Thoughts On A Trump Presidency as a Sociological Phenomenon/Cultural Phenomenon

I'm beginning to see something coming together on a sociological and cultural level that I had not anticipated.

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The political and business elite coming and going from Trump Tower Political and business elite as well as several family members have been spotted walking in and out of Trump Tower since the election and are believed to have met with Donald Trump's transition team. 

Yesterday, there was controversy about the traffic problems in New York City resulting from the impending Trump Presidency.

It had not occurred to me that a celebrity president is a whole different phenomenon than a regular President; different even from a beloved President such as Barack  Obama. The media created Obama, made him into a Celebrity as the result of his Presidency. As much a celebrity as he is, he was still merely a politician, albeit a relatively handsome and young one.

Trump is a Celebrity on his own, and has been so for decades. Donald Trump's celebrity arose out of his personalty. He became a celebrity despite being a businessman. He is not a performer of any kind. He is not an Actor. He is not a musician. He is a man whose force of personality made him a celebrity, despite the fact that there is nothing particularly celebrity-like about the position he occupies in society.

Trumps's business life is one thing. Those American citizens who know Trump as a celebrity know almost nothing about Trump the businessman. This video, from 2005, of Donald Trump's Congressional testimony on the subject of the renovation of the United Nations building, sheds a little light on the real businessman behind the Trump persona. He is serious and focused. No tangents. No goofing around.



Trump as a public figure is altogether different. He is a combination of the Kardasians, mixed with Daddy Warbucks, mixed with P.T. Barnum, and you could maybe even add in a little Al Capone, from the movie, the Untouchables.

That this is Donald Trump's public persona is the result of force of his personality. It is not the result of the fact that he builds buildings. Many people have built buildings. Many developers have envisioned changing the skyline. Donal Trump is one among many, in that respect.

But his personality has also changed the skyline of America.

And it is the momentum of his celebrity which will bring an unique force to the Donald Trump Presidency, as a Sociological and Cultural phenomenon.

As the result of Trump's Presidency, I believe we will witness some profound changes in the way Americans perceive some very central sociological institutions. And our perceptions of these institutions will change the way we view ourselves as individuals, and as Americans. Trump's Presidency will ultimately change the way we view America, and the way America is perceived in the world.

Right off the bat, Trump will change the way we view business, and the role of the businessman in our great nation. Americans will begin to understand what makes Trump tick. His visions, his impact on society, his impact on the lives of individuals as they have forged careers in his organization, and earned the money to raise families; all because of Trump and his vision, and how that vision has allowed others to attain their visions of an ideal life.

Sure the media will attempt to tear down Trump, and his vision, and American Free Market Capitalism. But this will be the first time in American history when all eyes will be focused on an American businessman. We will learn several things;

1) businessmen are just people

2) successful businessmen, like other people, have ideas - the difference being that they put those ideas into effect, and change the world

3) other people piggy-back on the ideas of entrepreneurial businessmen to make their hopes and dreams come true.

Trump's very being will also bring about a re-assertion of manliness in American culture. There is nothing effeminate about Trump. He is who he is, and he will be who he will be. He does not apologize. He does not nurture. He does not coddle. He dreams, and he goes out into the world and makes those dreams come true. He is a man of action. Action counts. Results count. Excuses are for losers. Put up or shut up. When you put up, and fail, use the shut up time to learn, and plan a new course of action. And then get to work. This is how men work.

When is the last time America was led by a man like this? A man with such force of personality? Teddy Roosevelt? Maybe. But Teddy Roosevelt, beloved as he is, did not have momentum of celebrity behind him, the power of mass communications, and the knowledge of how to use it, the way Trump does.

Manliness is ascendent.

Family will also ascend. Trump's family occupies a central place in his personal and professional life. Trump's transition team is largely made up of family, both male and female. Americans will get to watch a family led by a strong patriarch who does not limit authority to males, but whose own masculine strength speaks for itself. Americans will get to watch a family who does everything together, like some sort of Type A Ozzie and Harriet.

And WOMEN will be emphasized, not only for their traditional roles as wives and mothers, but also for what they bring to the working world. Trump's women have it all and do it all. And, as is true for the men, there are no excuses allowed.

What an example this will be to our nation.

After the past few years of grievance and safe spaces, riots and the relentless woe-is-me wars of "racism", Donald Trump, and his family, will lead through action.

It will be interesting to watch.

We may find that passive/aggressive Americans have been rendered too sniveling and weak from years of feeding at the tits of the media, on a diet of resentment and racial fear-mongering. America may not have what it takes to look at a winner, and make the choices he asks them to make.

America may rebel. America may go into Civil War mode. America may self-destruct.

At this point, honestly, it looks as if that is what America will do.

But the election of Donald Trump, the sheer fact of Donald Trump, is evidence that the spirit of American creativity and triumph is still alive within us.