A Trumpism of the Left

On Wednesday October 5^th, Ross Douthat, a New York Times Op-Ed columnist wrote about Donald Trump’s post-debate raging about Alicia Machado, the former Miss Universe elevated by Hillary Clinton as proof of Trump’s misogyny. Douthat believes it’s the first time in this election that Trump has clashed with someone who actually resembles him. Other targets of Trump’s rage seemed handpicked for their uprightness and dignity. But Machado, like Trump himself, is a creature of the celebrity-industrial complex, a determined self-promoter with an interestingly patchy past. 

They share the same desperation for the spotlight and shamelessness in reaching for it. In an interview by Anderson Cooper she responded: “I’m not a saint girl”, when she was asked about her past. In a world where a playboy like Trump is a major party’s nominee for the presidency, why shouldn’t a playgirl like Machado be a character witness against him?

            Writer suggests that Trumpism represents the downfall of the world of politics by tabloid and the reality-television carnivals and argues that although still Democratic Party isn’t a dysfunctional entity, and some kind of celebrity (ahem, Oprah, ahem) might be able to win the Democratic nomination under present circumstances, but they would need to be respectable rather than disreputable. They need to run a campaign that accepted guardrails and gatekeepers rather than destroying them. He predicts that the demographic differences between the Democratic Party’s younger, poorer, browner base and its older, whiter, richer and more moderate leadership are in a potentially unstable balance. He believes that the new voice in Democratic Party would eventually  force the professional class to give way to a version of Jesse Jackson’s Rainbow Coalition and someday Machado’s wild, messy, “I’m not a saint girl” style might have its own claim on the American left’s future.

            Based on my 10 years experience of American life, I found it sad but true that the whole political system and the medias are coordinately shaping the campaigns more towards reality shows and competitions. Candidates being awarded for their theatric performances and attacking each other, rather than their true messages, values and decency.  This mentality would only drives the mainstream Americans to look at the political race as a show and amusement not a critical part of their lives, and the generations to come. On Republican side, we have the examples of presidential win by movie star, Ronald Reagan, which was much more respectable and wiser than Trump or elected governor for California, Arnold Schwarzenegger, another unfit official who led the state to it’s worse economy meltdown. In my opinion these examples strongly support the writer’s argument and the influence of excessive populism in politics.