the Stateside Wanderer

…Once the nights show was over I went with a few of the comedians to a back room where they exited through a steel door to a small patio. Following them I came to a table where the majority of them had already sat down to have a cigarette. Soon enough the topic got to Trump, the election, and what we working on related to it. Over the last few months I had been asked my opinion on Trump more times than I would care to put into the narrative of this book. Though it’s going to seem like I’ve put in a lot. With most of the questions hovering around whether or not I had any jokes about him in my act. From my shoes I didn’t understand why we had to make jokes, the situation itself was such an obvious joke that I couldn’t see what the hell else I was supposed to say. I know as a comedian perhaps I’m supposed to be able to form an opinion about anything, but at the same time aren’t I allowed to take the time needed to form that opinion? Then what if I don’t think my opinion has anything to add to this particular situation?As I thought about the possibilities I knew if he won it would make for a far more comical presidency than one with Hilary, not that the Clintons didn’t open themselves up to plenty, but Trump was a showman like no other. The few times that I had even tried a joke in his name had furthered the suspicion that the crowds liked him more than most people were admitting in mass. Though his fans seemed to have a bit more of a sense of humor about themselves than most people do, they still kinda crossed their arms as you started talking about him. In fairness they still laughed when I first attempted my only good joke on the entire election,“If the success of Donald Trumps campaign has taught me anything, it’s that the hills don’t just have eyes, they now have WiFi.”

Though I gained suspicions about the possibility back in Monterrey, it was in Phoenix that I first had the suspicion replaced with the realization that our country was about to elect Donald Trump as our next President. Not the possibility, the certainty. Which was an odd thing to come to terms with to say the least. I had grown up under a series of dichotomies, all of which conflicted with this as a rationale decision, but all of which understood that this was the natural conclusion to the road we had gone down and the fork we had created and the narrative shaped around it. By this time I had listened to people from a majority of the country express their willingness to give any type of different path a chance in the political sphere. Spoken from people even more disillusioned than I had become as a Political Science major and intern my senior year of college. Unfortunately the differences between our disillusionment with the system were about to be broadcasted on a grand scale.

The way Canadians had a weird relationship with Americans, I had a weird relationship with Donald Trump. No, not that type of relationship; we never crossed paths, but I used to hear him in the early 90’s on The Howard Stern Show which at the time was broadcasts in the middle of the night. Though the very first time was probably in the movie Home Alone 2. As a celebrity he was one of those guys you heard about a lot or saw dropping in for a photo, but what people seemed to love about him was that he would just say whatever was on his mind with no filter in consideration to the outside world. In some ways it was very American to like Trump as he represented one of the things we exert almost annoyingly so, that is the desire to say whatever we want. I don’t know if you remember politics before him, but there were some people who regularly said how they hated that politicians were like robots and didn’t know how to exert themselves or how to play off script. Then comes this guy who was truly against a normalized way of doing things and somehow people were still surprised he was gaining momentum. 

He was the one most capable of working the platforms and the situation which had been created given the current media environment. Though truth be told I was most ashamed of what he was making us look like. He made us look like a place where we accepted hating the other. Because we didn’t. Nothing I knew about the nation I was from represented the view of us he was creating. It was created, fabricated, and honed in on by the necessities of mass media. Although I also found it odd that we were considering someone like Hilary Clinton who had somehow gone from the Presidents wife, to the head of the State Department, to Presidential Candidate. A hell of a trajectory if you ask me. If that’s how I felt, imagine how the rest of the country was feeling? 

For those who didn’t understand why some people didn’t like Hilary, maybe to some it’s like hearing a model talk about insecurity, the messenger just doesn’t fit the message. But then if one were to kill themselves we would suddenly have sympathy for these people who unknowingly had it just like the rest of us. The problem was, nothing like her felt like the rest of us. A problem which was fixed in many ways too late when she gave a candid and I dare say amazingly personable interview on the Stern Show somewhere after the election. Even telling a funny story about the day of the inauguration. And if anyone deserved to have a laugh that, it was her. 

