For Trump, it's just another show

Disco Don

I try to remain interested in politics. After all, I’m technically one of those smiling, engaged seniors as seen on TV, pedaling madly through the commercials for Viagra and Lipitor. I’m active, yes, active as hell and way too young to be jaded by the field of presidential contenders for 2012. Then Donald Trump starts dominating the airwaves and I realize it’s all just a big freaking joke. Inevitably, all of America has become a reality show and we’re powerless to change the channel.

There were times when Sarah Palin was the joke. Now Donald Trump comes along and makes her look like Mahatma Gandhi. The man and his peculiar hair are everywhere. To hear Donald Trump tell it, there is nothing Donald Trump doesn’t know. He has looked into every aspect of every problem and has formulated solutions to those problems. On China, for example: “They don’t have the cards. We have the cards.” On the economy: “What do they know, the economists? Most of them are not very smart.”

There is something about this man that makes me wistful for Charlie Sheen.  Yes, Charlie Sheen is also a horse’s ass and also dominated news coverage for way too long, but as far as I know he did not presume to lead anybody but himself into the abyss. He’s always seemed quite content to go it alone. Crazed celebrities are one thing; crazed billionaires pretending to be statesmen are quite another. Trump sees everybody but himself as a sucker. Since the polls now show him leading the GOP pack, I’d say he’s at least partially right.

It’s not Trump who’s dangerous. He’ll never be elected president and he knows it. But those people putting him at the top of the polls: That’s something to worry about.