Donald Trump gets the cultural anthropologist treatment today from David Brooks, who sees the billionaire as the product of "deep currents" in our society. For starters, Trump is that rare breed so impressed with himself he feels compelled to give the rest of us his "every stray thought" with "impregnable certitiude," Brooks writes in the New York Times. He has, in other words, "entered the realm of Upper Blowhardia." Annoying, sure, but "there has always been a large clump of voters who believe that America could reverse its decline if only a straight-talking, obnoxious blowhard would take control."
Second, Trump is not embarrassed about his staggering wealth, a no-no in the upper echelons of "polite society." In this, he "is the living, walking personification of the Gospel of Success." Trump won't be president, but he "is tapping into powerful sections of the national fantasy life," writes Brooks. "I would never vote for him, but I would never want to live in a country without people like him." Click to read about Trump's ever-so-subtle foreign policy thoughts. (More Donald Trump stories.)