Human Nature

[Belacqua]

Saw this a while back, and I think the author nailed it for me.

"Why some British people do not like Donald Trump?” 

Nate White:

"A few things spring to mind. Trump lacks certain qualities which the British traditionally esteem. For instance, he has no class, no charm, no coolness, no credibility, no compassion, no wit, no warmth, no wisdom, no subtlety, no sensitivity, no self-awareness, no humility, no honour and no grace – all qualities, funnily enough, with which his predecessor Mr. Obama was generously blessed. So for us, the stark contrast does rather throw Trump’s limitations into embarrassingly sharp relief.

...

Being something of an Anglophile already, I can't help but feel even more in common with these British perspectives than with those of many of my fellow Americans.

However, it isn't just the fault of Americans per se, but with our evolved human nature.  Trump is a supernormal stimulus, and Americans are psychologically naive.  In a way, I am letting people off the hook by saying that.

The quote from Nate White is a good example of the polarization that I've been talking about. People go to extremes, and think that because Trump is terrible (he is) then Obama must in some way be the opposite of that. 

This is like the risible claim that Obama's only scandal while in office was wearing a tan suit. 

I think that the women and children killed by the 24,287 bombs Obama dropped during his last year in office might not attribute to him those same wonderful qualities. (The figure is undoubtedly low, since there were also clandestine operations.) 

https://www.cfr.org/blog/how-many-bombs-...-drop-2016

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...ama-legacy

In my opinion, 24,287 acknowledged bombs in one year do not rise to the level of compassion, subtlety, or sensitivity. 

Trump is so bad that I guess the only way we can keep any hope alive for democracy is to make ourselves blind to the truth about the other team. Yet it is possible that they are both bad. 

The good news, I guess, is that you aren't really as cynical and hopeless as you say, if you still think that electing Dems is going to improve anything.

Mr. White doesn't address Boris Johnson's level of sophistication.