Could it be that Trump is not really "the villain"?

[progressive85]

He might be lewd, crude, crass, and of course his ego is the size of Jupiter, but I question whether he's this sinister Palpatine-esque person.  He might just be a man that's too old for the job and is suffering from mental illness.  He is paranoid and is obsessed with enemies.  He's the worst possible kind of person to be where he is because he's very impulsive.

He does not possess very good political skills at all.  His work is very sloppy.

So I think while he might be incompetent, is he really deserving of the passionate hatred that people have for him?  (shrugs)

I view him more as a tragic figure- more pathetic than fear-inducing.  I bet he's miserable in the job.

[Beet]

No one's forcing him to be there. He can leave at any time. Incompetence is not really a defense when you're the one with the nuclear codes.

[Higgins]

If he wasn't trying his utmost to screw over the poor and disadvantaged, or using all of the weight of his office to set scientific research back decades, I might have a smidgen of pity for him. Just a smidgen though.

[GGover]

It's his choice.

He's choosing to make himself miserable.

[Unapologetic Chinaperson]

I agree. One for the reasons you've mentioned - he's simply too incompetent to be a Palpatine figure (which is why if I want such a figure, I always go to Steve Bannon).

More importantly, though, Trump is a symptom of the disease. The disease being an unequal, racist, and frankly dystopic economic and social structure that destroys the lives of the many for the betterment of the few.

[Absentee Voting Ghost of Ruin]

If he wanted to try to redeem his presidency, he could back off and let his Cabinet appoint the people they want and let them do their jobs while he does nothing but PR stuff. He's effectively a reality TV president anyway. The difference is that right now he not willing to admit it or embrace it.

That he's miserable and humiliatingly incompetent provokes no pity from me and is no excuse. There is nothing to be said in mitigation. His guilt is unique in its enormity. The record discloses no excuses for this man.

[Deblano]

He's more of a Boris Yeltsin figure at this rate.

[○∙◄☻¥tπ[╪AV┼cVê└]

Trump is a symptom and not the disease.

[Hermit For Peace]

I agree. One for the reasons you've mentioned - he's simply too incompetent to be a Palpatine figure (which is why if I want such a figure, I always go to Steve Bannon).

More importantly, though, Trump is a symptom of the disease. The disease being an unequal, racist, and frankly dystopic economic and social structure that destroys the lives of the many for the betterment of the few.

I think you hit the nail on the head here. So my question to you is, what do you think can be done to change this situation? Will Trump's presidency shine a light on this problem enough so that we as a society will be inspired to change?

[Silent Hunter]

He's more of a Boris Yeltsin figure at this rate.

Then who's Putin?

[Statilius the Epicurean]

Do you forget how he got himself elected saying all those racist things?

[FEMA Camp Administrator]

He's more of a Boris Yeltsin figure at this rate.

Obama as Gorbachev and Bush as Brezhnev does make a tiny bit of sense.

[Badger]

Villainous evil and incompetence are not mutually exclusive. Trump proves that.

[GeorgiaModerate]

Villainous evil and incompetence are not mutually exclusive. Trump proves that.

Fortunately for this country.  If he were competent it would be bad news indeed.

[progressive85]

He deserves no pity, but I'm trying to make myself be less angry by what he does.  He's an absolute wreck psychologically- as a person with mental illness myself, I guess I do understand how hard it is to live like that... but you're all right, he's the one that pushed himself to run for President... why I have no idea.  Wouldn't he be happier at one of his resorts?

[Unapologetic Chinaperson]

Do you forget how he got himself elected saying all those racist things?

The fact that he got elected by saying those racist things is a symptom of the racism that permeates through American society.

[ProudModerate2]

Well the fact that he always wears purple clothes, and has a handlebar mustache .... yes, he is a villain.

[Coraxion]

He's more of a Boris Yeltsin figure at this rate.

Then who's Putin?

I don't know, but definitely not Trump. Putin's actually competent.

[Comrade Funk]

Putin's the true villain. Trump is the b-tier bad guy. He's the Oddjob to Putin's Goldfinger.

[pbrower2a]

Villainous evil and incompetence are not mutually exclusive. Trump proves that.

That combination is commonplace -- among criminals. They usually don;t avoid capture, conviction, and imprisonment long enough to become competent criminals.

[pbrower2a]

If one is to put blame beyond Donald Trump --

is it his parents who failed to teach him any humane values? Is it the incompetence of teachers in doing so in the elite private schools that he attended?  Is it the failure of the Republican Party to vet him adequately?

Or is it a failure of our educational system, one that trivializes the importance of logic in making  rational decisions in voting and consumer choices? Or is it the failure of news media more intent upon creating excitement in politics for ratings that they plugged someone so incompetent and debased as Donald Trump? 

[Blair]

He's ran for President literally so that he can brag that he won; sure people like Clinton/Kennedy did it for equally questionable egotistical reasons but at least every president in the last 70 years has actually cared about running the country.

I remember the whole 'Karl Rove is evil, GWB is just a puppet'; and it's just as stupid then as it was now. Bannon didn't join the Trump campaign until 2016, and the birtherism was before Bannon.

Trump knows what he's doing.