Finneran: The Billion Dollar Blowhard

Friday, June 19, 2015

Tom Finneran, GoLocalWorcester MINDSETTER™

Donald Trump

Now we know what the doctor ordered. Apparently America desperately needs Donald Trump.

A sick, confused, and dead-broke nation looks to Donald Trump for salvation! Holy cow. Might we consider putting the patient entirely out of its misery? If Donald Trump is the national medicine we need, then the sickness and the rot are really advanced.

The man is a walking talking fool. Yet he just might serve a grand purpose if he can get America to see past its obsessive fascination with “celebrity” candidates in pursuit of celebrity office and celebrity endorsements.

Of the many puzzling things in American politics, the deference and attention given to theatrical “stars” is beyond belief. Why would any clear-thinking American take political advice from Gwyneth Paltrow? Or Bruce Springsteen? Or Clint Eastwood? Their ability on a stage, with a guitar or a script, has absolutely nothing to do with the nation’s wellbeing or your family’s future. Springsteen and Eastwood would probably tell you that themselves. Paltrow on the other hand seems to be a complete ninny. Her mindless gushing over certain candidates warrants a visit from mental health professionals. Always, always, always remember that the professional lives of these entertainment icons are based upon lighting, illusion, and special effects. They are very good at the game of multiple takes and “let’s pretend”. As for their personal lives the less said the better.

That any rational person would suspend their own thinking and, like a lapdog, adopt Hollywood’s slant on society is appalling. What a degraded, decadent, nauseating neighborhood is Hollywood. It’s the nation’s capital of narcissism. And of course The Donald will brook no competition for the title of Narcissist-in-Chief. So it’s of little wonder that Trump has strutted on to the presidential stage. It’s the perfect place for him. It will be his version of Entertainment Central.

I won’t pretend to have watched Mr. Trump’s announcement of his campaign for the Presidency. I have too little time and too much self-respect. I stopped watching the cartoons many years ago. Yet Trump could have captured my attention and perhaps the fancy of other Americans if he had announced his candidacy for School Committee, or for parks commissioner of New York or for library trustee. Each office has important responsibilities and many citizens, including Mr. Trump, might make worthy contributions to the improvement of public assets and public life. But that type of serious civic work draws no cameras and is thus far below Mr. Trump’s psychiatric needs.

Sadly, America has become far too obsessed and deferential about the office of the President. We do not have and we should not want a national monarch. We do have a Congress and a Senate. And we should pray for a rapid, robust and assertive recovery of those two legislative bodies. Our current “Hail to The Chief” national mindset long precedes the candidacies of Bush I, Bush II, Bush III, the Clintons, or President Obama. Our impatience for “solutions” to difficult and complex issues seems to insist upon a national boss of some sort rather than plodding Congressional committee work. And those impatient and grand demands, those juvenile expectations, in the end assure a less than satisfactory assessment of presidential performance. President Obama is just the latest example of that sad fact. No one on the planet could possibly meet the expectations which were heaped upon his young shoulders.

As for Mr. Trump’s announcement, he apparently emphasized his wealth as symbolic of his vast experience and abilities. Yet in his “truth-telling” contrast to all those grubby ambitious “politicians” he regularly denounces, he neglected to mention his multiple bankruptcies. Are his American creditors not worthy of a mention? After all, he stiffed them on his loans, leaving them in some doubt about his famous skills. He cited his assets yet breathed not a word of his mountains of debt. He insulted and threatened Mexico and multiple other nations. He rattled sabers in all directions. He may have frightened the families of America’s soldiers as they contemplate a third, fourth, or fifth deployment to overseas combat. Yet somehow I don’t think that Russia’s Putin, China’s bosses, or the rulers in Iran are losing any sleep about a President Trump. He’s an American blowhard and they know it.

As for us, the American people, the song asks……..”Where have you gone Joe DiMaggio? A nation turns its lonely eyes to……….Trump”? Please God, no.

Tom Finneran is the former Speaker of the Massachusetts House of Representatives, served as the head the Massachusetts Biotechnology Council, and was a longstanding radio voice in Boston radio.