In movies or comics we have seen villains, such as the joker in Batman, Doctor Octopus in the Spiderman comics, Hannibal Lecter in Silence of the lambs. But all of these villains kill in plain daylight. Then you have Francis Underwood from House of Cards, who kills without any trace, and then we have, well, it seems fiction does not have many stories of men who are utterly corrupt, rape women and lie and cheat their way to power with impunity, perhaps that is why we are all so fascinated with the current villain sitting in the white house.
Machiavellian. Someone Machiavellian is sneaky, cunning, and lacking a moral code. The word comes from the Italian philosopher Niccolò Machiavelli, who wrote the political treatise The Prince in the 1500s, that encourages “the end justifies the means” behavior, especially among politicians.
So, what is it with the fascination with Trump?
For those who abhor him, like me, and those who support him, perhaps love him, the fascination is the same. Here is a human being who does not consistently follow any rules or human or society laws except those that help him maintain a narcistic super-star persona, such as taking care of his appearance, like appearing clean and dressing as well as his big bulging body allows it, avoiding alcohol and drugs which rob energy and affect looks, or having always some catchy phrase he can throw at people, like MAGA, smiling at the cameras when needed, and speaking to his audiences with authority, although sometimes, at his rallies, he does lose his self-control and starts to whine and throw incoherent tantrums, but perhaps because he feels safe to be stupid among his audience.
There are perhaps a few other rules he follows with discipline and you can remind me which others but in general he makes up rules as it fits him best at any moment. And for every rule or law he breaks or seeks to break he only cares to know that his lawyers will keep him out of jail, or that he can break the rule with impunity because of some loophole such as the stupid memo that only applies to the president of the USA allowing him to be the top criminal of the land.
And he fully takes advantage of that memo. Why not? He already cheated before he became president, as Jimmy Carter said today, he is most probably an illegitimate president, but he is president, and now, with the safety net of that memo that prevented Mueller from charging him, what prevents him from continuing on his path of power-grabbing self-preservation at the expense of everything and everyone?
What?
And that is the fascination with Trump.
We’ve never seen such a thing in real life. It is like watching the rise of Hitler again in slow motion.
Trump supporters admire that.
We fully detest it and are horrified and scared.
How can we communicate to Trump supporters that it is normal to be in awe of such a Machiavellian character but it is not something to admire or support?
How should we, supporters of the Democratic party, how should the democratic candidates and the media act or feel differently towards Trump so that we don’t help aggrandize him and thwart his malignant narcissistic plans?