Trump and Trash Talk.

There is always a sense of curiosity within us for the extreme in human behavior. Its like watching the bizarre behavior of people on the Jerry Springer show, or staring at images of the war dead in photos, or simply wondering how far can trash talk go. In the schematic patterns of expectations when it comes to trash talk, rightly or wrongly, there is a mental image of the trash talker. It may sound like verbal (or racial) profiling but one does not expect some personalities to trash talk.

Imagine the Pope, or Nelson Mandela, or the Queen of England trash talking! It is so out of field that our mind would simply reject the possibility. In the same profile we would assume the President of the United States would simply not trash talk; it cannot be comprehended by the brain. But then Donald Trump has radically changed that. When he used the words 'son of a bitch' in talking about NFL players he did two important things; One, he brought trash talk into the Oval office, not like Lyndon Johnson who used explicative words in meetings, but Trump did it through the power of mass media. Secondly, President Trump killed the dignity and decorum that comes with the office of the President of the United States.

Look more deeply into the words of this man, not what he claims the 'fake media' say, and in his own words you get an unadulterated insight into a man who truly believes that if he shot someone in Times Square his diehard supporters would not waver from him. When speaking to many of his supporters I am struck by the vehement idolatry they hold for him, his abuse is brushed aside as 'a man who speaks his mind', his racial innuendoes are ignored (some from his base admire him for that), his now legendary ridiculing of people who he once praised in the most flowery prose is seen as draining the swamp, even though he selected these people.

Donald Trump has not bent the rules of decorum and decency he has simply raped them. And those who ignore his misogyny and disrespect for people are equal participants in the rape of what values we expect from the White House. He has called people to have 'low IQ', 'shameful', a 'flunky' and best of all said Steve Bannon, his one time strategist and a man he praised was 'sloppy Steve' and a 'leaker'. I doubt there is anyone who has left the Trump camp and been treated with dignity after leaving office.

Trumps trash talk is not entirely domestic. He has called the Prime Minister of Canada 'very dishonest and weak', picked a twitter spate with the Mayor of London, ridiculed the entire leadership of the countries of the European Union and then very strangely after calling the dictator of North Korea a 'rocket man' praised him as being very honest and trustworthy?  In all these tirades and temper tantrums Trump has never once said a word against the person of President Putin of Russia.

His supporters love this 'style' of the man who will 'Make America Great Again'. This is not style my Trumpettes this is a mental illness to not know what the highest office in the US demands of a person in terms of manners, decorum and behavior. Whether he will make America great again is still open to question but he surely has taken the office of the President of United States of America and tarnished with the sort of trash talk that makes one cringe.  He has taken his critics to be disloyal to the country, a trait dictators show, and proved Hilary Clinton right that he has a 'thin skin' and a 'twitter temper' could lead him to launch a nuclear strike. Okay the nuclear strike part may be an exaggeration but there is no denying that he conducts his domestic and foreign policy through the mirror of what he personally feels aggrieved by. In his world, and that of this supporters, you dislike Trump then you must be a traitor to the US!

What is alarming is that while we can grin at this trash talk and simply say 'Oh well that is Trump', we have to deep down admit that with each slur, each personal attack by this President he is tearing down one brick of the institutions that make democracies great. As of this writing he has tweeted 38,500 times; that is 38,500 bricks of democracy have been torn out of the edifice of a free press, an independent judiciary, and the over sight of Congress on the Executive branch of government. Not long ago in history there was a dictator in Europe who was also tearing down the walls of the institutions of his country and a whole nation watched in silence as his supporters cheered the man who was going to make Germany great again. A World War and the path of horror later it took 6 million people of that country to die for the misplaced ideals of that man to wake up from a drunken stupor and bear the collective responsibility of one man's madness.

While I am not suggesting that Trump is going to be a Hitler, but I have no doubt in my mind there are some things he wants which are disturbing. Trump wants a muzzled press, a subservient Congress and a compliant Judiciary; a world where he can decide who to 'lock up', who to expel, and which journalist to get air time. So my friends this is not trash talk, this is symptomatic of something much more disturbing and you have the choice; sit back eat your popcorn and enjoy the show, or stand up and start putting those 38,500 bricks back again where they belong.