Trump and Greatness

 

Trump and Greatness: A Modest Comparison

 

Every empire rises and Falls, it is the nature of things.  The Chinese, for example, were once great and could have been even greater had they not shut down their naval exploration that took them to the Middle East around Africa and possibly even to the America’s all before Isabella and Ferdinand of Spain were even born and during the time much of Spain was in the hands of the expanded Muslim Empire, another great empire which stretched from the streets of Granada to the Philippines.  

 

At one time in history the Arabic Empire was also great, their scientists made significant contributions to astronomy, mathematics, poetry, philosophy and art.  Today, their glory days behind them, they squabble amongst themselves and relegate human rights and scientific achievements to places of obscurity. 

 

The concept of great can mean many different things to different cultures over different time periods.  The Chinese chose to dismantle their mighty navies, stop their exploration and retract into an insular existence because they felt they were already the centre of the universe and had no need for further greatest.  Instead they waited the course of history for the rest of the world to surpass them in every technical way until they were eventually destroyed, no longer great.

 

The United States has risen to be a colonial power, a world power and a super power but today struggles with the concept of greatest at home and in the world.  Donald Trump is a busy man with his MAGA (Make America Great Again) movement and is likely going to run for another term as president.  To do so he must articulate his concept of Greatest for the many American’s who cult-like hang on to his every word. 

 

I know, when I first got Trump on my radar, was really during the initial presidential debates with Hillary Clinton.  I listened and I watched and after the very first debate I thought and firmly believed that the man was a buffoon and had a zero chance at victory.  Clearly I misjudged Trump, the electorate, the times we live in, the power of social media and the weakness of democracy. They all seemed to be tides in his favour.

 

The more I listen to Trump and other Republicans like him the more it becomes apparent that they have no tangible plan for greatest.  No positive initiatives to actually improve the quality of life for most Americans.  He, and they, seem to want most to wage war with Democrats, Storm the Gates of Democracy, and I mean that in a literal and a figurative sense. They wish to destroy rights that have stood for years, build obstacles to voting while basing this on a foundation of patriotic christianity.  The only real thing they wish to build is a wall to keep the “southern rapist and thieves out” while still somehow convincing Latinos in the country to vote for them.  

 

I tried to think of any other leader, either contemporary, or historical, who had the desire to make his country great and/or was considered great like Trump who seems to be  worshipped by his disciples.  After making my short list including a few other American presidents like Lincoln, the two Roosevelts or even Obama, Johnson or Kennedy. I eventually narrowed it down to Frederick the Great of Prussia.  I mean he even has the word great in his name although I don’t believe it was on his birth certificate.

 

Frederick the Great, or Old Fritz as his closest friends and family members liked to call him oddly enough had a few things in common with Trump and there were  some significant differences as well.  For those who don’t know Der Alte Fritz he was actually the King of all Prussia from his father’s death in 1740 until his own death in 1786.  Which roughly translates to 11.5 American presidential terms, something Trump would be very jealous of given his propensity for tyrants, dictators and the such who can virtually rule at a whim forever without any ridiculous electoral college, or that “voting thing” standing in his way.  Not once, for example, did Fritz have to say the election was stolen.  It was his birthright. 

 

Like Trump, Fritz didn’t really get along well with his father.  While Trump’s father, Fred was a domineering, but wealthy slum landlord, he was also a cheap miserable individual  lived a very frugal life in the original brick house he and his first wife first moved into all without the use of servants.  Fritz, at least as an adult, dressed himself and although he lived in a palace, Sanssouci, in Potsdam, which was to die for, and was much nicer than any Trump Tower.   Frederick was much closer to his mother Sophia, whose own father just happed to be George Louis of Brunswick-Luneburg who succeeded to the British throne as King George l in 1714. The family was well connected. However, Fritz, liked Trump was emotional scared by his father.  

 

For Fritz that likely came when he tried to run away from home and escape with his lover to England unfortunately as it turned out his lover was Hans Hermann Von Katte, a Prussian officer.  For his effort Fritz’s father put his son in prison for two years and had Katte executed, by beheading, in front of his cell window where he was forced to watch.  This apparently caused a rift between father and son which lasted about a life time.

 

Trump, although not gay has perhaps the opposite problem and I say problem because at the time it did cost Fritz’s lover his head.  Trump simply slept with most anyone who was available, especially if his wife was pregnant at the time.  Historically, it is not certain if this got the ire of his father or just made him proud but one thing is for certain it certainly garnered the christian vote in America as the republicans are known for their family values.

