I tried to resist altering this headline.
Now that Trump has won, I am disinclined to write satire about Trump. The danger of his presidency is far too real. The only claim to expertise I have when writing about Trump is from my perspective as a psychotherapist, yesterday’s diary for example >
However when I saw this story about Charles Manson it occurred to me that someone else could write an “Onion” type report that Trump was attempting to prove how much empathy he had by granting clemency to Charles Manson.
I could write a Tweet like the one below:
A psychologist friend of mind reminds me that “the line between lunacy and the ludicrous does not exist in TRUMPWORLD…”
I was really hoping that after Hillary won I would try my hand at writing short stories. I would wake up at night with the idea for a story and work out characterization and plot lines in my mind.
After writing over 200 mostly serious diaries since March I was looking forward to giving my imagination free rein.
I do believe there is a place, an important place, for satire in the political sphere, especially when we will have a president that is a gold-leafed gift to the really talented writers, comedians, and cartoonists out there.
My own efforts consisted of adding snarky captions to photos. I will admit some were lame, but it made me feel good to do it.
Freud, who wrote an entire book about humor, considered it to be the highest level defense mechanism, i.e. the healthiest way to deal with stress.
Considering how thin skinned Trump is and how much he needs to be liked and respected by the media, there is certainly a lot to be said for continuing to respond to depictions lie those on Saturday Night Live with unhinged and vindictive Tweets.
The more he does this the more the evidence mounts that he is not only temperamentally unfit to be president — a true but overused description — and dangerous to be Commander in Chief.
Below: I wrote this in June:
It occurred to me after watching Mark Fiore’s terrific and terrifying cartoon on Kos today that biting satire can be more powerful than intellectual appeals and arguments. Witness the effect that Tina Fey’s portrayal of Sarah Palin had on delegitimizing her. Mockery is a powerful tool. In the hands of someone like Trump it energizes and incites his supporters. It outrages and nauseates us, but there’s no doubt it is highly effective with his audience. On the other hand, responsible mockery, which I’d prefer to call satire, takes the truth and conveys it in an easily accessible way. Trump, in his contemptuous ridicule, reaches the primitive brain of an audience that isn’t repelled by his narcissism. Conversely, good satire appeals to — dare I say — the more highly evolved intellect.
Satirists, whether cartoonists or writers like those on The Onion or Andy Borowitz in The New Yorker can cut to the bone with a few chosen images or words. Here’s a typical Borowitz piece:
Presidential candidate Donald Trump revealed a little-known episode of personal heroism from his youth on Saturday, telling an Iowa audience that he narrowly avoided capture in Vietnam by remaining in the United States for the duration of the war.
“The Cong were after me,” Trump said, visibly stirred by the memory. “And then, just in the nick of time, I got my deferment.”
The former reality-show star said he had never shared his record as a war hero before because “I don’t like to boast.”
All this brings me to Thomas Nast. He is generally considered our first political cartoonist. His drawings of Tammany Hall despot William “Boss” Tweed, mostly for Harpers, made him the only man Tweed is said to have feared. In fact, when Tweet was on the lam from the law, the police found and arrested him in Spain based on Nash’s drawings.
Tweed was a Democrat and Nash was a Republican. He began to depict the Republican Party as a powerful elephant. Eventually it was his drawings that led to this becoming the official mascot of the party.
Link with more photos.