'The Capitol Hillbillies'
In my view, Donald Trump is not an erudite Manhattan sophisticate that portends wealth, power and intellect. He’s a clumsy characterization of his real persona trying to sell himself to a dwindling base as a mainstream American, a regular guy. A man of the people, for the people. He’s from Queens. So am I, I grew up there. I know this man from the inside out ...his propensity to exaggerate, his obnoxious swagger, his mannerisms, his speech patterns, the way he expresses himself repeating and over-emphasizing adjectives and nouns as he struggles to think and talk at the same time. If you’re from Queens or Brooklyn, Trump is an open book. You know this guy. If you’re from the Ozarks, you’re blinking and buying what he’s selling.
Neither is Donald Trump the perceptive and sage businessman he pretends to be. He’s probably lost more money than he’s made, money that was given to him by his father.
No, to me, Donald Trump is more like Jed Clampett of ‘The Beverly Hilbillies’. He got lucky then ‘loaded up the family’ and moved into the White House. The only difference is the White House pales in comparison, of which he has publicly noted, to his ostentatious New York and Florida mansions and his worldwide resort hotels. Nor is he the honest to a fault, slow moving but judicious, lovable ‘rube’, Jed Clampett. Trump is more of a bully huckster pushing the envelop every day. He makes the Clintons look legitimate.
The recent talk about the President’s daughter, Ivanka “Ellie May” Trump replacing Nikki Haley as United State Ambassador to the United Nations got me thinking about this ‘Clampetts’ metaphor, squeamishly frightening as the potential may be. President Trump brought up the idea but said it had nothing to do with nepotism, and that Ivanka would be a “Dynamite” UN Ambassador. She’d be a natural and take to the job like Ellie May Clampett took to her furry “critters”. Ivanka already has lots of experience in diplomacy on the world stage selling her line of ‘Ivanka’ handbags, shoes and clothing to international markets. The Chinese seem to like her ...or they’re making fun of her, hard to tell.
I have Beverly Hillbilly nightmare visions of Ivanka’s husband and President Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, being afforded anything he wants to pretend to be as well. Much like Jed Clampett’s nephew, Jethro Bodine wanting to be a brain surgeon or a ‘double naught spy’. Neophyte Kushner was going to solve the 3,000 year old Middle East peace issue, put an end to the opioid crisis, and champion criminal justice and tax reform among the many other undertakings assigned him by his father-in-law president by using his prodigious cunning and wit. Kushner comes from a lineage of cunning and wit. His father, Charles Kushner, was convicted in 2005 of illegal campaign contributions, tax evasion, and witness tampering and served time in federal prison. Apparently, the acorn doesn’t fall far from the tree ...or from the father-in-law.
Like the Clampetts, the Trumps all seem to be one big happy family of like mind and with similar interests. The difference again is that the Clampetts seem to enjoy and humor each other whereas the Trumps eat their young ...well, the young of others.
Rounding out the 'Capitol Hillbillies' is Senator Lindsay Graham as the feisty banker Milburn Drysdale and either Mitch McConnell, Orin Hatch or Jeff Sessions as ‘Granny‘. Trump’s sons Erik and Don Jr., the Flatt and Scruggs of Manhattan, preform their ‘Foggy Mountain Trump Tower Breakdown’ before every meeting with the Russians. It’s their own personal national anthem, and no one dares take a knee.
To me, this Trump/Beverly Hillbilly parody is both humorous and strikingly profound. The Clintons were called “trailer trash” in the White House, wheres that same White House was known as the Kennedy family’s, and America’s, “Camelot”. It’s all a matter of time and place, public perception and imagery with a pinch of compassion and integrity. There’s a formula if people only payed attention. It’s also organic in nature. You either have it or you don’t. Interesting though that both the Kennedys and the Clintons were Democrats and the Trumps Republicans.
Republican president Ronald Reagan called Russia the “Evil Empire” whereas now the Republican Party is presenting itself as the homegrown Evil Empire within America coordinating with the Russians.
Trump has called the Democrats the party of “crime” and the Republicans the party of “wealth”. This unfortunate derision only speaks to Trump’s and his Republican party’s ‘hillbilly‘ mentality, white collar crime, and their desire to personally gratify and personally win at the expense of the rest America.
I wonder what kind of president the real Jed Clampett would make?
John Kushma is a communication consultant and lives in Logan, Utah.
