Accusing those people of being 'half wits' is both inaccurate and unhelpful. Were it the case, it may have been and be easier to persuade them out of their simplistic belief that their 'hero' wants to, can and will fix their problems and give them a better life.
Democracies are and have alway been an illusion. Beyond highlighting a distinction between absolute and unrestricted, (often 'divinely blessed'), power & control, the term has little substance.
People, social animals, inevitably gather in groups. Science tells us that once a group exceeds approximately 30 members then it will only suvive if it institutes some form of hierarchical decision making. Thus, in one form or another, control becomes invested in fewer and fewer hands, relative to the size of the group.
Our institutions, particularly schools, churches and governments, deliberately, (whether knowingly or not) socialise the populace towards certain norms. Those norms provide some sense of 'normality' and therefore 'stability' to the mass of the populace and they readily swap this for compliance with the dictates & tenets on which they are fed by those in charge of those institutions of power and control
I'm not one for cliches, home-spun philosophy, old men's tales or such but they usually are based on an element of truth. In the context of this article, "Power corrupts. Absolute power corrupts absolutely." sums up what is at the basis of North America's problems.
The USA has, through its churches, its schools and its governments, as well as, since WW1, increasingly its industrial military complex, inculcated 'The American Dream'. That dream suggests that any and all can achieve a well-heeled, comfortable home with all manner of creature comforts, free of financial problems and enjoying an egalitarian status that is most hypocritically observed in the notion that 'anyone can achieve whatever they want, even becoming the President of the United States.
It is, of course, a lie and has always been so, just as has been the generally understood concept of democracy which, when founded by the ancent Greeks, was exclusive of women, of slaves, of those without property and so on..
Those who herald democracy as they do and who so decry other ideologies and political systems, such as Socialism and Communism and even Authoritarianism, generally have little understanding of what those terms mean.
Today, they are all about capitalism and the ever increasing divide between the haves and have-nots, with less than 1% of the World's population now owning more than 50% of the total World wealth.
Yet even the US Constitution embraces an easily demonstrable fiction that is often voiced in speeches by those seeking or holding powerful office - 'that all men (people) are created equal'. This notion is a part of the conditioning that fundamentally distorts the understanding and views of so many.
It is easily evidenced that, on the contrary, we are not all born equal. Some are born into wealth and powerful dynasties; some have a supposed 'divine' right to rule; some are born in the street; some are born in refugee camps; some are born into slavery, poverty or disability. There are, of course, a million and one other differences and all of them play a part in setting the scene for the prospective opportunities and position in society that a person is likely to achieve. Yes, some will exceed their apparent prospects just as others will squander theirs but the generalisaton remains true.
In a nation of any size, let alone one of some 365 million and of many cultures, religions, languages, homelands or non-USA heritage, it is not surprising that the management of the national collective by a relatively singularly white, male, wealthy, well educated and materialistic, profit loving minority has done little to satisfy the dreams and 'actual expectation' that for so long has been the socialisation of the North American population.
When taken with the growing inequity, homelessness, non-affordability of health-care, indefensible and immoral differntiation between wages for essential but hard manual and often soul destroying mundane work, as compared to that of well-heeled so called executives whose 'hard work' consists of a few telephone calls to a broker to make money out of money, whilst producing nothing, it is hardly surprising that so many 'average' North Americans have swallowed the well targetted and delivered hype of a sick and warped megalomaniac who has appealed to those 'sacred' tenets of the Constitution and Religion.
Let's be insightful and correct about this situation. Trump is not the problem. Trump is a symptom of the problem.
Unless and until a different and respectful collaboration of all strata, background, colour, ancestry, geographical location, etc. are brought together to examine and revamp what was a brilliant document and one that, in many respects, remains the foremost of its kind in the World, things will not improve.
We must recognise that we are not all born equal, that we are not all the same, that we do not all have the same chances, but that we are all of equal value and no person should be having tens, hundreds, thousands or mllions the worth of another. We must recognise that we recognise all manner of roles to build and maintain a healthy society and that they are inter-dependent and whilst some distinction in value may be legitimate, it should also be realistically proportionate.
Most of all, we need to recognise difference as opportunity rather than threat and seek to meld the best of ancient and visionary, old and new, odds and evens.
Our systems don't do that, in fact quite the contrary. We need politicians, business leaders, average workers, native Americans, blacks, whites, browns, pinks, greens, yellows and whatever to come together and seriously work on a new or altered Constitution and particularly, a politicl process that enshrines true equity as readily as it expounds an impossible equality.
