Whoever it was that hired him for The Apprentice has a lot to answer for.

I know people, some of them educated, who are absolutely addicted to Burnett's reality TV shows. Those shows are uniformly routinely cruel to their participants. I find it creepy that some people are attracted to that kind of entertainment. There's something deep inside them that I don't want to see.

It's because the folks in the back-end of things like what he represents in terms of wealth consolidation and fewer lookie-loos to peek inside to see what's truly going on. "Trump" is a symptom of much broader things that can only be fixed by fire. And even then, just like the cockroach, he'll scurry away under the baseboards to hide until his next meal.

He gives people permission to be their worst selves.

When the president gets away with all sorts of crime. When he openly mocks people. When he indulges in racism. When he complains about being treated unfairly. When he lies. When he defrauds, or grifts, or flip-flops. When he's misogynitic. What's he saying is "you too can do these things and get away with it".

People like that. People like that there's no accountability for bad behavior.

Sure, we can talk about policy, or economy, or whatever (how's that working out?) But deep down the democrats ask us to be the best version of ourselves (or else) and Republicans delight in us being the worst.

Human nature being what it is, we end up here. Just remember folks, we voted for this.

Over the decades Trump has popped in and out of my attention like "oh, I guess that guy is still around". Yet from what I gather there have been people following him the whole time like he's someone important or worthwhile.

I think what it comes down to is that the average person in our society is just an aggressive basic shithead who isn't burdened by an abundance of thinking, and so to them Trump appears as a successful businessman rather than a hollow snake oil salesman.