One of the many things about this campaign that surprises me is the degree to which some set of my fellow citizens are convinced that Donald Trump is a hero questing against the powers that have shaped their lives in ways they don’t like: political elites, banks, international trade partners, immigrants. In this narrative, Trump is the lone strongman, the sheriff facing the bad guys in defense of a town full of mostly cowards underserving of his heroism. He is HERO.
However, unlike the western sheriff facing down the gang of bad guys in the street, Trump isn’t actually defending weaker, less capable people against the strong. No, Donald Trump punches down. He mocks the weak and less capable and exploits his position of relative power to maintain and expand his privilege – whether privilege in the tax code, or privilege in abusing women at will.
Trump is thus a classic bully, a thug who identifies the weak and uses power to satisfy his own needs for dominance. But presented with an opponent with similar resources and capacities – say Hillary Clinton, for example – he wilts. He’s the guy who screams of his greatness and then explains, when his hat is handed to him, that the fight was rigged.
That might make him a good TV star. (I wouldn’t know: I never watched a millisecond of his show.) But it makes for a terrible president.