Over the past 300 days of the American catastrophe known as their presidential election, I have been completely dumbfounded by the almost unexplainable popularity of Donald Trump. How is it that a civilized country like the United States can support such an individual as "The Donald?"
I think now as we witness the final days of this spectacle I might have a theory to explain it; and believe it or not, it involves all of us. If you bear with me, I will attempt an explanation.
Being a civilized human being involves the daily process of coming to terms with the temptation to give into our dark thoughts. These dark thoughts are natural and come from a place where we feel anger or frustration with our world. We usually temper these dark or negative tendencies with our civilizing filters such as: morality, law, rules, parental teachings and even belief systems. The end result is a tempered and moderate reaction to the world. This is where I believe The Trump Effect has influenced some of us.
Mr. Trump has made it alright to give into our dark tendencies so that when we feel frustration or anger at the perceived injustices all of us feel at times, he says it is OK to give into them. Building walls to shut people out or picking out visible minorities and identifying them as the root cause of the majority's insecurities are examples of how this effect shows itself. Like a child who complains to its parent that everyone else is responsible, Trump has legitimized paranoid thoughts and beliefs.
The important thing to remember about the Trump Effect is that there is no home team, no community. It is all about the individual. Once the minorities that Mr. Trump has been focusing on have been pushed aside or deported or worse still otherwise eliminated, you are next because of course it is all about the individual. It is all about Trump. Mr. Trump's ideal world contains him alone; unchallenged and omnipotent.
This type of extremism is not new. There have been many others who have focused on the baser instincts of the human spirit. I list only a very few: Kubla Khan, Octavian Caesar, Napoleon, Mussolini, and of course, Adolph Hitler. These men all had in common the idea that the world is a very dark place, devoid of hope, love, compromise, fellowship, and community.
Instead, the world was all violence and struggle; an uncivilized and totally inhuman world.
What I am left with after I have contemplated the comments made by Mr. Trump and have allowed myself the time and experiences provided by friends, family, and community to allow civilized thinking to influence me is: thank God I am not an American.
Thank God we have politicians and leaders in our country who follow the traditions of people like Sir Wilfrid Laurier and Louis St. Laurent who taught us about "Sunny Ways..."
Gary Gabel
Madge Lake
