It's such open season on Trump that I hesitate to publish what I am about to write, but my fingers are flying as my mind tries to understand this phenomenon called a #Trump. Not that a "Trump" exists, but that so many resonate with his ...well, #Trumpness.
Websters Definition:
To get the better of: override - where ambition invariably trumps loyalty.
To do better than (someone of something) in a contest, competition, etc.
To be more important that (something)
(someone, something) Fill in the blank - it doesn't matter so much what it is, he must just win. That is a Trump.
I can't understand why people would think a person who has never experienced a millisecond of being middle class, which I was raised in, much less lower income brackets, could ever have reality on THAT experience. Only a truly magnificent person could empathize with something they have never, ever experienced. I usually can't do it. I try so hard to, but mostly I fail to know what other's realities are like. It's very hard for us to walk in another's shoes. I only see through the experience of my life.
I keep hearing my Republican "John Wayne"-type dad say, Kris, you're trying to apply logic to an illogical situation. He's right, once again, but I can't stop picking at this scab.
Why do some people in the middle and lower classes think this man living in a GOLD (literally) TOWER (literally) will understand them and help them?! #confusion They seem to think the gold will rub off or are feeling a resonance to his common way of speaking, a connection to his brashness, a feeling of knowing him but misunderstanding his what "policies" may be that will 'help the rich more and it will all trickle down and work out for the little guy'. Trickle down has been his way his entire life and I wish it were that simple, but I don't think it is.
We all have endless biases. My biases are probably mostly correct, FOR ME. And I think THAT may be the very, very crucial thing to understand in this election. I am wise enough to suspect that the way I live my life is possibly only right FOR ME.
I wish I could let that sink in a bit, especially with a Trump voter but a Trump voter I unfortunately probably lost a long time ago. So I will only be preaching to the other fascinated people out there who are also mystified as to what a Donald Trump could possibly be able to perceive that lives outside of himself.
He can't know that we each have our own unique lives, views, experiences, universes, if you will. There are 7.125 billion of them on Earth now. THEN there is a separate world outside of our own heads, that we share with others and create projects like work, public spaces, groups, relationships, etc. - And most of us know they are SEPARATE worlds. Inside voice, outside voice. We know this. What I'd like and what really happens. What I think and what I say out loud. For MR TRUMP - THEY ARE NOT SEPARATE. He has one world. One view. He only sees ONE universe - HIS. I wish I could let THAT sink in a bit!
If there was a pie on a table and 8 people in the room and everyone wants a piece - he would eat all 8 pieces and truly believe, in his heart and his mind that it was good for everyone that he ate the whole pie.
He will eat the whole pie and genuinely believe it is good for all almost 8 billion people on Earth.
Please please think about that for three seconds.
And it's not his fault. That has been correct in his life, and it has worked FOR HIM! This may be huge to understand. He's not wrong. FOR HIM. We must understand him, because he can not understand us.
He believes completely that what is good for him is good for everyone. Most of us do feel that way, BUT our parents and life teaches us, often painfully, that is not actually true. Life has not taught him this, yet.
Think of that.
He can't help it. He doesn't know. Even if he read this blog - all he would think is how to attack me, insult my appearance, override me and drive me into silence.
Do you feel that whatever your life may be, to hell with everyone else? What's good for you is good for them? If so, then I am not talking to you. I am talking to the good people of America who have a sliver of doubt that their way may possibly, maybe, not be 100% right for everyone.
Do you see the two choices here?
What I see as the best way for me IS the best way for EVERYONE.
What I see as the best way for me... I can only really truthfully say it's MY way. I actually can't really know what is best for others - but I can wish them well.
This may be the entire election choice that we have to decide between.
For most of us, we know our universe is not the rest of the universe. Life tells us that often. We weren't born into a golden crib.
I was raised very very differently than a Trump. We were taught that you give more than you take, always clean up after yourself, if you don't have anything nice to say don't say anything, and people who brag or show off are icky.
I've also had my best friend die of AIDS. Watched my father suffer from cancer. The same cancer my mother has. I've again had my heart broken by the death of a beloved niece. I've suffered from terrible back pain while working 14 hour days. So I have empathy for those types of challenges - WHICH I DIDN'T BEFORE THEY HAPPENED TO ME.
No one can truly understand outside of their experience.
I couldn't understand what wildlife means to the African people until I went there and looked at their joyful faces and understood why they are risking their lives to save their elephants, lions, rhino, giraffe, zebra, from poachers, trophy hunters, corruption, and overpopulation. This is how they feed their families. Tourism money is how they feed their children.
I came back to America with a new appreciation for the heroism of the African human and animals. When we kill an elephant we kill their jobs. I now have been to Washington DC to "lobby on the hill" and also to Hawaii to lobby for bans on the sale of endangered animal parts. I can now tell you the entire game of politics is listening, talking, and compromising to work together to move ahead to doing better for American jobs, and African jobs. For fairness to the little guy who can't speak for himself.
If I had been aggressive towards Republicans who wanted to block support for all endangered species, if I had attacked them for the death of hundreds of thousands of elephants while they dragged their feet, and for allowing trophy hunting so children of billionaires can kill elephants, kudu, civet cat and waterbuck as Donald Trump's sons have done.... You see, I am biased. We all are. I have seen elephants in the wild, I have bottle fed the orphans of slaughtered elephants, I have spent time with Mark, our Samburu wildlife expert, and I am changed.
I understand I am not always the winner, I know I am usually wrong, I know I can't empathize with a person who has MS as well as one with cancer. I know my universe is not the only universe!
THIS could be the entire campaign.
I will be traveling this globe to protect indigenous people and their land and their wildlife that was here long before we were - because It's the right thing to do and I disagree with bullies. I hate bullying. And the candidate that has a proven record of helping in this fight is Hillary Clinton. I volunteer my time for others, EVERY WEEK, to help the voiceless by passing legislation and I know if any of this endangered species legislation ever makes it to Hillary she will sign it. Trump will not. He even boasts that he will not.
What do you care about and how has Hillary VOTED in the senate for your beliefs. That's what a senator does, writes bill and casts one vote. (They don't write tax code btw) Stop listening to what anyone says about what she has done and look for yourself. If you are saying; I don't trust her, I don't like her, she's Crooked - you are biased by what you've heard around the water cooler and are also judging her more harshly than Trump, and frankly more harshly because she is not a male, with a swagger. You don't have to like her, you'll never meet her! Will she vote for what you care about? Look at her record!
I am biased and I KNOW IT. Own it, know it, and be responsible.
Trump can't know it. It's not his fault. He was born this way.
Even Hillary haters can't take that from her. She was not born into it. She has stamina.