These Trump Years Exposed a Class of Psychopathic Rich and the Game They Play

One of the stark revelations from the years of the Trump presidency is that he’s a member of an uber-rich class of psychopaths and sociopaths. Whether they’re his lawyers, his billionaire buddies, CEOs who benefit from his cruelty, or those whom he has appointed to his administration, they believe in a ruthless definition of success that is out of touch with the morality of everyday Americans.

These are the people who’ve been admired by Capitalism for playing a rough and tumble game of high-stakes poker that takes no prisoners, leaves other players devastated, and cares nothing about any collateral damage (human or otherwise) that’s left in its wake.

Progressives don’t play the game well because they’re not into amoral war games. They want authenticity, community, honesty, and shared wealth instead, and don’t even want to believe anyone would play so cold-bloodedly.

But it is ruthless -- a “man’s” game. Those who won’t play it must be prepared to have their masculinity questioned.

It’s a game of the good ol’ rich white boys club. It lays down race, gender, class, and power cards.

And it’s been shown that those who play it best are psychopaths. “Troubling research indicates that in the ranks of senior management, psychopathic behavior may be more common than we think – more prevalent in fact than the amount such seriously aberrant behavior occurs in the general population.”

Or as Jon Ronson, author of The Psychopathic Test: A Journey Through the Madness Industry summarizes: “I think my book offers really good evidence that the way that capitalism is structured really is a physical manifestation of the brain anomaly known as psychopathy.”

It’s a game that those working class people who admire such manliness aspire to play. They’ll cheer and vote for its winners in spite of losses these admirers have already suffered.

It’s played in boardrooms and stock exchanges, a game that admires CEOs who personally win when their companies lose. It’s a game of wheelers and dealers who outsmart, outplay, and out-power.

It’s a game that values rogues like playboy, frat boy, sowed-his-wild-oats, strutting George W. Bush and narcissistic braggart Donald Trump.

Its players are womanizers who know how to play, and treat women the way good ole’ boys do. 

Women must play their game. So pointing out how they use women actually furthers their hero status in the locker-room stories of the other boys.

Think of Bret Maverick, the gambler of the 1957-1962 TV series of that name. He never settled down, knew how to take other men for their holdings, flimflammed adversaries, charmed women and left ‘em.

Think of Tom Cruise in Top Gun, whose handle was Maverick because he was a “hot shot.” He knew how to be a player, valued the play over the consequences, and was admired not for his integrity or compassion but as a “man’s man.”

These are the good ole’ boys the game crowns its winner. They lie, cheat, and even steal as if there is nothing wrong with any of it as long as they come out on top.

What would bring a guilty conscience and even overwhelming feelings of disgrace to others is considered business ethics to them. As Ronson says, these are "dangerous predators who lack the behavioral controls and tender feelings the rest of us take for granted.”

These players admire the man who makes a killing in the stock market while others suffer, works the system to come out on top, lets the rest eat his dust, wins while others lose.

Usually others lose so that he can win the whole pot. Their destruction makes it all the sweeter.

They admire the man who knows what the game is, knows it’s a game, and gets his kicks by playing. He keeps a poker face. He lets people know only what he wants them to know, not what they need to know.

He knows “when to hold em” and “when to fold em.” He’s good at reading other people’s faces -- not to empathize with them and their plight, but to use their weaknesses, misplays, fears, and insecurities for his own victory.

And they like women who know what the rules of the game played by good ole’ boys are; women who are willing to take a woman’s place at the table. When the maverick finally settles down, it’s with a “looker,” not just any woman: like a beauty pageant contestant who knows how to play by, not question, the rules.

She then is more than just a trophy. She fits the motherhood images, fusing the old right-wing idealism of a mom who appears to put husband and family first, but not the reality most right-wing families face – the mother juggling this ideal with work outside the home to make it financially.

The good ole’ boys are proud of the way as real men they can protect “their woman” while still reminding us that they’re just women. They discovered a new word to bandy about at every criticism from her: “sexism.”

They know how all of this gamesmanship can appeal to those white working class voters who aspire to be a Maverick, or Cruise’s flyboy. That version of the American dream was applied to politics by Karl Rove and by his disciples ever since.

It’s tied to a ruthless, kill-or-be-killed image of manhood that feminists of all genders have questioned.

It’s hard to believe that a class of people like this exist, but now we've seen it played out as they’re exposed as ruthless, cruel, misogynists and pedophiles for whom the only measure of goodness is getting what they want.

Certainly now we should recognize this game, face the fact (against all our liberal fantasies) that it’s real, ruthless and heartless, notice how it destroys the vulnerable around us, never miss an opportunity to expose it, and, most importantly, stay on task by speaking from the real values we hold in contrast, values which we take too seriously to play games.