The Trump Effect
Tomorrow the U.S. will choose their 45th president. As an distant observer, I can only imagine the collective exhaustion of an electorate having witnessed what became, for all intents and purposes, a bar-room brawl. Wherever the dust settles, a multitude of unanswered questions remain, mostly centered around the candidate known as Donald J. Trump.
The media characterized Trump as something akin to a master ventriloquist; full of quips and tricks, flubbing lines here and there but always staying resolutely on his mark in the spotlight. At the end of the day we can't know the degree to which his persona was skewed, but we do know his template was not from any playbook the parties had in mind.
Rather than stay above the fray, he jumped in with both feet and a veritable shell-game of identities - candidate, pundit, outraged citizen, mogul and more. Beyond the hi-jinks that ensued, I could not help but wonder about the party's backing of a candidate with such an ad-hoc platform.
The other question that came to mind was whether America's founding fathers had a Donald Trump of their time. If so, did he influence the drafting of restrictions for executive influence? We can't know for certain, however, we can look to the resilience of their great Republic, rustle up some popcorn and enjoy the show.
