To quote Broadway’s famous King of Siam - “It’s a puzzlement.”
For me, Southern born and raised, Donald Trump is the epitome of the arrogant New York real estate magnate and master con man - the polar opposite of the Southern gentleman that I aspired to become, being formed by my family and the Grenada community. Attributes like gracious comportment; honesty and fair play; magnanimous in victory and congratulatory in defeat; chivalrous toward the opposite sex; dedicated churchman; faithful family man — none of these would be used to define Donald Trump. And even when, sadly and too often, my conduct didn’t measure up to the fullness of those attributes, I at least would admit that those were the “true blue” standards to which I missed the mark. But no such confessions from Donald Trump. Shortcomings are for “losers” and not to be admitted.
Then why so the fascination of Donald Trump held by my Southern friends and compatriots - men and women alike? Why Donald Trump as the standard bearer for the Grand Old Republican Party, whose history runs from “honest” Abraham Lincoln to the noble Bush family patricians? Indeed, it is a puzzlement.
In the case of candidate Trump, it seems that for so many the basis for casting a vote is more closely aligned with party affiliation than the importance of political and personal virtue. Let me confess that there have been occasions when I’ve had to hold my nose while casting a vote, so I’m not in a position to throw any stones.
Southern orientations aside, here’s something that is not in question for me - the unspoken truth about Donald Trump: He’s mentally ill. A textbook malignant narcissist. (Google it.) I am honored to sit on a church denomination’s commission which helps set the process and protocols for ordination. And it seems strange to me that we take steps, for instance through psychological examinations, to help ensure that a mentally unstable person does not become an ordained leader in the church, when we take no similar steps to ensure that a candidate with severe mental illness does not become President of the United States. That’s a puzzlement too.
I shudder to think about a second Trump administration. I’ll leave it to my Trump-supporting friends to write a column to explain the redeeming aspects of that possibility.
Rob Townes was raised in Grenada. He resides in Decatur, Ga., but family, friends, and business often bring him back to his ancestral state.
