Will Trump 2.0 Make the Republic a Brave New World?
The elevation of Donald J. Trump to the presidency—for the second time—is both absurd and obscene. Absurd, for the very presence of this cartoonish jokester, which is a sick parody of the low-brow culture that he personifies. It is as if Marshal Mcluen’s dictum that the media is the message got processed through Neil Postman’s classic, Amusing Ourselves to Death in the elevation of an utterly uncouth TV reality host to the highest political position in the land. Interpreted through Postman’s lens, Trump’s appeal to the lowest common denominator among those who are inclined to be persuaded by right wing media outlets, is a structural phenomenon that uncannily mimics the absurdities of a constitutional republic which has been corrupted by the multitude of forces that push the nation in the opposite direction. In short, it is absurd to the nth degree that this ridiculous individual, and his group of election denying cronies that he is promoting to the uppermost offices in the land, will ...