--
Trump as a scam
There are three consistent features to all of conservative talk radio: Anger, Trump, and ads targeting the financially desperate.
The ads are a constant. Ads protecting against coming financial crisis (Surprise! It is Gold.) or ads that start, “Having trouble with the IRS?”
The obvious lessons being 1) Lots of conservative talk radio listeners are in financial distress. 2) They are willing to turn to scams.
Turning to scams kind of generally follows being in financial distress. But why? Well, desperation, duh. Right, but again, why?
What desperation really is about is limited options. Think about the ultimate scam: Lotto tickets.
Lotto tickets are often called stupidity taxes by economists, implying that the buyers must be dumb.
But Lotto tickets are the only form of leverage poor folks can get. The only way, no matter how long the odds, to turn $1 into a million.
As I wrote before, Lotto buyers aren’t any dumber than anyone else.
You just have to look at people’s financial decisions within the framework of their options.
To stretch a little bit. You can reframe Trump that way (as I often have): He is a scam, selling himself as the only option to the angry.
Which is exactly Trump’s history. Selling false and expensive illusions of wealth to those who are desperate. (Trump University!)
With recent revelations it is pretty clear that Trump, no matter what the result of the election, will financially benefit.
He initially ran with the goal of increasing his brand name. For money. (He saw Sarah Palin and Mike Huckabee do exactly that)
When he started to win he realized,
A) It was profitable to run (skimming from campaign)
B) It would be very profitable to be president
He sees in the presidency amazing opportunities for graft and business connections. For him, for his friends and family.
Trump is in it for the money. (He looks at the Clintons. Not with disgust, but admiration for the wealth obtained.)
Trump fits perfectly on conservative talk radio because he is no different from the ads hawking financial scams.
Trump is nothing more than another person charging usurious rates to angry people with few options. Selling long odds at a huge cost.
And many Trump voters are angry (often rightfully), often desperate, people. And like Lotto buyers, they ain’t stupid, they just don’t have many options.
PS: As pointed out, almost all politicians are in it for the money. The difference with Trump is who he is selling himself to: Mostly the poor. Like most folks who try to make money off the poor, he is doing it by charging a lot of interest.
