My German Landlord Told Me that — a Nation Cannot Afford to Have an Idiot Like Donald Trump — and His Fellow Buffoons — Represent Its Face — and an Added Comment about the Arguably American Id

© 2015 Peter Free

 

13 August 2015

 

 

As background to what follows

 

I am peripherally associated with the American military serving in Germany.

 

 

What others see of (and in) us

 

Yesterday, my politically and economically very knowledgeable German landlord — let’s call him Herr Geschäftsmann — was distressed at the idea that I found Donald Trump and his Fellow Buffoons entertaining. (See here.)

 

Herr G. said that Jeb Bush and Hillary Clinton have the stature to lead, but that Trump is “crazy”. (Saying the word with a German accent makes the condition sound even more deplorable.)

 

Herr Geschäftsmann insisted that everyone (planet wide) should be afraid of the possibility that Mr. Trump will become the next American commander in chief.

 

 

The interesting inter-cultural point

 

Herr G. could not accept my perspective that Americans increasingly tolerate — and are entertained by — our seemingly unlimited supply of buffoons contending for national office.

 

In his view, we lose international “face” thereby.

 

Note

 

Notice that a no-nonsense German is adopting an Eastern Hemisphere point of view, with regard to the importance of maintaining the appearance of respectability in international affairs.

 

Herr Geschäftsmann was genuinely distressed at Trump’s wide range of idiocies.

 

He was especially unhappy that public opinion polls show that The Donald has considerable clout with the American public.

 

 

Herr Geschäftsmann sharply dismissed my cavalier attitude about Republican Party buffoonery

 

He was unwilling to nonchalantly accept the fact that American Republicans have turned their Party over to a bunch of happily bouncing Imbecilic Ignorami — whose unmuzzled Freudian “id” Mr. Trump so capably represents.

 

 

In this matter, Herr G’s concerned opinion should carry some weight

 

He is a dyed in the wool German conservative with economic and international affairs opinions that mimic William F. Buckley’s.

 

In common with more modern Republicans, Herr G says that he:

 

 

(i) fears Russian Federation President Vladimir Putin — apparently not recognizing that American and NATO policy made the man what he is today,

 

(ii) wants to seal Germany off from what he describes as free-loading immigrants,

 

and

 

(iii) thinks that lower taxes are always a boon — evidently not recognizing that repairing the “crumbling” German infrastructure (which he complained about in virtually the same sentence) requires voluminous tax euros.

 

Despite these policy similarities to those cavorting brainlessly on the Republican Buffoon Bus, Herr G. thinks that Donald Trump makes the United States look bad.

 

 

The moral? — Perhaps, for international prestige’s sake, the GOP should begin behind-the-scenes culling of its Bobble-Headed Dopes

 

Have we Americans become too accustomed to the cynically motivated idiocies that have taken over American politics and leadership?

 

Important elements among the rest of the world are sometimes uncomfortable with our obvious insanity.

 

That said, and unlike Herr Geschäftsmann, I recognize that the United States is prone to serious flirtations with destructive foolishness.

 

And further, I know that choosing the “face” of Jeb Bush and Hillary Clinton — Herr Geschäftsmann’s favored candidates — will not make a bit of practical difference. We will not change the id-fueled plutocratic and excessively militaristic course that the United States has been on for decades.

 

In light of all this, I find Trump impressionistically useful in that he so capably projects:

 

 

(i) our historically proven lust for imperial avarice

 

and

 

(ii) our penchant for unrestrained hubris — as expressed with regard to trying to force other people(s) to do our will.

 

 

Admittedly, Mr. Trump will almost certainly not become president . . .

 

But many of his gravitas-camouflaged and mindlessly unexamined ideas will live on in whoever achieves the office.

 

In this, think of former Vice President Dick Cheney as a more governmentally capable Donald Trump. And consider the fact that there is a fair amount of Cheney’s dictatorial and power-obsessed arrogance in every president we have had for some time.

 

In sum, I am entertained by Trump because he is (more fundamentally than not) us naked — without our:

 

concealing,

hypocritically acquired

clothing —

perennially manufactured from appearance-first calculation.

 

Face.

 

Trump is the American Machiavelli’s selfishly conceited motivation, without that long dead Italian’s camouflaging guile.

 

That is why the “Trump as id” formulation has “national psyche” merit.

 

American policies are "him" to a self-damaging degree. Perhaps Trump’s presence in the presidential race triggers embarrassment in those of us, who have a stronger need to appear to be acceptably and ethically clothed.

 

Trump’s current ability to dominate American media attention is a psychologically delicious phenomenon. Its darkly savory aspects compel interest. In his antics, we entertain dim recognition of our dis-ease. (Double pun intended.)