Trump isn’t the problem. He’s the symptom of a country that chose entertainment over governance decades ago.
The Product: Reality TV president selling the ultimate skuf fantasy - winning without work. No policies, just vibes. Rally attendance replacing civic engagement. Red hat replacing political action. He offers vicarious rebellion: feel revolutionary while changing nothing about your life.
The System: Media monetized him perfectly. CNN ran his empty podiums live in 2016 - $5 billion in free publicity. Both sides profit: Democrats get outrage content, Republicans get tribal loyalty, networks get ratings. Controversy converts to ad revenue. Everyone wins except people who need actual help.
The Voters: Two tribes of skufs. One wants daddy to hurt people they hate. Other wants to feel virtuous scrolling outrage porn. Blue-collar workers traded union organizing for MAGA rallies. Suburban liberals bought resistance hashtags and Netflix documentaries. Same passivity, different merchandise.
He figured out America’s secret: millions desperately need someone to tell them they’re winners. So he cosplays success - fake tan, combover, gold toilets - and they buy his hats, sneakers, NFTs. Subscribing to personality cult instead of building their own power.
Perfect feedback loop: he feeds on attention, media profits from controversy, voters get dopamine from tribal warfare.
Which costs more - four years obsessing over Trump, or twenty years not showing up to city council?