homeland Security Secretary General John Kelly to take his place.
The announcement came after days of very public infighting among the inner circle of the Trump White House.
This infighting included White House communications director Anthony Scaramucci telling the New Yorker Thursday that "Reince [Priebus] is a f***ing paranoid schizophrenic, a paranoiac."
The New Yorker piece included some even more colorful quotes.
Yesterday General Kelly fired Anthony Scaramucci after only 10 days in the job.
Do you think this reality show approach to the presidency works in Trump's favor or harms him?
Comments
#2
It works fine for those people who want the experience of living in an endless soap opera. For grownups who want to get things done in the real world, not so much.
Trump seems to have two issues. First, he cannot understand that being the chief executive does not mean he is the sole boss. Second, as a commentator on CNN said, he appears incapable of accepting that not everyone is motivated like him. Some people cannot be bought by money, power, attention, or sex. Not knowing how to deal with people he cannot control I think he is a fool if not a coward. But then the man is both pathetic and untrustworthy. In that sense he probably loves being in a fantasy world. Whether or not it works is irrelevant; he thinks it does and to him nothing else matters.
#3
All true. IOW, he's too stupid to be president! Life immitating art --how in hell did America devolve into "Idiocracy" so fast?
All on their own, five individuals with godlike powers decided for 350 million of us that, rather than the people's government we were promised by our Founders, we should become an oligarchy, controlled by a tiny class of staggeringly rich, power-hungry predators.
It will take a concerted effort to wrestle the legislative branch from the deadly clutches of big donors, and then pass laws -- which black-robed, corporate stooges on the Supreme Court can't overrule -- to get dirty money out of politics, publicly finance campaigns, and make bribery of public servants and vote-stealing felonies punishable by long, mandatory prison sentences.
The United States is a failed democracy that has proven once again, like so many collapsed empires before it, the timeless truth of 1 Timothy 6:10, "For the love of money is the root of all evil..."
#4
The Crooked Donny show will go on until the reality part ends as one of the most destructive moments in global history. I honestly feel like this country is a snowball rolling to hell right now.
#5
deepspace: Do you ever wonder why mulit millions of us let that tiny class of predators get away with their madness???? I do.
#6
Do you think this reality show approach to the presidency works in Trump's favor or harms him?...
Depends on what he is trying to accomplish. I agree with others that Trump's antics/tweets make it difficult for the average Jane to keep their mind on the 'issues'...health care, (not) building a wall, Muslim paranoia,...I could go on and on...however I need to get back to the tweets.
#7
Mmmoooooooo...h....
#8
I thought it was the world wide fake wrestling approach. Where is Don King these days?
Sometimes, as the saying goes, ... the bigger they are the harder they fall. If the con artists described everything Obama as a train wreck, who knows. Hopefully much better.
#9
I don't understand how this guy keeps going. He lies, exaggerates, flip flops, bullies. All so obvious. He's not a leader. He's a demander. Tries to distance himself from things he doesn't like (Affordable Care Act), but now owns. He is now in control of it. Thus the ownership. To just keep threatening is not leading. Take hold of the reins, get involved and start guiding your party.
#10
2950-10K,
Beyond the rhetorical, I wonder about that all the time too but have no good answers.
John W. Dean published "Conservatives Without Conscience" in 2006, which was a well-researched study of the psychology of people who self-identify as "conservatives" but more appropriately can be termed "authoritarian followers."
Certain inate personality traits born of common experiences and shared genes have been passed down from the dawn of human civilization. A small but significant percent of any population will always find refuge in worldviews based on an unreasonable fear of "others," societal changes, and social progress -- all perceived as mortal threats to one's fundamental identity and way of life. Like frightened children, they want a strong father figure to protect them from imagined "enemies" hiding behind every tree.
Those gullible fools are easy enough to understand; not so easy are the majority of the population who should know better yet blithely go along with the insanity and fail to question the lies seriously, especially the big ones threatening to destroy life on earth, such as rising fascism, nuclear war, climate catastrophe.
