The Affluenza "President"

The longest government shutdown in American is over for the time being, and while I am happy that the government has been reopened, I am not thrilled that it will most likely only be until February 15. Yes, there is hope that Congress will come to a deal with Trump to keep the government open beyond that, but I'm not going to hold my breath. If Trump was basically willing to hold the country hostage to get his precious $5 billion border wall once, I'm willing to bet he will do it again. He's a man who is not only selfish and narcissistic, but dangerously out of touch with reality, and I don't think he truly cares about the damage that he has done to this country. I think all that matters to him is that he gets his way.

I've been thinking about why Trump is the way he is, and while I don't want to play armchair psychiatrist like so much of the rest of the country likes to do, I do have a theory. Personally, I think what we're dealing with is a severe case of affluenza.

For those of you who might not know what I'm talking about, affluenza refers to a condition in which a person has spent so much time surrounded by wealth and privilege that they are unable to tell the difference between right and wrong. Not only do they live a life where the only things that matter to them are their wealth and comfort, but they suffer almost no consequences for their actions. If they do end up in trouble, they can just throw money at the problem until it goes away.

I first heard about affluenza back in 2013 when it was used as a defense for Ethan Couch, a young Texas man who stole his father's truck and went on a drunken joyride that killed four people and injured eleven more. His attorney said that since he grew up in a wealthy family and never had to work for anything in his life, he never learned that there could be consequences for his actions and should be treated with leniency. Couch was sentenced to ten years' probation. After he promptly violated that probation, he was sentenced to two years in prison.

When I first heard about Ethan Couch and the idea that someone could basically have no conscience because of their privilege, I thought it was ridiculous. As far as I was concerned, Couch's attorney was grasping at straws to keep a spoiled little sociopath out of prison. And yet, it makes sense the more I think about it. I've heard plenty of stories about wealthy people thinking that the rules simply do not apply to them. I've read about wealthy California residents complaining about watering bans during droughts because they don't think they should live with a less-than-perfect lawn, and I once read about a study that showed that the rich are more likely to lie and cheat to get what they want whenever they can get away with it. It stands to reason that the most extreme version of this would be someone who has no conscience because they never had a reason to develop one. They wouldn't suffer any lasting consequences for their actions, so they would have no reason to think that anything they did was wrong.

So, what does this have to do with Donald Trump? Well, everything. I think it describes Trump to a T. He is the son of a wealthy slumlord real estate developer who provided his children with anything they could want. Donald Trump often talks about the "modest" $1 million loan that he received from his father, but the total amount that he was given over the years was closer to $413 million. He does deserve credit for turning that into a $10 billion empire, but the fact of the matter is that he was given far more than most people will have in their entire lives. Whenever he found himself in trouble - which was often - he always had enough money and power to get out of it without suffering any lasting consequences. Like the spoiled rich kids who are the poster children for affluenza in this country, he lives in a world where he thinks he can do whatever he wants. Now that he is in the White House (I still won't call him President, sorry not sorry), he is doing that on a global scale, not caring about who he hurts or the damage he is doing to our country and its reputation.

There was a time when I found that thought terrifying. It still doesn't sit well with me, but I'd like to think that things are getting better now. Trump's approval rating is sitting at about 34 percent, which doesn't bode well for his chances in 2020. We now have a Democrat-led House of Representatives, and I'm holding out hope that a few of the Republicans in Congress are getting tired of Trump's bullshit. I don't think impeachment is likely at this point unless the Mueller investigation turns up some really damning evidence, but I'm confident that people have had enough of Trump. I know he still has supporters who will vote for him no matter what, but hopefully there aren't enough at this point to keep him around for another four years. As far as I'm concerned, the only good thing to come from this current administration is that people can see how bad things get when we give a spoiled, out-of-touch asshole too much power.

The Trump Administration was a mistake. Let's fix it in 2020.