A few days ago, reacting to readers’ comments on the significance of Saturday’s amazing “million women marches,” I commented:
We are entering the “alternative facts” era, TO, where good is bad and bad is good, where the truth is debatable and refutable and lies, obfuscation, bravado, bullying and intimidation are the new norm.
Fasten your seat belts; it is going to be a rough ride.
A reader, presuming my financial status asked to help him understand how my ride could be “rough.”
I have been meaning to explain that I was not referring to my personal financial situation — good or bad — nor to my personal “ride” — rough or smooth — but rather to what I perceive to be a very rough ride for Americans –and others — because of the lack of core beliefs, values and experience on the part of the newly elected president.
Today I came across an article by John Wesley Dean* (yes, that John W. Dean)in Newsweek, titled “Fasten Your Seat Belts, We’re In For a Bumpy Ride” which describes pretty well what I had in mind.
Dean minces no words in his opening paragraphs:
On January 20, 2017, only those Americans who lack common knowledge or are self-deluded celebrated the inauguration of Donald Trump—the most unqualified man ever to be elected to our highest office.
To wit: There is no evidence that Trump has even a good newspaper or TV-news understanding of the American presidency, or that he has ever read a single biography or autobiography of any of his 44 presidential predecessors.
To the contrary, the evidence suggests that he does not have sufficient concentration to even read a book, let alone listen to an audio edition (not to mention receive exhaustive briefings on the duties of his job).
After some observations about Trump’s physical condition and mental suitability, Dean reluctantly accepts the harsh reality that “Trump will serve at minimum one term as president” which is enough time in office to give Dean nightmares, “largely because Trump is so unprepared for the job… does… not understand the presidential position [and] has been pushed to the hard right during the transition because he is a man without firm political beliefs of his own.”
But, you ask, why are we in for a “bumpy ride”?
First, because Trump is totally “unprepared for the unexpected.”
Dean compares Trump to “the captain of an airplane that inevitably finds itself confronting endless storms of varying danger, or even under fire by heat-seeking missiles” and warns us:
Trump is now our captain, and he is flying the ship. Not only is it going to be a bumpy ride, there is no assurance we will land safely, given his lack of knowledge, experience and skill—not to mention his unwillingness to acquire them.
In fact, he has appointed a team of people that in some cases are totally ignorant of the jobs they are taking on, so it may get terrifying, and it will be something of a miracle if we survive 1,461 days of a Trump presidency.
Second, because “Trump Is an Empty Vessel”:
Trump has taken 141 different stances on some 23 recurring issues during the campaign…
“Trump has no carefully considered and long-standing core beliefs whatsoever; rather, he has been on all sides of many of the most important issues facing the nation.”
Dean provides several examples of the “empty vessel” syndrome.
Third, “Trump’s authoritarian personality is also very troubling.” Dean poses that authoritarianism does not work well in a democracy and describes authoritarian leaders as
…usually intimidating and bullying, faintly hedonistic, vengeful, pitiless, exploitive, manipulative, dishonest, cheat to win, highly prejudiced, mean-spirited, militant, nationalistic, tell others what they want to hear, take advantage of “suckers,” specialize in creating false images to sell self, may or may not be religious, and are usually politically and economically conservative and Republican.
Dean quotes the concluding findings of a “psychological profile” of Trump by Northwestern Professor of Psychology Dan McAdams:
Who, really, is Donald Trump? What’s behind the actor’s mask? I can discern little more than narcissistic motivations and a complementary personal narrative about winning at any cost. It is as if Trump has invested so much of himself in developing and refining his socially dominant role that he has nothing left over to create a meaningful story for his life, or for the nation. It is always Donald Trump playing Donald Trump, fighting to win, but never knowing why. [Emphasis in original.]
Dean concludes his own assessment of the bumpy ride ahead of us:
In short, we have a captain lifting off for 1,461 days of flight—a man with no prior experience in such an undertaking who, in fact, is on a colossal ego trip. The world media, along with people everywhere, are thrilled to be watching this very dangerous high-stakes political reality TV show, because it could result in the end of the end of the United States of America as we know it. This empty-suit ego maniac is fighting for any of many crazy right-wing ideas that he has only recently embraced and which only a fringe of Americans support.
These are some of the reasons I recommended that we fasten our seat belts.
CODA:
This article first appeared on the Verdict site under the title,”Inauguration Day 2017—Trump’s Dangerous Ego Trip.”
*Wikipedia: John Wesley Dean III served as White House Counsel for United States President Richard Nixon from July 1970 until April 1973. In this position, he became deeply involved in events leading up to the Watergate burglaries and the subsequent Watergate scandal cover-up. He was referred to as the “master manipulator of the cover-up” by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). He pleaded guilty to a single felony count, in exchange for becoming a key witness for the prosecution. This ultimately resulted in a reduced prison sentence, which he served at Fort Holabird outside Baltimore, Maryland.
Dean is currently an author, columnist, and commentator on contemporary politics, strongly critical of Neo-Conservativism and the Republican Party, and is a registered Independent who supported the efforts to impeach President George W. Bush.
Lead image: https://www.flickr.com/photos/donkeyhotey/29782768073/
The author is a retired U.S. Air Force officer and a writer.