 

While still a young man Frederick had little interest in the family business which was basically power, money and ruling.  To his father’s horror he was more into music, philosophy, horse back riding, literature, French culture and art.  In comparison Trump as a young man was more into the family business of power, money and ruling and knew virtually nothing about any of those things of a cultural or literary bent.  Although with a ghost writer he did go on to write a book about the “Art of the Deal” which did have the word art in the title.  Likely, that was the closest Trump got to what could be called culture. Oh, he was a member of the screen actors guild for his role in the Apprentice in which basically he played himself.

 

Let’s jump forward to the main event and put our two main characters into the peak of their careers.  After being let out of prison Fritz got more in touch with the family program and had a burning desire to make Prussia Great, now this is where Trump and Fritz reach two roads as they diverged in a woods, according to the Robert Frost poem and Fritz it could be argued took the one less travelled as he became an anti-Machiavellian personality.  Trump became the Niccolo Machiavelli personified.

 

When Trump was rising to power in the real estate world of New York he did it all on his own, with, well a little help from his well connected father Fred, who gave him a small start up personal business loan of about a million dollars, or so the fairy tale goes. More likely it was a series of loans totalling closer to 450 million dollars; but that of course was later called fake news a concept developed by Trump.  

 

Trump has said of his parents, as quoted from Philip Larkin “They fuck you up, your mum and dad.” Like Fritz, Trump was formed more by his father, “the 45th president was profoundly shaped by Fred who looms over his emotions and psyche in a very distinct way.” Donald kept a framed picture of his father, not his mother in the oval office, and it is likely his father who proudly and diligently taught him, step by step, from a young age how to cheat on taxes (still haven’t seen them, although he pays more to China than to the USA), how to discriminate in the housing market, and how to scam individuals and the government.  It is uncertain if Donald learned to cheat at golf on his own or with fatherly assistance, or if that just came naturally. none the less Donald was a quick learner just like Fritz.

 

Frederick came to the throne with an exceptional inheritance.  He received a highly militarized state, and although it was a small nation by population (12th largest in Europe at the time) it had the fourth largest army.  The military absorbed 86% of the state budget.  It was by far priority number one.  Frederick doubled the size of the army he received from his father making Prussia a Great Power.  But...

 

Frederick was not just about military conquests and territorial expansion he was what we would call an enlightened despot.  With his power he controlled immigration and tolerated all faiths within his realm.  He supported diversity as the route to greatness by allowing Jesuit teachers, Huguenot citizens, Jewish merchants, Protestant weavers frequently mentioning that nationality and religion were of no concern to him.

 

When considering Trump on immigration he would be the opposite of Frederick the Great.  Trump favours a southern wall. He created policies keeping muslims from several countries from entering the United States, he referred to African nations as “shit holes” and by supporting right wing nationalism he promotes a white Christian America.  

 

Fritz was considered enlightened back in the 1700’s as he recognized the worth of people as resources to build a great nation. Trump is taking America and the world more to a stage in the Middle Ages, one of isolation and stagnation because he recognizes people as pawns, including his followers.  His concept of greatness is anything that feeds his own ego.   Frederick used immigration as a vehicle of growth and prosperity.  Trump feels he can accomplish the same by giving the rich and the super rich tax breaks.  

 

In terms of the arts and science. Frederick was a patron and a participant.  He felt opera was a way by which the ideas of enlightenment could be spread and even broadened the access to opera by making admission free. He also reinstated the Berlin Academy of Science, making it a world wide centre for research, an institution closed by his father as a cost cutting measure.

 

Trump in the arena of arts and science is a moot point.  He doesn’t really recognize science, nor does he understand it.  He does realize bleach is a chemical.  As for supporting the arts, while building the NY Trump Tower he did agree to preserve two art deco friezes located on the building occupying the construction site  of his new building thereby showing support for the arts.  He did recognize their value; so I concede that point.  However, when he discovered the cost of their removal in order to preserve them he had them destroyed with the building. 

 

Donald is a one maybe two dimensional person...money and power.  His legacy, to be sure, will consist of the fact that he made us know hate again, although he didn’t invent it, he’s more of a revivalist.  His core of supporters will love him blindly while those with analytical abilities will be haunted by visions of the Civil War and a divided nation.

 

Frederick the Great brought prosperity through the ideals of enlightenment despite his authoritarian and military characteristics.  By comparison Trump is taking a once great nation, seeing its weaknesses and preying on its vulnerability for his own gain.  He gives nothing back. Nothing Great about that!  Donald is a fake!