Trump’s Love-Hate Relationships
If you were to ask me what I thought of Trump buildings, I would say that I neither hate them nor love them. They are plain and from an architectural eye appear to be well-built and substantial, but they aren’t very innovative. I have never found them inviting and the size of his name on the edifice is gaudy, tacky, kitschy and, well you get it.
When Donald Trump started his egomaniacal trip into politics, most people thought it would be short-lived. Some people hated him and some loved him. When he came down the gold-plated escalator, he stood next to his beautiful immigrant wife and proceeded to tear into immigrants. Hate from day one.
The Mexicans seem to bother Trump the most. Even though he employs Mexicans and Mexican-Americans on his construction jobs, he sounds like he hates them. He used a whole ethnic group to get attention and put himself in the limelight. He even wants to build a wall to keep Mexicans out.
Donald Trump would surely hate being psychoanalyzed by a two-bit blogger, but he does expose himself to much of what he gets. Much like the bully on the playground or the villain in a good movie, we love to hate him. It’s not war against political correctness that he wages that makes him wrong, it’s the use of hate to separate us and get what he wants. Gee, what is that?
We know that Donald is a religious man. He worships money and power, which brought in the evangelicals, because they too, are protecting their kingdom on earth with money and power. WWJD? And why can he get this anti-Semitic stink off him?
He keeps telling us how successful and rich he is. He loves talking about his wins as if losing is something that makes him an enemy. He says America First, but then seems to turn on America. He repeats his mantra that we are so screwed up, which is what an abusive father would say to a son who wasn’t living up to his expectations. One might say he has a love-hate relationship with the very country he wants to lead.
Hating Muslims is an easy pot to stir. Every time a radical terrorist used the twisted view of his faith as the justification for taking lives there was Trump to endorse, encourage and exploit the hate. He can deny that he hates any religious group, like he denies climate change, but the facts are pretty clear. Could you imagine a candidate for the highest office saying they wanted a complete and total shutdown of all Catholics entering the United States?
I am sure Mr. Know-It-All loves his wife Melania, but from this vantage point it doesn’t seem so lovey-dovey. Of course, you can spare us the over-the-top public displays of affection we saw with Al Gore and Tipper. We are still trying to unravel the strange sense of co-dependency that Mike Pence has demonstrated with his wife.
We know that Jack and Jackie Kennedy didn’t really have a normal marriage. Maybe being President makes it impossible to have a customary relationship with your spouse, but the jury is still out whether Melania staying in New York was really for their son, or just her desire to have a life.
In his previous relationships, Donald Trump was not faithful. Maybe he hates being married. Or maybe, he is the embodiment of the 70s swinger whose only real vice is sex, without the drugs and rock ‘n’ roll. Or maybe, he finally grew up?
That brings us to the question, do I hate Donald Trump? I don’t hate him and I don’t like him and I surely don’t love him. I feel sorry for him. He reminds me of my father, who if still alive would be 104 years old. My father’s viewpoints were baked in by a generation of people who believed America was a white country, with white bread and white picket fences. And that Italians, Irish, Russians, Jews and those “other” people should have their own neighborhoods and should stay there unless they went out to shop.
Donald Trump probably believes if he got rid of all the Muslims, Mexicans and minorities who don’t “love” America that magically all the challenges would go away. Hating only gets more hate thrown back at you. Now that he has pulled all the way into his bubble, he will never realize that we are a nation of immigrants who want a better life. Trump’s grandfather and mother came to America as immigrants; does he deny that?
You don’t make America great by getting rid of the others, while catering to the 38% of those people who would actually look the other way when you shoot someone on Fifth Avenue. It’s time for Trump to diminish the hate and increase the love. America is not going to wait for you to catch up to the reality and benefits of love.