How About You, by Martha Thomases – Brilliant Disguise | @MDWorld

June 3, 2016 Victor El-Khouri 1 Comment

“I like New York in June.  How about you?” sang Frank Sinatra among others, including me.  I usually start singing it as soon as the weather gets nice.

And, yes, I do occasionally like a Gershwin tune as well.

It’s a song about falling in love, about the back-and-forth of getting to know someone attractive.  And it occurs to me that it reveals a lot of what I don’t like about Donald Trump, or at least his public persona.

You see, in order to fall in love, you have to get to know another person.  You have to find something to talk about, discover any shared interests and passions.  Without this kind of mutual interest in each other, you’re not in love.  There might be a relationship, but it isn’t love.

(I hope it’s obvious to you that, for the purposes of this discussion, I don’t only mean romantic love, or sexual attraction.  My definition of love here is broad enough to include familial love and friendship and even pets.  My Selina and I share an interest in fresh asparagus and tossing soft stuffed toys around the apartment.)

Donald Trump, for the most part, doesn’t care about anyone’s opinion but his own.  The only time he cares about your opinion is when it’s about him.

The most recent example of this is his reaction to media requests for information about his claims to have donated $6 million to charities benefiting veterans, including a million of his own dollars.  In January, Trump staged a benefit, allegedly to help veterans, because he didn’t want to participate in a debate moderated by Fox News.  He spent several news cycles bragging about how much money he was going to raise, and how much he was going to contribute.  At that event, he spent much more time talking about his donated million than he did talking about veterans’ issues.

It is therefore not surprising that reporters wanted to know what happened to that money.  When he didn’t answer, they asked more questions.  That’s what reporters are supposed to do.  They employ similar tactics when they ask Hillary Clinton about the content of her speeches at Goldman Sachs, or about her e-mail server.

(For the record, I think Hillary only hurts herself when she doesn’t answer these questions.)

The difference is that, when Trump gets asked a question he doesn’t like, he responds with personal insults.  And the content of the insults is often about how much better Trump is than the person he’s insulting, or how that person doesn’t perform in a way that is pleasing to Trump.

Women he doesn’t like are ugly pigs who offend his eyes.  People who criticize him are losers who don’t measure up to his level of greatness.  He has many black/Muslim/Hispanic/whomever-he-last-insulted people who love him.  It’s all about him.  He considers himself to be the center of the universe, and every other aspect of the universe is only of interest to him to the extent that it is about him.

He never talks about what might be important to others.  Oh, he promises it will be “great” or “huge” or “spectacular” or any other superlative, which he then explains is the only way he does anything.  I’ve never seen him ask another person about what might be going on in her life, and how he could help.

Maybe that’s because he really isn’t interested in helping.  He’s only interested in getting his name out there.  The link quotes an article by Steven Brill that says “The records indicate that Trump University collected approximately $40 million from its students — who included veterans, retired police officers and teachers — and that Trump personally received approximately $5 million of it, despite his claim, repeated in our interview, that he started Trump University as a charitable venture.”

Lest you think I’m the only one who notices this, let me point your towards this.  To quote:  “Trump’s implicit case is that his personality is so dominant, his presence alone makes the need for detailed policy proposals moot. That’s why when he vows to rescue health care for veterans, he doesn’t say how he will get it done. He promises to bring back jobs from Mexico and China — again without revealing his approach. He says he will ‘knock the hell out of ISIS’ but doesn’t detail a credible military strategy.”

Maybe the high-school graduate older white men who make up the bulk of his support don’t recognize this kind of rhetoric, but just about every woman does.  It’s the way men talk to women they’re trying to bulldoze into bed.  “It’ll be amazing,” they say.  “You won’t believe how great it’s going to be.”

And then, when it’s over, they’re out the door and onto the next one.  If they’re old-school, you might get flowers in the morning.  And that would be swell, if we weren’t going to be stuck with this guy for four years.

Media Goddess Martha Thomases is mad about good books and can’t get her fill.