Vain and Vicious

Article

"Donald Trump is one of the worst people his generation produced, a vain and vicious and relentlessly exploitive nullity. But there is something pitiable in watching him try to defend himself with the weapons he’s been given by the culture that created him. He opens his mouth to answer for what he’s done and finds that these silly, sordid questions are all he has."

(Al's Ho Fiesta) a comment on David Roth's article
9/27/19 11:27am

I find myself thinking that President Trump is not merely one of the worst people his generation produced, but the embodiment of the collective id of that generation. Thin-skinned, venal, looking for someone else to blame and so very, very scared of changes.
Old white boomers, especially ones in suburbia, grew up in a time of American exceptionalism, largely excluded from having to see people of other races. The 1950's were a time of great middle-class wealth. Then, as they got older, they lived through the civil rights era, likely living among parents who were angry at that. They lived through Vietnam, and a massive recession, and society that grew more progressive. They were less special, grasping for a return for feeling dominant in the world. As they became the main working class, we got the excesses and supreme self-importance of Wall Street in the 80's.
It’s not entirely surprising that these people, seething with anger about a world they lost because, hint hint, it actually was incredibly racist, sexist, and generally shitty to anyone who didn’t conform to their own self-image, would turn out to be petty, shitty, and generally selfish as hell as they aged out and again saw their power being “stolen” from them.
Of course, not “all” boomers, but that’s why I think it’s best to think of Trump as their collective id. He is the worst of his generation because he has all the impulses, the neediness, the selfishness, the insecurity about change...and was given a huge amount of money and a freedom from consequences that convinced him that he is right. But underneath it all is that sense of loss, of insecurity about any change that might be more inclusive. It’s why he needs to be ostentatiously wealthy, ostentatiously powerful. It’s why his skin is so thin, why he clings to the notion that he and like-minded people are special and deserve the excesses they crave.
He is the id of aging Boomers, desperate cling to their outsized power, and crazed at the idea of sharing with anyone. Plenty in his generation aren’t like him (I guess they’re the ego/superego), but he is the embodiment of the shitty people, their greatest weaknesses, vices, and shitty impulses.