After a lifetime following politics, Donald Trump is the first presidential candidate from either party that I consider dangerously unsuitable for the presidency. I express that in the guest opinion in the Washington Times reprinted below.
The Washington Times
Sunday. April 4, 2016
ANALYSIS/OPINION:
Trump unfit for presidency
It is unlikely that Donald Trump will ever be president. Because of a flawed primary process, a news media that is hooked on style over substance and a relatively small band of irrationally angry voters, Mr. Trump has been made to look like a winner. In fact, most Republican primary voters oppose him. His percentage of likely Republican general-election voters is even smaller and his share of all general-elections voters makes him a marginal candidate. Most telling are the two-thirds of voters who have an extremely have a negative opinion of him.
Mr. Trump has two qualities that disqualify him from the presidency; his vacuous and vulgar show-business antics and a narcissistic/megalomaniacal mentality. He is a one-man improv show, making things up as he goes along. Aside from his slogans, there is no common thread from one performance to another. His followers remind me of the fans of an actor who played a doctor on TV. The man said his fans, when they met him, often asked him for medical advice. Apparently, like Mr. Trump’s fans, they were unable to distinguish reality from theater.
Megalomania is a serious mental illness. It is variously defined as an obsession with power, especially when it comes to dominating others; a lust for power; and conceit and delusion about one’s own power. Mr. Trump is the poster boy for the disease. This observation is not new. Back in 2000, conservative icon William F. Buckley Jr. said, “Look for the narcissist. The most obvious target in today’s lineup is, of course, Donald Trump. When he looks at a glass, he is mesmerized by its reflection.”
What makes Mr. Trump particularly dangerous is that his state of mind is combined with a shocking ignorance of issues and the constitutional role of the presidency. Never before in American history has a person of Mr. Trump’s self-absorbed, authoritarian mindset come so close to the Oval Office. Every freedom-loving American should hope and pray he does not succeed.
LARRY HORIST
Boca Raton, Fla.
On The Starboard 