#11
As a "reality show" it has the three ingredients for success... in broadcasting they are called the three "C's" Cleavage... Camel Toe... Content. Trump seems to have all three at his disposal to use strategically when ratings fall. Look at the success he has had getting network media coverage... with Stephen Colbert and Seth Meyers recapping his antics nightly. It's sort of like a Larry King infomercial... lot's of authoritarian hype presented as marketing collateral. Only thing missing in Trump media clips is a slogan promoting regularity: "A day without Trump is a day without prunes." I wish Democratic leadership would be more critical. Instead they still "play nice" as if their re-election campaign success depends on cutting Trump some slack as by deferring to him as"president" deserving "respect." As the saying goes, you don't show up at a gun fight armed with sling shots. Al Franken seems to be the poster boy for what we voter see as weak kneed politicians. As Franken admitted himself, he and Jeff Sessions are good friends.. that makes all his words just marketing collateral for his re-election. Thus, Washington needs a "high colonic"... from the Whitehouse to Capital (SIC) Hill .. where the real money is. Watching the Congressional show... I feel like it's watching Jerry Springer.. and shout "Jerry... Jerry... Jerry... as elected officials expose themselves for "beads."
#12
You cannot fix stupid and there are a lot of stupid Americans.
#13
Legend: Hear Hear! As George Carlin said, to paraphrase, "You want to know how stupid people are? Just consider how stupid the 'average person' is, then realize that half the people are more stupid than that".
#14
It obviously should hurt him badly. Trouble is that many of the things that have happened should have hurt him badly. It appears that the base that elected him is immune to behavior that would turn off sane people. When, or how, can the sane people out here come up with some plan that makes him stop?
#15
Like I said, you cannot fix stupid.
#16
The plan is revolution. Willful ignorance, ideological escapism, endless greed, self-absorption, lack of empathy, paranoia, psychological insecurity, inflexible belief systems, self-righteousness, and cruelty are just some of the more telling hallmarks of a shallow mind. And stupid people vote for stupid people. "Idiocracy" must be called out, rooted out, and voted out if democracy, civilization, and life on Earth is to survive.
#17
@ #16
I think calling yourself names is a poor way to start your revolution. I thought leftie/socialists put themselves above the hoi polloi.
#18
I've come to believe that a large portion of Trump's "base" is not comprised of "stupid" people, rather, people who place their own immediate priorities above the general welfare of the people at large. They are rightly described by a number of the adjectives provided by deepspace's most recent post. In particular, the petit bourgeoisie. The small business owner who is doing just fine, thank you, but complains endlessly about government regulations, the unfair burden placed upon them to pay the payroll taxes that provide the only safety net their often minimum wage employees have, and some modicum of a "retirement" in the form of Social Security. If nothing else, this is greed and a lack of empathy for those less fortunate than themselves, either in terms of natural intelligence or the crap shoot of life. I know a number of these "job creators". Some were endowed by "daddy" with a running head start. Some were not and made it on their own, and these are by far the worst. They fall into the camp that says "Screw these freeloaders! I got mine the hard way! Let 'em sink or swim!". This is reminiscent of people shoving others out of lifeboats after the Titanic disaster. The human condition is a beautiful thing to behold.
In any case, add to this the sizeable body of the poor unfortunates that are too dumb to realize they're voting themselves into extinction by sending sociopaths to congress and executive branch (and indirectly, SCOTUS) and you have to conclude that the several rational voices here are just "pissing into the wind".
P.S., Dianereynolds, were you a Confederate sniper in a former life? Why do bother haunting this site? Oh, right, it's for the occasional mention you get in passing. My bad, strike that last from the record.
#19
I should have added, the general population of this country has become complacent because we are generally still "fat, dumb and happy". We still enjoy a standard of living far above that of the people of the third world countries (the ranks of which we are soon to join) exploited by our esteemed corporations. We are riding on sheer inertia. Nothing is going to change the status quo in this country until some cataclismic event, be it economic collapse at the hands of our banksters, some natural disaster of biblical proportions, or nuclear war brought to our shores shocks us out of our complacency. I just don't think we can achieve the critical mass needed to change things until We the People are literally brought to our knees. I believe history bears this out.
#20
It's vacation time.
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The Twitter Twit is just the front man for the reality show. The REAL action is what the rest of the Republicans are doing to our country while we are paying attention to the onslaught of redirection. Dirty water, drilling in our national lands, closing schools, etc., seems to be their phony expression of their phony love of OUR country ... or more likely their love of corporate money.