Donald Trump- the volatile psyche of a potential world leader

Who is Donald Trump, "no-seriously"? (as Senator Elizabeth Warren often asks on Twitter).

"How does his mind work:, asked psychologist Dan McAdams in The Atlantic.

"How might he go about making decisions in office, were he to be elected?"

It's time to wake up America! Candidate Donald Trump is a dangerous man and this article gives a bunch of reasons to be very concerned.

Now that the bombastic businessman, with 6 bandruptcies, is only one election away from moving into the Oval Office, questions about his "unique psychological makeup" have taken on greater urgency.

Trump's combination of grandiose narcissism, sky-high extroversion and deeply rooted anger--- coupled with his view of life as a series of "Darwinian" struggles between winners and loosers--- suggests a leader "that could be highly combustible". If elected to our nation's most powerful position, Trump will probably be, "a daring and ruthlessly aggressive decision maker," who doesn't worry about unforeseen consequences. He's likely to be "tough. Bellicose. Threatening. Explosive."

Indeed, Trump's "abject inability to tolerate criticism is a telltale sign of a narcissistic personality," said Jennifer Rubin, in WashingtonPost.com.

Rather than taking a gracious victory lap after securing his nomination at the Republican National Convention (RNC) in Cleveland, the real estate mogul, instead, went on a senseless grudge tour against anyone who had ever slighted him----"infuriated that they will not bow to kiss the ring."

He turned on the GOP's only female Hispanic governor, New Mexico's Susana Martinez, after she failed to show up for his rally there. Then, he launched into an ugly tirade against a federal judge presiding over a civil lawsuit at his now defunct Trump University. Judge Gonzalo Curiel is presiding over a civil lawsuit asserting fraud, and Trump is angry because he "happens to be, we believe, Mexican," Trump said, pointedly.  

In the past, "We have had presidents before who nursed grudges or sought to punish their enemies," said Paul Waldman, in TheWeek.com.  "This is a guy who once mailed a columnist a copy of a negative article she's written but him, with her picture cirrcled and the words, 'the face of a dog!' written alongside. Now, think about having a president who acts that way."

When a foreign despot, such as North Korea's Kim John-Un, "rattles his saber at Trump, will be be able to resist the urge to strike back (with nuclear weapons)?" 

Yet, it's Trump's shameless lying that really boggles the mind, said The Washington Post in an editorial.  Trump made a huge show of raising what he said was $6 million for veterans' groups, "including a $1 millin donation from himself. When this newspaper (The Washington Post) found no evidence of that donation, Trump hurriedly wrote a $1 million check and claimed he had never said he raised $6 million, "despite video proof."  All politicians lie and flip-flop, of course, but Trump "has created a powerful reality-distortion field" in which truth is entirely irrelevant and Jack Shafer in Politico.com.  He insists he opposed the Iraq War, when recorded interviews prove he didn't; also, he claimed, "Ted Cruz's father was photographed with Lee Harvey Oswald before the Kennedy assassination, then said, "of course, I don't belie that." He's taken conflicting positions on abortion, immigration, taxes, health-care policy and ISIS, often contradicting himself in the same interview. 

So, why do his supporters put up with it?, asked Juan Williams in TheHill.com.  Trump, they way, "is the great Disruptor!

They say he's not afraid to call out Washington politicians, President Obama and the Republican establishment they loathe.  

If their hero, "kicks out the bums," the die-hard Trumpists say, who cares if he says some crazy things? Besides, Americans are used to politicians who lie out of political convenience, said Bret Stephen, in The Wall Street Journal. After all, when Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama opposed gay marriage in 2012, only to "evolve" on the subject, no one was surprised; on the Left they said, "we always assumed the position to be dishonest in the first place."

Trump takes this "political doublespeak" and turns it into performance art---a "wink and nod" routine that delights his supporters. "He's out Clintoning the Clintons." 

