So yeah, Donald Trump is gaining. Great. You know, readers, my mind burns having to mention this guy, as I know that each time his name is said or written, it fuels him Beetlejuice-style with an orange fire of a thousand spray tans, but nonetheless I figured he was relevant to this topic. There are two major reasons, in my opinion, why our current political climate it gravitating to the man. The first is, as I stated in a different article, brand recognition. People are addicted to names- our history is fueled by them- and Trump is a name literally plastered over towers. But again, I've talked about this before, so I'd like to focus on a different aspect of Trump's popularity- his earnestness.
Donald J. Trump is not an honest person. He has a tendency to contradict himself even in the same sentence, breathing hot and cold in the same breath. It almost doesn't matter what he says; what matters is how he says it. By affectation alone, whatever Trump saying at the precise moment he's saying it, feels real. It feels earnest. Let's look at the debate. Clinton was, as any politician in her position should be, prepared. Almost too much so. Putting aside her actual abilities in government, putting aside anything resembling reason, I want you to consider how Hillary Clinton looks.
She looks strong, studied, formal. Almost metallic. Every motion looks like she's trying to be as calm or as professional as possible. She pauses in the middle of her sentences, trying to put as perfectly completed a thought as possible out into the world. In subtler hands, like the natural professional charisma of Obama, this can work in the favor of the candidate. But when one goes too far in this direction, it can be even more alienating, losing all sense of reality or connection with the audience. A popular internet meme has even created a narrative wherein Clinton is secretly a lizard person and/or robot hellbent on conquering the planet. Point being, to the layman, she just doesn't feel earnest.
Now compare this with Trump.
While more prepared on the debate than most nights, much of what Trump had to say was clearly him talking on the fly, naturalistically, rarely pausing in the middle of his anecdotal sentences to take so much as a breath. His physical motions were direct, loud, and bold. Much like the second Bush, he seems like someone with whom you might share a beer. He's been known to curse, use crude language, and hardly ever utilize multisyllabic words. The two most notable larger words Trump used in the debate itself were "braggadocious" and "cavelier," the latter of which Clinton used first and Trump took to make his own argument. The second Bush also took pride on being a C-student in an attempt to look dumber, (or even really was that dumb, but that's a topic for another day), so Trump is hardly the first candidate with this verbal technique. And while the science is still out whether using curse words is correlated with honesty, what cursing is most definitely correlated with is people with Type-A personalities, aka the leader personality, to which people naturally gravitate. After all who wouldn't think that a man who carries himself with such a, pardon the syllables, braggadocious and bold nature would be a good president? Who wouldn't want someone earnest in everything, looks, gait, affectation, everything truthful save the actual words that person says?
Well, if it really comes down to that for you, readers, I don't think I can convince you. But consider, again, the debate alone. Clinton told about four partial to outright lies in the debate, while according to Politifact, Trump told about thirty. Clinton has 27% Politifact lie rate in general, which obviously isn't great, but the Donald has a 69%. These aren't just words, this is basic reality being denied. You can joke about evil robots and Sneeple all you want, readers, but if you'd rather have an earnest liar than a mechanical, systematic speaker who's actually prepared, then I hope you have fun with the next four years. We might not survive for much longer than that.
