Feeling Sorry for Donald Trump

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I feel sorry for Donald Trump. 

Wait! Stop throwing things! Permit me to explain.   

Disclosure: personal opinion follows, flavored with a bit of a personal rant. Read further at the risk of emotional tweaking.

First of all, Donald Trump is woefully inadequate to fill presidential shoes (he has small feet, y'know). He would be off on the wrong small foot shortly after stepping across the sill of the doorway to the Oval Office. He has neither the experience nor temperament to be in a position of such power and responsibility. Being a good businessman does not qualify one to be president, for there is so much more required to fill such a position than is part and parcel of running a normal business. Diplomacy, leadership, and an innate understanding of politics are a few of the arts that are not required to the degree in business as it is in the office of the president of the United States.

Move on to a list of Trump's business failures -- a long one, as frequently introduced in Facebook posts -- and his oft reported, ah, less than truthful statements and claims, along with his confrontative and bullying manner, and it is easy to verbally demolish the man. Of course, he is only demolished in the mind of the one doing the demolishing. He is, apparently, unaffected by the abuse. Everything seems to bounce of his emotional armor.

Still, I feel sorry for him.

Why do I feel sorry for the man who is making a mockery of the highest process of American politics? Because he is the product of his birth, his culture, and his DNA which produced his body and brain. He is what he is because of "nature and nurture:" the environment, culture, and his DNA.

This is not to say we should give the man a pass. Everything he has ever said and done is fair game, along with everything he didn't say or do that he should have. When you step into the vicious arena of politics, you do so of your own violation, and bear the brunt of the sticks and stones, make that the limbs and boulders, that are heaved upon your person nonstop. Sarcasm and artfully insulting humor are what you invite when you accept the challenge, and place the target upon your political breast.

My empathy for Trump comes, first, from the attacks being so personal, and because they include his family. Of course, this is true for Clinton, Sanders, Obama, and pretty much anyone and everyone who steps into the contentious political spotlight. But that doesn't make it right, and I have empathy for them as well.

The other, and primary, reason I feel sorry for Mr. Trump is the life which he leads. "You mean a life of having so much money you can't lose it fast enough to go broke? You mean having houses in beautiful places all over the globe? Or maybe having all those rich and famous people faun over you and cow-tow to your every whim? Or maybe the one in which a long line of beautiful women throw themselves at you? That one?"

Well, yes. It has been scientifically proven that once one achieves Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs (food, shelter, etc.), an increase in wealth produces no increase in happiness. Please answer this question: would you rather be rich and unhappy, or not rich and happy? I don't know for certain, of course, that Mr. Trump is unhappy, but I question whether anyone could be uncaring, dishonest, pugnacious, and brutally insulting as he is, and be happy.

I feel sorry for Donald Trump because, as a product of birth and culture, he is likely a very unhappy man. And I would not want to live his life.