Trump will never Triumph
by Kenneth Bagnell
Here and there, people who either hear me on commentaries or read my columns, must wonder why I haven’t bothered revealing the foul language common with Donald Trump, whose verbal style is often ugly and vulgar. It’s become so common that a book has been published to a measured degree, to deal with Trump’s day by day vulgarity. It’s called “What the F….” by a man named Benjamin K. Bergen. You’ll be both surprised and shocked that the book here mentioned, is by a Canadian, apparently in British Columbia. Now, now, don’t go into indignity or disrespect, even though I grant you “the sense of things” can give you “the shakes.” Not to worry though. I was skimming a book that’s was pretty rough in spots, surprisingly written by history’s famous Bertrand Russell. “Obscenity,” he said long ago, “is whatever happens to shock elderly and ignorant persons…”
In my view, Donald Trump — if he had the courage — would profit from the counsel of a first class psychologist or psychiatrist. As you know, I have no doctoral standing in either of these professions. But, as an arts graduate I have majored in clinical psychology; then in post graduate I was under the highly competent psychiatrist, Dr. Fraser Nicholson of Dalhousie University, who, to me, even in memory was an extraordinarily gifted man, who assigned me to patients in what was called, The Nova Scotia Mental Health institute. He felt I could manage by myself, including the female patient who wanted to marry me. I was fortunate enough to be able to say I was marrying Barbara in a week or so.
In my view that the embedded problem of the young lady was permanent. I don’t like saying that for Trump but I will. He is surrounded by intelligent men and women but he goes his own way and that’s that!! Why? He doesn’t believe in giving a cent in response to what you think or I think. He knows it all. By the way, the Trump personality differs far from his parents. They were, I was told years ago by elders and stewards of the congregation, regular attendants at the renowned New York church whose minister for many years, was the renowned George Arthur Buttrick. I mention this because, in general neo-orthodox theology was for years in the Conservative Presbyterian culture. (I’ve got several Buttrick books, all of which are in my private library for a now-and-then mention in my sermons outside Toronto. To me his sermons are of great insight. Buttrick, affirmed Harry Emerson Fosdick and Martin Luther King, in the selection of the greatest preachers of the era. As for Donald Trump’s presence, his crude language reveals his secularism. He rarely attended Madison Presbyterian Congregation and never does now; he has no ethic, even an understanding, of the Christian way and Christian values. (I’ve just learned that a book on Trump appeared with a title that says an awful lot: “The Dangerous Case of Donald Trump: 27 Psychiatrists and Mental Health Experts Assess a President.”)
It was just last January that Trump seemed to return to his bragging. You’d think that he’d learn to set aside the self-centered problems he carried day and night. This time – it was in the early weeks after Christmas passed – Trump stood before an Iowa caucus — when he spoke up and revealed the vanity that seems planted in him—and let go with a bellow that The Atlantic would publish and regard immature. Before a huge audience he came across as a self-servant: “I could stand in the middle of Fifth Avenue” he began, and shoot somebody. And I wouldn’t lose any voters, okay? It’s incredible.” It would not take a psychologist to ascertain the self-centered character he reveals. You know, if you have followed him even slightly, that his vanity is so inherent he would want to continue it and enrich its possibilities. I reflected on it for a bit of time and it recalled a sentence spoken, sad to say, Albert Camus. His philosophy? This: “To be happy we must not be too concerned with others.” Can you imagine the Prime Minister of Canada ever saying that? Think of its rudeness and crudeness?
Actually — given our regret that he’s in The White House – options are few and thereby, if he stays, he’ll be in The White House for eight years. That length of time for a man like Trump is, to me, very uneasy. Remember Canada figures indirectly with a President like Obama or Carter, both of whom are intuitive and far from being self-centered. Hence we must observe the Trump Presidency, which I expect will never find respect from the majority of American citizens and observers abroad. The major aspect is not “will he?” or “won’t he.” My sense of the man is that he will put the Presidency at the top of his role and his life. At the same time—unfortunately—things are not going well in Washington. But the Presidency, so far, the reason is as clear as a just cleaned window : those who support him will continue to support him. One unique element will interest this specific component according to The Atlantic “There’s some evidence that Republicans affected with Trump are ceasing to identify with their party, leaving only the president’s supporters behind. But Obama never endured a comparable string of scandals; the erosion of the GOP ranks doesn’t explain the fervency of those who remain….”
Hence, those who look for a new political endowment are not necessarily out of the game. You know, as I do, that Nancy Pelosi — a much liked and respected democrat — is now taken very seriously, given her public office for years. Nonetheless we Canadians are at the edge of numerous and crucial matters, not to speak of the burden Washington places on Ottawa’s back. But let’s not be dismal. After all, we now have Nancy Pelosi an exceptionally gifted and competent woman, first elected in 1987, speaker from 2006 to 2010, a woman of high intelligence and genuine ethics; so let us all, Canadians and Americans, be grateful.
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