All politicians may lie, said Jonathan Chair, in NYMag.com, but Trump doesn't even concede that "objective truth" exists.

In Trump's Orwellian world, "the only measure of truth he accepts is what he claims at any gven moment."

When critics mocked his many failed companies, Trump piled steaks on a table and insisted that Trump Steaks was still a going concern--- even though it's out of business and the steaks bore telltale labels from a local meat store.  

Trump admitted posing as his own public relations spokesman in talking to reporters, but now denies it. Like all authoritarians, he bends the rules to his own will and demands that "his supporters place undying faith in him"---the truth be damned. 

Frightfully alarming! It's a display of dominance" reminiscent of Orwell's 1984, or Vladimir Putin's Russia, and makes Trump "uniquely dangerous."

New Majority Agenda and Orwell Old Media

Rather than creating anything "new" for voters to think about, the New Majority Agenda is just old style negative political advertising.  

Missing from the ads are ideas, because, there's certainly nothing new in the New Majority Agenda, except for the "new" anonymous sources of money used to pay for them.

Although the ads are expensive and old fashioned, they're nonetheless dangerous.

Rich political action committee contributors, who anonymously pay for these antiquated messages, rely on throwbacks to the past. They'd rather waste money on tired messages, reminiscent of broken Nixon's "Silent Majority", than to create anything "new", at all. "New" should be analogous to "Progressive", but the New Majority Agenda is RE-gressive. The PAC throws millions of dollars on propaganda, using destructive images, film noir stereotyping President Obama as a dark personality and 1950s style nostalgia for "Leave it to Beaver" era fans. Even as old and tired as these ads are, they're, nonetheless, dangerous.

These exhausted media style ads are dangerous for two important reasons:

1. They're Orwellian: We cannot know who pays or who owns The New Majority Agenda, because the US Supreme Court protects the donors to the PAC under the free speech "Citizens United" ruling. Therefore, if these negative messages work, the contributors can claim ownership of the candidate, ie, the Romney campaign. In other words, they'll be puppeteers who control government, protected from disclosing who they are, because they're entitled to free speech. The New Majority Agenda, if it succeeds, can have the power to influence future political campaigns for as far into the future as the money behind them extends. This would be worse than un-Democratic government. Even Orwell couldn't imagine this kind of lowly totalitarianism.

2. They have a cumulative negative impact: When The New Majority Agenda is coupled like DNA molecules with other negative PAC ads, the total impact is so overwhelming that we're likely to be crushed by the negativity. The cumulative impact of negativity will proliferate widespread cynicism about our government. Government approval ratings are already at all time lows, perhaps the lowest since pollsters began tracking this information. Creating even more cynicism, for the purpose of winning political elections, will not improve our human condition. Rather, the effectiveness of the ads will continue to control our responses to almost any social nuance desired by the anonymous contributors.

How do informed voters turn the public away from Orwell Old Media ads, paid for by the rich New Majority Agenda? A response to contrast the dark, cynical messages is to create bright and optimistic counter images. Rather than film noir, use tasteful fantasy. Rather than "Leave it to Beaver" nostalgia, use social media advertising. Rather than bleak Orwellian messages, use up-beat flash-mobs to make positive points. These top of mind ideas have in common the joining of ordinary people to build positive messages. They contrast bleak New Majority Agenda with optimism.

Our nation's economy isn't entirely based on the actions of one single individual, like President Obama, as New Majority Agenda lies. Economies are built on optimism and confidence, as well as on fiscal systems. Let's counter New Majority Agenda with something really "new". Let's call it "confidence". Let's theoretically name it the New Orwellian Society media campaign, where people are fed optimism, and confidence, instead of negative and mind controlling propaganda.

Indeed, let's throw away the impaired political past by creating a New Majority Future. Begin by re-electing President Obama to continue moving our nation forward, while soundly rejecting the tired negative politics of the Old Majority Agenda.