09-10-2018, 05:41 AM
I contrast the madness of Donald Trump to the Alzheimer's of Ronald Reagan. Sure, Reagan was a piece of work, but at the least he was surrounded by (mostly) competent administrators. Those people could make sure that we saw Ronald Reagan at his best, delaying his appearances until he was at his best. They could feed suggestions to him because he was still coachable. Reagan was a second-tier actor from his time (and in view of such top-level male stars who were his contemporaries, like Humphrey Bogart, Jimmy Cagney, Cary Grant, Henry Fonda, John Wayne, and Jimmy Stewart), "second tier" might be anything other than "second-rate". Nut he was never the studio boss who could order people about and make huge cuts in a motion picture or decide who was to be the star.
Donald Trump is a media figure, but his medium was trashy television. In no way a legitimate actor, he could get away with stream-of-consciousness discourse more as if he were a professional athlete (most are hideous communicators capable of discussing their favorite subjects -- themselves -- with the use of some hackneyed jargon from the sports world) than an experienced actor. But as a producer as a supplier of funds and not a creative person (as would be an actor himself or a director) he effectively became the equivalent of a studio boss. Trump can talk at any time, and he has nobody to stop him as an editor.
In a film studio (unlike the theater) one gets retakes. In a theater, which is more like politics as a form of communication, one gets no second chances. Reagan's handlers knew this and were able to coach him. Trump could get away with thinking that because he is Donald Trump he is magnificent enough that he needs no such help. The likes of Bogart, Fonda, and Stewart could still awe Reagan, and he knew his limitations. Trump knows no limitations.
Donald Trump is a media figure, but his medium was trashy television. In no way a legitimate actor, he could get away with stream-of-consciousness discourse more as if he were a professional athlete (most are hideous communicators capable of discussing their favorite subjects -- themselves -- with the use of some hackneyed jargon from the sports world) than an experienced actor. But as a producer as a supplier of funds and not a creative person (as would be an actor himself or a director) he effectively became the equivalent of a studio boss. Trump can talk at any time, and he has nobody to stop him as an editor.
In a film studio (unlike the theater) one gets retakes. In a theater, which is more like politics as a form of communication, one gets no second chances. Reagan's handlers knew this and were able to coach him. Trump could get away with thinking that because he is Donald Trump he is magnificent enough that he needs no such help. The likes of Bogart, Fonda, and Stewart could still awe Reagan, and he knew his limitations. Trump knows no limitations.
The ideal subject of totalitarian rule is not the convinced Nazi or the dedicated Communist but instead the people for whom the distinction between fact and fiction, true and false, no longer exists -- Hannah Arendt.