Donald Trump, Christopher Lee and mirrors
TweetThere’s no doubt that a degree of narcissism is an all but mandatory prerequisite of running for office, but a double-whammy of it today in the news seems particularly striking.
Rep. Christopher Lee, a Republican congressman from New York state, resigned hours after it was revealed that he apparently sent a photograph of himself, shirtless, to a woman he contacted through Craigslist. Lee is married. What possesses a sitting congressman to do this — to pursue an extramarital affair by emailing an undisguised picture of himself half-naked to a stranger? I suppose it must be much the same thing as that which made him run for office in the first place: a reckless desire to be loved for all the wrong reasons.
The story on Donald Trump is different, but maybe not so much. Once again, the mogul and the boorish professional celebrity is making noises that he might run for president, this time actually appearing at the annual Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) in Washington. Does anyone really believe that he is doing this for any reason other than to get some more attention? He looks in the mirror and asks himself, “Why isn’t everyone gazing upon me so adoringly?” He believes in and cares about conservative principles to about the same extent as a stripper believes in the ideology of naturism. In both cases it’s about wearing what’s convenient.
|
|
Lest I seem to be beating up only on poor Republicans (kind-of), of-course I should pause for just one moment to salute our Narcissist-in-Chief, a man whose entire election platform was effectively: “Admit it: you really, really like me.” A majority of the voters responded in the affirmative in 2008, and so do the citizens get punished for rewarding the dubious virtue of self-love above all else. I suppose the truth is that self-confidence is attractive, and like many a misled woman, the voters sometimes get swept up by that quality alone. And then the hard lesson is learned; that lesson is that it’s important to also look beneath the cover for qualities like intelligence, maturity, loyalty and honesty. Some day, maybe, a prince will come. Meanwhile, please leave Donald Trump alone to do what he does best — him and that gold-framed mirror in his bathroom.
