Flawed candidates. That's what we hear daily. "I find Hillary repugnant," they say. "I just can't vote for that conniver." Then again, "Trump--he might start World War III."
The fact is, we do not know either Hillary or Trump. We think we do, but we don't.
We have to look to experience outside our own to extrapolate to the idea: What kind of person is this?
For a while, I thought Trump was simply Tony Soprano, but Soprano, for all his thug sound was infinity more subtle, had many more shades to his character.
King Joffrey of Game of Thrones comes closer, the cowardly child put on the throne who becomes willful, orders the head of the good John Stark chopped off, but Joffrey quakes in fear and is immobilized when face with real danger and his dwarf uncle has to rescue him by the exercise of real cunning.
But the real and best touchstone, for my money, is "The Godfather."
There you have the cool, calculating, quiet plotter, the leader who does not reveal himself, who organizes quietly, effectively in Michael Corleone.
Sonny is Trump, explosive, fun to watch, but, in the end, as his father observes, "A bad Don."
Talking to people while canvassing, I'm frequently confronted with people who cannot express what they don't like about the Machiavellian Clinton, and aren't much better at saying what bothers them about Trump.
From now on, if they are old enough to have seen "The Godfather," it's going to be: "Would you rather have Michael or Sonny Corleone as your godfather? Who would you rather have in charge of the family?"
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