Election thoughts

It wasn't an electorate that chose Donald Trump, it was a mob. The reason it was not a compelling argument that he was "temperamentally unfit" for the office of president was that the people who elected him were seeking exactly that. They didn't want someone fit for the office, they wanted someone who would re-imagine the office, and all that it stands for, in a role that could change their relationship to the current status quo. Those who were temperamentally fit for the office could never manifest the violence necessary to destroy it. The more chaotic, destructive, out of control, and in general, totally bananas that Donald Trump became, the more viscerally he appealed.

The fact that he appeared to insiders to be melting down, was in fact evidence to those with a thirst for creative destruction that he was the medicine they wanted. And the more articulate and coherent that Clinton became, the more she embodied that which they wanted to dismantle. The genius of Trump was that he somehow unconsciously knew this. He could feel how the room would swell when he got crazy. He knew how true it was that he could shoot someone on Fifth Avenue and have people still love him. The rage and shame of the people was seeking a vessel, and it found one in a primitive sledgehammer of chaos.

The great fascinating question now is how a force of pure narcissistic chaos will fit within the confines of the presidency. Is there a limit to his hubris? How delusional is he? How delusional can unadulterated adulation and power make a true narcissist? What happens to all the pain and rage inside the man? Is there a scenario where he can find that the greatest narcissistic gratification actually is to be found in competent service to the country?