I truly do feel sad. For her, her kids and her husband. Its a tragedy. The real question is do you think Trump does? honestly, what do you think?
I believe empathy is a critical part of being a leader who is a representative of the people.
Honestly, I had to think. I am still thinking of examples that Trump has showed human empathy through his statements. I look to his kids and it seems most of them are well adjusted. Trump connects very well with his supporters. Obviously. Many of Trump’s supporters have empathy. Quite a few of Trump’s efforts have been supportive of those in less advantageous circumstances. Trump has not gotten us into new wars, saving our own as well as that of the other side.
So while I can’t think of a statement offhand that Trump made that conclusively shows empathy, certain aspects of his record does have the effect showing empathy. Of course, a lot of what we hear from him is insults to others and a noted lack of loyalty or commitment by many who have worked closely with him. Yes, the signs of narcissism are there, just as they were there when he ran against Hillary in 2016.
Lets explore again what it is about our system where Conservative minded people decided to go all in or almost all in to support Trump, a known narcissist:
We knew about Trump’s state of mind with his pussy grabbing comment.
We listened to Trump’s insensitive comment about John McCain being captured, while he “Bone spurred” his way out of military service.
We heard about Trump’s low blow comments regarding certain woman and politicians.
We knew Trump’s tag line for his T.V. show was “You’re fired!”.
We knew about Trump’s bankruptcies and him bragging about buying off politicians.
We heard about Trump’s alleged affair and confirmed payoff of Stormy Daniels.
Yet, in spite of all the above, Trump prevailed over all the other Republican candidates in the 2016 primaries and then went on to get nearly half the votes cast for President. From so called Conservatives, no less.
Could it be that many people felt our political system, Democrats, and the media were more narcissistic than even Trump when it came to the issues they cared about? Did Conservatives feel victim to gender shaming, race shaming, and success shaming as the media worked their narratives? There was even thought shaming as shown by “Political correctness”, as eventually called out by Trump to the delight of his supporters. Trump also delighted his supporters with his calling out the media for its “Fake news”.
Trump spoke to us in our language and we were willing to listen to him because there were no other viable alternatives. We were willing to give Trump some Mulligans, ok, a lot of Mulligans, in order to feel represented in politics again.
Can you now feel the importance of responsive leadership to both sides, balanced reporting, and free speech is in politics? We need a leader who places the needs of our country as a whole ahead that of his political party. By this measure, Trump vastly outperformed his predecessors, not including Bill Clinton. For example look at vast improvement of economic opportunities for all Americans before Covid hit.
Trump has his issues, but let’s give our devil his due. Even more importantly, let us deeply think about why Trump became so popular and push for reforms so that real statesmen will be attracted to politics again.