Understanding Donald Trump for Left-Wing intellectuals

I continue to read and hear nonsense by sophisticated Left-Wingers. Let me try again to clarify.

1. Workers — Donald Trump is on a four-year election tour for 2020. That’s his first priority. Since everyone, friend and foe, predicted that he would not win in the last election, he will not take seriously anything that predicts his future loss. And working hard got him there and he’s working for it again. (In work hours he’s lazy, but not in tenacity.)

He will say and do what his base likes. There is no deeper logic or ideology behind much of what he does. His lust for media attention is not for self-gratification but mainly for cheap publicity.

So, he brands himself as streetwise, strong, rich (the workers vicariously adore the successful). He spits on his hypocritical lying pretending arrogant (“deplorables”) opponents and takes personal revenge on the book-smart people. He’s very close to the working Joes, and they feel it.

2. Libertarians — Meanwhile, he does not forget to keep his “liberal” base happy. Those are people who want to deregulate as much as possible because regulations generally protect the weak and hinder the powerful. The “profit goes for anything” guys are very pleased with their president. As a bonus and to distract, he throws in some politically incorrect stuff.

3. The Rich — It is important that he doesn’t neglect the haves. This goes at the expense of the have-nots, but the reverse Robin Hood makes sure that they’ll never find out until it’s too late (see 1). It’s going very well.

4. Character — All the analyses by real psychiatrists and the best tealeaf-readers amount to nothing. He’s not narcissistic nor an ideological racist (he has no time or patience for ideology). Rather,

A. He’s so brilliant that he has developed no patience, discipline or reading skills (for anything longer than his signature, including the Donald Duck). He assumes that anything can be learned on the fly.

B. He’s also used to be the boss, so he doesn’t see any need to explain, obey or cooperate. He enjoys winning and gratifying his lusts – who doesn’t? – and his working-class base is vicariously with him.

C. He’s a great pretender, enjoying to fool folks. That’s his little secret. He’s not immoral; morality should play no role in doing business. He’s a very effective speaker. He gets a kick out of convincing against the facts.

D. He’s actually a very poor negotiator. He only has two modes: Forget it, and: I’ll give you more than you asked for. The first makes him come out tough and the second gives him “impossible” “deals.”

E. He’s a practical conservative guy. The end justifies the means. And what always worked will work again. Use Jews; they always deliver.

F. He learned that bullying works well, to feign anger intimidates, but being nice and charming works best with “idiots” (normal people). As with many strong people, many project their weaknesses on him. He (of course) likes other strongmen.

G. He will never get unhappy. He’ll put a positive swing on anything to stay happy and hopeful.

So no, he’s not stupid, an ideologist or crazy. And he’s more humble than most in the political world. But who wants to admit that (if they’d every recognize humility), because that’s really embarrassing.

The bad news:

– He’s going to win a second term.

– He just got the opportunity to give the US Supreme Court a Conservative majority for decades to come, Making America Immoral Again (death penalty, guns everywhere and gay oppression, abortion illegal, reduced support for the weak and environment).

Those who know how to pray, better start working hard at it.

