Donald Trump's Success and Why You Shouldn't Buy It

When Donald Trump first ran for president, people, including myself, did not take him seriously. He has no political experience, and his bombastic and over the top speeches seemed laughable at the time. As time went on, people kept saying that he was out of the running. There seemed to be no end to wrong moves he could make, and yet there seemed to be no end to his success politically.

Finally, the Republican National Convention is over, and the last chance to select a different Republican nominee has ;passed. How did this political outsider, the most inexperienced candidate by far, become the Republican Party's nominee? And how has he rallied so many supporters to his cause, people who often have never voted previously and those who have never identified Republican? And most importantly what's wrong with his philosophy?

For a lot of us not on the Trump band-wagon, its really hard to understand how and why Donald Trump continues to be so successful politically. Do people not see his lies? Do they not see the racism and misogyny, xenophobia and nativism he seems not not only encourage but proudly shout out on Social Media and in speeches?

People are not stupid, they are not the idiots we would like to believe them to be, blindly following a man who promises them change with sweet words of economic success and border control. But here are the facts.

1. Most people did not experience the huge recovery that was promised by the coming out of the recession. People wanted that lift after such a deep dip, and they did not get it. We did not have a WWII after this Depression to create the feeling of prosperity and wealth created in the 1900s. That is frustrating because that is what we expect and what we were promised, explicitly or implicitly.

2. People are angry. .1% of the population earned 85% of new income in the past 10 years. That is not fair. It is not fair that the richest people in America have the most. THis make people angry. Their wages have not gone up, their economic mobility is decreasing. Their educations are becoming less an less valuable but more and more expensive. Guess who knows this and gets it? Donald Trump. Guess who can voice this anger? Donald Trump. Guess who finds the perfect scapegoats? Donald Trump.

3. We want someone to blame. Getting angry at immigrants and ISIS is the perfect solution. We blame groups instead of individual people and it makes us feel united and safer to have a specific thing to blame. In reality, it cannot just be immigrants and terrorism that have caused such inequality in the US, its our political system, its Wallstreet, its greed. But these things are harder to victimize because they are so much stronger. Donald Trump is the king of victimizing, he is good at it and he is not afraid or ashamed to do it.

4. Finally, he appeals specifically to that community that feels forgotten. If you feel like no political candidate represents you or more importantly has represented you and now this guy comes along saying all the feelings you've been feeling for years, wouldn't you be enthusiastic too?

So what's wrong with supporting Donald Trump?

Here are just a few reasons.

1. He appeals the the worst in us. Donald Trump appeals to people's insecurities. Our fears, our pettiness, our inner bullies. We are angry, we feel betrayed, we feel left behind, we vote Trump To this end, I would like to point out one thing. When in your lifetime, what single instance, have you made the correct decision when you acted on emotion? When have you ever been able to present your best self when acting on emotion? I think we all know, really and truly know that when we let our primal instincts act for us, it ends in disaster. We know because we've experienced it. And so I encourage you to really think before you vote and support, think with your brain, not your roiling stomach.

2. H lies, compulsively. Donald Trump is a pathalogical liar. He sights facts that are not true, he jumps to conclusions, he promises things that are not possible. He tells you whatever you want to hear to get your vote. We are smarter than this. We are capable of knowing what is true and what are things we want to be true. Politico has found that he lies on average every 2 minutes in a speech. It has found that over 50% of what he says is fake. You can't run a country on lies, it just doesn't work that way.

3. He has no real plans and no real ideas. Donald Trump has all kinds of sweeping big picture hopes for America, but he never gives specific strategies for accomplishing those goals, besides maybe the wall. Everybody can make fictitious promises, this requires no skill. The point in electing a president is finding someone who can make them happen, and he simply does not know how.

4. Even Trump supporters will admit that he is not the most level-headed well-tempered guy. In fact, he is the opposite. He grows angry, offended, and retaliatory quickly, easily, and often. Is this the person you want to have the nuclear codes? Is this the person you want to be able to make executive orders? I this the person you want ordering the military? I really think we can all agree that that is a very very very scary idea.

I know that the chances of a Trump supporter believing me, someone who is clearly more left-leaning is about zero. But I would challenge those who support Donald to not seriously think about what his ghostwriter on his best selling book The Art of the Deal has to say.

Tony Schwartz had to spend 18 months with Trump, shadowing everywhere including on all phone calls. He has profited from the book he wrote for Trump the Art of the deal for more than 20 years, and yet he has nev er spoken against Trump before. He said he still would not have if he weren't seriously concerned about Trump becoming president. I really don't think there is any incentive for him to lie or make these things up about Donald Trump, and he literally calls Trump a "sociopath." His interview in the New Yorker is eye-opening, and this interview with him before is also very alarming. I encourage all Trump supporters to seriously consider what he is saying before they vote.