Trumped

 

Image from Bored Panda

A few readers have asked me, in private messages, why I haven't posted in this blog lately. The answer is a complicated mixture of the personal, the professional and the technical -- I am still trying to figure out the mechanics of downloading photos from my smartphone -- but let's just say that lately I have been more engaged with real life than with my computer screen. I hope to be posting more regularly in the near future.

If you are in Mexico City next Tuesday night -- or shall we say early Wednesday morning -- at 12:45 a.m., I will be appearing on a show called Los Corresponsales on TV Azteca, channel 13. It's a 15-minute program hosted by Ricardo Raphael, political analyst and author of Mirreynato, a book that has caused a lot of polemic here, about the class of young Mexicans born with silver spoons up every conceivable orifice.

He invited me to talk about the ascendence of Donald Trump in the U.S. presidential race. I think we had a lively conversation, but sadly, I didn't use the opportunity to repeat what one of my best friends, a psychiatrist in New York, told me about Trump. This friend, of course, has not actually treated Trump, but feels that he has elements of narcissism, grandiosity and a touch of sociopathy. He also invented a word, trichodysmorphia, to describe Trump's hair problem. 

At the end of the day, I am skeptical about Trump's candidacy. I think it will ultimately sputter out and die like it has on previous occasions. That his despicable racist views are a reflection of the beliefs of a large chunk of the U.S. public  -- mostly disgruntled white, working-class males -- is dismaying, but is it a surprise to anyone?