This Trump thing is simply proof of the accumulated strangeness of Americans’ education, intellectual paralysis, political naivete, and susceptibility to a fantastic media con game. When radio, TV, magazines, and newspapers – 95% owned by only three gigantic corporations only motivated to sell more and more of their products via ads and public relations programs – when these corporate goons spend an entire century hypnotizing the entire U.S. population into abandoning common sense to become nothing beyond mindless consumers, a Trump is what you get.

That this man is taken seriously by people coast to coast is monumentally embarrassing. The man thrives on the American public’s addiction to cheapness. He understands that if he throws trash at them, they will applaud him. If he repeatedly makes racist-laden remarks, he will be awarded gold stars. If he loudly and arrogantly criticizes just about anyone, he will be accorded Hero status. If he belittles women and Latinos and any other identifiable group, he will be seen as a forward-thinking man.

He is called by followers, “A breath of fresh air.” Where the fresh air concept comes from is beyond me. Some of his people actually were reported by a news outlet lately of having beaten a protester at one of his meetings.He uses every dirty verbal trick used by demagogues over the centuries to build a base from a disaffected minority seeking simple answers to a highly complex world; and he pumps up that base with repeated cheap shots at anyone and everything to get himself the next headline. And the feeble minded follow like a herd of sheep, grasping for a Savior no matter how gross he is.

It’s not Trump’s fault that he has no in-depth traits of good character. That he appeals to so many in over their heads in the 21st Century. He is a product of our American culture of borrow, spend, waste, consume, throw away, spend some more, rent storage space to put the excess purchases in, look out or the next thing to buy, buy it, use it a day or two, and then add it to the storage bin while our once discerning brains shrivel to the size of peanuts.

It is the American people at fault here. We have abandoned our most basic responsibilities as citizens of our country and exchanged them for a cheap thrill as a potential president. The entire world is laughing at us. Many of our own highest leaders see the danger of his ridiculous assertions and faulty ideas and his Barnum and Bailey Circus tactic, while a handful of politicians are actually endorsing him, despite his racist remarks and his verbal pratfalls. He is America’s W. C. Fields of the political scene. Only our young seem to see through him.

What a joke! If Mr. Trump pulls this off, the joke is going to be on us.