I Want to Go Back in Time
Maybe back to 1985.
Forty years ago, we laughed at bullies.
We laughed at them because they deserved it. Bullies are loud, dumb jerks who acted tough because they were assholes.
But somehow, somewhere along the way, we stopped laughing.
Instead, we started electing them.
Back to the Future, the highest-grossing film of 1985, was successful because it blended time travel, first loves, stalkers, and bullies together in a bizarre yet humorous way.
Biff Tannen, a Neanderthal bully from a long line of bullies, was the worst.
We hated him. And we laughed at him.
Biff was comic relief in 1985. Fast forward to today. We didn’t just let Biff take over; we made him president.
Twice.
Americans have a strange attraction to Donald John Trump, and I will never understand why.
There’s nothing impressive about him. He didn’t serve his country in the military, he didn’t invent anything, and despite the idea that his haters would continue to hate him if he discovered the cure for cancer, Trump isn’t exactly a brain surgeon.
What Trump lacks in characteristics we look for in our bosses, community leaders, and people we generally want and need to interact with, he excels at marketing, manipulation, and deception.
Trump takes all three acts and adds the trait that all bullies, like Biff, have – cruelty.
Cruelty is Instinctual
Just as Back to the Future was hitting movie theaters, Donald Trump has been a prominent American figure since 1985. Even 40 years ago, Americans were drawn to this average-looking guy with a distinctive name, a businessman from New York City, who projected an image of success.
60 Minutes, the one-time respected news magazine that our parents watched religiously, gave an interview with Trump in 1985.
Check out this clip:
60 Minutes - Doanlad Trump 1985
My goodness, even in the middle of the Cold War, Donald Trump is telling everyone the world is going to end unless he can negotiate a missile treaty with the Soviets.
How does anyone like him? Do people think they will catch his confidence? Like it’s a cold or the flu?
Are we all George McFly, losers who are trapped in our perceived limited lives, where there is no hope for love? No hope for our band to be chosen to play at the dance?
There was a time when we used to make fun of Donald.
By the 1990s, Donald Trump was Page Six and late-night show fodder. His failed marriages, his failed casinos, his embrace of flashy things he could stamp his name on.
While we grew tired of Back to the Future III, because our minds couldn’t comprehend the complexity of the worlds the Tannens, McFlys, and Browns lived in, we somehow forgot about Trump for a while, until he appeared on our televisions in 2004.
It was on his show, The Apprentice, that people began to experience the Trump cruelty and devoured it. I have to admit I never watched it, but I have seen the clips and read the reports of how Trump pitted contestants against each other, and told people regularly that they were stupid.
Trump didn’t have to dig deep to bring these actions and emotions up; this was and still is an instinctual act for someone who, like Biff, wants to get the report you wrote for him before it was due, so he can write it in his own words. I’m sure there is a scene from 1986, where Trump is saying this to Tony Schwartz when they were working on the book The Art of the Deal.
Cruelty is Policy
No one who has been born since 1985 can claim that they don’t know what Donald Trump is capable of doing. I understand that our attention span continues to shorten, and there might be things you have forgotten that Trump has done. Still, you know he has done a lot of terrible things, so spare me the idea that the second time around with Trump is an odyssey of shocking surprises.
Since returning to the White House, Trump has taken the shock value and increased it. He unleashed a drug addict with no government experience, who accumulated massive wealth from government handouts, to gut the very institution that supported him. Thousands of civil servants have been bullied out of office and had their lives turned upside down because Trump is okay with being cruel.
I don’t need to go into detail about all the cruelty Trump has imposed, but since it’s June and Pride Month, the removal of Harvey Milk’s name from a US Navy ship is just cruel.
The ICE deportations, where they have gone beyond the “criminals” and have gone into schools, churches, and even courtrooms to remove people they suspect of being in the country illegally, are beyond cruel.
Steven Miller, who was born in 1985, is a white supremacist whose side hustle is to serve as Trump’s senior advisor. Miller has honed his cruelty skills since high school, back when he had hair, when he told Latino kids only to speak English, and did his best Rush Limbaugh impressions, which have always had the foundation of cruelty.
Miller obviously plays the character of Skinhead to Trump’s Biff, an apt role for someone who, I’m sure, has designs to lead the country one day if it continues down the path we are on.
I hope no one wants to see that sequel.
Where’s Our Marty?
George McFly needed help from an eccentric scientist who played around with plutonium and accidentally sent his son back from the future to change the trajectory of his life.
I doubt there is a Marty McFly out there in 2055 who is about to make a comeback and start knocking out Donald Trump, Skinhead Miller, and others.
Cruelty was once considered a flaw when it came to who we voted for. We could always disagree, especially passionately, but we never had to deal with the idea that cruelty could ever be accepted.
There’s always been wedge issues – people have unhealthy attachments to abortion, sexual orientation, and how people dress. These have always been distractions instead of harmful acts like lying, abuse, and shopping at Brooks Brothers.
Somewhere between the big screen in 1985 and the small screen in 2025, we have flipped the script on bullies and cruelty. We stopped laughing and instead began cheering for them.
This is dangerous. And frankly, stupid.
Can we stop accepting the fact that there is a space to empathize with the people who have chosen to embrace Trump? Today, June 14, is Flag Day. It’s also the birthday of the United States Army. It also happens to be Donald John Trump’s birthday.
So he is throwing himself a military parade in the neighborhood. It will cost Americans around $45 million. That is cruel, considering he continues to pass laws that enrich the already rich, while at the same time punishing those who cannot defend themselves with deportations. He also told us that our kids couldn’t have all the dolls they wanted. He gets his parade, though.
I’m not sure what to do right now. We can still laugh at bullies. But only if we are also willing to fight them and the people who support them.
What do you think? What can we do? Besides protest and vote?
One last thing.
Can you imagine what it would be like if we had a Back to the Future moment thirty years ago, back in 1995?
You travel back in time to find your Doc Brown, and he doesn’t believe you are from the future. He asks you, “Tell me, future friend, who’s president in 2025?”
Donald Trump.
“Donald Trump? The casino guy?”
Yes.
“Who’s Vice President – Michael Jackson?”
No one would have believed you. But here we are.
And no one is laughing.
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Happy Father’s Day to all the dads tomorrow. I’ll see you on Monday!
Okay,
Chris
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