Walking around asking one person after another I found that people felt as if they needed to be silent about their building conclusion. Which showed me that those asking the questions at the exit polls had no idea what was going on. There was a self-censoring happening in front of the cameras and to reporters that was soon to rip the rug out from everyone. For those that want to cancel him my argument against it would be you never want your crazy hidden, and you certainly never want it to feel like it has to hide and coerce in secret with it’s other crazies. I’d support this by giving you an example of what most of his supporters said to me in private corners, usually going a little something like this, “Well they call me crazy if I say anything, so I’ll keep my mouth shut.” The thing I realized was the nobody was listening. They were only judging. Nobody understood. For the first time in my life, it felt like the mainstream media had no idea what was going on. 

If the conversations weren’t enough I could tell something was up from the crowds reaction to jokes about him as well. Though it may now be hard to recall, at first nobody really took him or his campaign seriously. Hell, at first even his own party didn’t take him seriously. Truth was those politicians had never really had to battle a master of both theatre and persuasion. Say what you want about him. Most of it’s probably true, but never may someone say that Donald Trump was politically inept on the stage. Even when he wasn’t literally on a stage it was hard to touch him up there. The few times I took a stab at joking more and more about the possibility of handing the keys to the bus to a man such as Donald Trump I felt the crowd begin to separate from my understanding.

There were plenty of normal things about him as a politician, but it was weird to have a President who reacted to instigations in the manner that he did. Many odd beings have been elected, but a reality t.v. star really seemed like a new low. This coming from someone who was wildly entertained by Trump when he was serving as a guest on The Howard Stern Show. That’s the definition of the fucking problem with him being President right there. He was great as the character on a morning radio show, not as leader of the free world. In some ways I admire his ability to do what he did. Then the rest of the time I despise him for exercising the power to do so. 

The further down the rabbit hole we went the more I worried that my country was beginning to look like it was less aware of itself than it had been in a while. I hated to think my country was appearing not to know itself, especially as that thought made me further realize that it meant we hadn’t really been talking to each other because we had no idea the other side felt like this. Until this time I don’t think we fully realized how differently some of us were living and coming up in the world. We had so many identities evolving at one time that it was inevitable that a moment like this would happen. Each one of us capable of falling victim to the circus of personality. 

Overall he was one of the least active Presidents in my life time beyond creating a lot of headlines, but I would argue that as a candidate the thing he did most effectively was to cause people who had never watched the news before to make it their new hobby. Which is ironic because on the whole I would say the press had no idea how to deal with him. He was one of the few people who took canceling and said fuck it, not listening to you in a time when enough people were getting tired of the overused playbook of the sideline cancelers. Through this, this motherfucker somehow managed to not only market himself into the presidency, he also did so while going up against one allegation after another. Now from one end of the spectrum this could be viewed as a wildly stupid decision on the part of the American people. However, on another side, it could also be viewed as the type of thing which happens in the absence of a variety of rational options. In my opinion by trying to cancel him they did the opposite and fed him more attention than any one person can probably process, and without him having to pay a dime for it.

His campaign was the only time I could ever recall my grandma taking an interest enough in politics to bring it up with me on the phone. She despised how crude he was. Truth be told I never understand how he got away with making fun of a mentally challenged man on live television. Perhaps that showed just how much Hilary Clinton wasn’t landing with the broader audience. I mean if her campaign had half a brain they would’ve seen his numbers after that public gaffe and maybe started to switch up the strategy instead of ignoring him as some self-destructive ignoramus; unaware how many people were open to the idea because they like the idea of a businessman running the country or how he had positioned himself in their minds as that particular solution. For the record I don’t say that as a means of making fun of his voters. I totally understand why people voted for him, especially people already in his party, that’s how politics goes. I wouldn’t expect a life long Republican to vote for any Democratic candidate because of a rogue candidate who still promised to protect what they saw as the most core of values. That just makes sense.  

The most unfortunate side of him was the fact that he never understood that at one point he left the role of playing Donald Trump and entered into the role of President of the United States, which is supposed to have the same duty as a judge considering matters of great importance and consequence, and the same hope of separation that would come from ones ego and personality in those moments of decision, as well as a separation from the projection of an ego during the time in which you’re meant to embody the position of that of the ultimate diplomat serving under the representation of the people of the United States of America to the world in the era in which the nation finds itself. The thing different about him and a comedian is that when Trump made it into presidency he became somewhat bound to the promise of trying to speak to the entire audience, the only true projector to the American people as the term is used. Meanwhile a comedian can hold true to whatever he has been saying all along. A politician is one sided, but a President is supposed to be uniting. That’s a step which is to be taken by everyone the moment they get into office.