About the Author

MM is a prolific and creative writer and thinker, an almost daily blog contributor to the Times of Israel, and previously, for decades, he was known to the Jerusalem Post readers as a frequent letter writer. He often makes his readers laugh, mad, or assume he's nuts—close to perfect blogging. He's proud that his analytical short comments are removed both from left-wing and right-wing news sites. * As a frontier thinker, he sees things many don't yet. He's half a prophet. Half. Let's not exaggerate. He doesn't believe that people observe and think in a vacuum. He, therefore, wanted a broad bio that readers interested can track a bit about what (lack of) backgrounds, experiences, and education contribute to his visions. * If you don't know the Dutch, get an American peek behind the scenes here: https://youtu.be/QMPp6h6r72M * To find less-recent posts on subject XXX among his over 1600 archived ones, go to the right-top corner of a Times of Israel page, click on the search icon and search "zuiden, XXX". One can find a second, wilder blog, to which one may subscribe, here: https://mmvanzuiden.wordpress.com/. * Like most of his readers, he believes in being friendly, respectful, and loyal. Yet, if you think those are his absolute top priorities, you might end up disappointed. His first loyalty is to the truth. He will try to stay within the limits of democratic and Jewish law, but he won't lie to support opinions or people who don't deserve that. He admits that he sometimes exaggerates to make a point, which could have him come across as nasty, while in actuality, he's quite a lovely person to interact with. He holds - how Dutch - that a strong opinion doesn't imply intolerance of other views. * Sometimes he's misunderstood because his wide and diverse field of vision seldomly fits any specialist's box. But that's exactly what some love about him. He has written a lot about Psychology (including Sexuality and Abuse), Medicine (including physical immortality), Science (including basic statistics), Politics (Israel, the US, and the Netherlands, Activism), Oppression and Liberation (intersectionally, for young people, the elderly, non-Whites, women, workers, Jews, LGBTQIA+, foreigners and anyone else who's dehumanized or exploited), Integrity, Philosophy, Jews (Judaism, Zionism, Holocaust, and Jewish Liberation), the Climate Crisis, Ecology and Veganism, Affairs from the news, or the Torah Portion of the Week, or new insights that suddenly befell him. * His most influential teachers (chronologically) are his parents, Nico (natan) van Zuiden and Betty (beisye) Nieweg, Wim Kan, Mozart, Harvey Jackins, Marshal Rosenberg, Reb Shlomo Carlebach, and, lehavdil bein chayim lechayim, Rabbi Dr. Natan Lopes Cardozo, Rav Zev Leff, and Rav Meir Lubin. * One of his rabbis calls him Mr. Innovation [Ish haChidushim]. Yet, his originalities seem to root deeply in traditional Judaism, though they may grow in unexpected directions. In fact, he claims he's modernizing nothing. Rather, mainly basing himself on the basic Hebrew Torah text, he tries to rediscover classical Jewish thought almost lost in thousands of years of stifling Gentile domination and Jewish assimilation. (He pleads for a close reading of the Torah instead of going by rough assumptions of what it would probably mean and before fleeing to Commentaries.) This, in all aspects of life, but prominently in the areas of Free Will, Activism, Homosexuality for men, and Redemption. * He hopes that his words will inspire and inform, and disturb the comfortable and comfort the disturbed. He aims to bring a fresh perspective rather than harp on the obvious and familiar. He loves to write encyclopedic overviews. He doesn't expect his readers to agree. Rather, original minds should be disputed. In short, his main political positions are among others: anti-Trumpism, anti-elitism, anti-bigotry and supremacy, for Zionism, Intersectionality, and non-violence, anti those who abuse democratic liberties, anti the fake ME peace process, for original-Orthodoxy, pro-Science, pro-Free Will, anti-blaming-the-victim, and for down-to-earth, classical optimism, and happiness. * He is a fetal survivor of the pharmaceutical industry (https://diethylstilbestrol.co.uk/studies/des-and-psychological-health/), born in 1953 to parents who were Dutch-Jewish Holocaust survivors who met in the largest concentration camp in the Netherlands, Westerbork. He grew up a humble listener. It took him decades to become a speaker too. Bullies and con artists almost instantaneously envy and hate him. * He holds a BA in medicine (University of Amsterdam) – is half a doctor. He practices Re-evaluation Co-counseling since 1977, is not an official teacher anymore, and became a friendly, empowering therapist. He became a social activist, became religious, made Aliyah, and raised three wonderful kids non-violently. For a couple of years, he was active in hasbara to the Dutch-speaking public. He wrote an unpublished tome about Jewish Free Will. He's being a strict vegan since 2008. He's an Orthodox Jew but not a rabbi. He lives with his library in Jerusalem. Feel free to contact him. * His writing has been made possible by a (second-generation) Holocaust survivors' allowance from the Netherlands. It has been his dream since he was 38 to try to make a difference by teaching through writing. He had three times 9-out-of-10 for Dutch at his high school finals but is spending his days communicating in English and Hebrew - how ironic. G-d must have a fine sense of humor. In case you wonder - yes, he is a bit dyslectic. If you're a native English speaker and wonder why you should read from people whose English is only their second language, consider the advantage of having an original peek outside of your cultural bubble. * To send any personal reaction to him, scroll to the top of the blog post and click Contact Me. * His newest books you may find here: https://www.amazon.com/s?i=stripbooks&rh=p_27%3AMoshe-Mordechai%2FMaurits+van+Zuiden&s=relevancerank&text=Moshe-Mordechai%2FMaurits+van+Zuiden&ref=dp_byline_sr_book_1