The omega male

Mona Charen is a sharp lady. And she has Donald Trump pretty much nailed, it seems to me.

I'm no psychologist, and I don't play one on TV. But the behaviors Trump displays shamelessly in public don't seem to me to behaviors people who even care about others flaunt. And the most shocking thing of all is that so many Americans are so angry (or whatever) that they ignore the patently obvious. This is a man who certainly presents the image of somebody with very little character.

Trump goes to great lengths to present himself as the prototypical alpha male. He strikes me as actually a weak, psychologically unhealthy and rather pathetic character who overcompensates in just about every possible way. His thin skin does not bespeak a man of nearly as much self-confidence as he projects. In fact, it seems to me to make him look very insecure indeed. His obsession with being a "winner" is a tell; in reality, he's failed plenty in his life, and he protests too much. His crudity and  his willful cruelty to those weaker or less fortunate than he is do not recommend his character to those who care about such things.His unselfconscious crudity may fit with the spirit of the age, but the kind of people I respect tend to find it a bit excessive, to put it mildly.

His relationships with women have been shameful, not only when he has been so determined to prove publicly that he is more of a man than they are  but when he's been romantically involved with them. Charon provides details of the latter. He treats them the way he treats everyone: like dirt, and as valuable only insofar as they happen to meet the needs of Donald Trump. He's a narcissist to the core. It's all about him, and other people are merely means to his own ends.

I think he's week. He's crude and mean by any standard, and it seems to me that with the power of the presidency in his hands, he'd be unspeakably dangerous.

ADDENDUM: Here's an article by Ruth Marcus which makes pretty much the sane point: Donald Trump's personality is wanting, to say the least, in a potential president.

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