Despite his popularity one thing continued to give me some sort of hope about the future. Having been abroad so much in my life it was impossible to avoid Trump as a brief conversation piece with the international numbers in my phone. In those conversations I was always somehow probed about Trump and what was going on in our country. In a lot of ways it was ultimately flattering to see how the world was looking down on us for our situation, all ultimately aware that we were missing the mark this go around like someone willingly entering a failed marriage. Which meant deep down they expected better out of us. As I believe many of us inside the country did as well. I don’t think I’m the only person who found a reason to ponder how these were the best two candidates among a country of 350 million people. 

One of the most American things about Trump was the way he became a getter of attention for the next four years, dominating the news and the conversation of people from all sides of the spectrum on a daily basis, igniting vigor in both for a duality of reasons. As time went on I began to wonder how much of it was the headline creators pulling and pushing us in a certain direction or how much of it was just the perfect mix of history, technology, and our taste for the sensational combining to create the perfect moment of societal division? In my opinion we probably have the media to blame more for Trumps election more than any other factor. With blame being placed on their part in being a willful participant, like the paper pushers in the Nazi regime. They jumped on everything he said like a kid stirring things up between people after a fight was nearly finished. Without first realizing that their job is to inform those who are busy holding this world together and don’t have time to keep up with the nitty gritty of each thing in the world, but still live off a summary of the papers finest. Overall I wonder how many clicks they got and how much money in advertising they generated despite their apparent lack of love for him and his politics. Would his campaign not have quickly fizzled out if it weren’t for the media making him the biggest story every night? This type of hypes makes it to where in the long run I worry that his success will drive others who are merely famous for being famous into the path of running for office in the near future. A journalist doesn’t have to unite us, but they certainly shouldn’t be the ones dividing us for ratings. 

We’ve become a people incredibly numb to anything being considered crazy. We did so in such a short amount of time because I can remember a time when it was scandalous to consider a woman’s breast popping out on live t.v., and while that still has an element to surprise to it, it by no means draws the same shock as it once did. I don’t even know what could really surprise people anymore. Our eyes have seen it all. Though as far as the grand scales of tragedy goes most of us have only seen photos of the worst it can be. Perhaps a few of us have read the words and accounts of those times, but few of us have ever seen true struggle. I know, I know, don’t minimize or maximize someone else’s struggle, it’s all struggle, blah, blah blah. I don’t know about that. I got attacked by a Rottweiler once. Teeth in the legs, all that jazz. I’ve also been attacked, if you can call it that, by a Maltese when I was younger. They’re not the same. Not even fucking close. By the way, you ever think about how intertwined dogs are in our lives and in this world we inhabit? So much so that I’m able to draw nearly any sort of comparison between them in order to make a point about this that and the other?

In a nutshell I would say his presidency created a lull in the comedy world after and towards the end of his era. People were just going after what made them mad. Everyone was on the same train. That’s what didn’t make sense to me. Despite the fact that I totally understand that it is anger which usually invokes some of the best art and discussion. In regards to Hilary it seemed like no one wanted to hear any jokes about this woman for fear that someone might point out something that was fallible and funny about her. Now truth be told it made no sense to me, we’ve always made fun of our politicians. That’s what you do. Pick on both sides. Though I hate that we always say both as if there are only two sides when politics are far more multi-sided. 

I don’t know if the nation is ready to laugh at it yet. I mean, we elected a reality TV star to be the President of the United States. Now if that’s not the definition of a whole slew of terms, ironic being one of them, then I don’t know what is. For some his election feels so long ago that it’s almost impossible to remember what the country was like before it happened. After his election I felt a combination of ways. As stated before, being a student of political science I had long been a fan of the office of the Presidency and what it represents. That being said I remember when he won I had this weird feeling of sadness and annoyance that there was now some lack of respect to the office which I had grown up admiring. Like there would be an esoteric forever where every President after would be a President after Trump. Said as an observer of politicians and as a general supporter of the Democratic side of several agendas post college. That being said I tried to understand why it was that people liked Trump. Because his popularity spoke more about our divide than it did our differences. 

Enough politics, I mean it. But, it was important to lay a foundation for where we were as a country at that time. Just in case this book turns out to be one of those that last forever you know? What if by then Trump has rewritten all of the history books and just says he was the best President ever. Best to keep stuff like this around to fact check.