USA.com

Nowadays, it seems countries that were recently under the totalitarian regimes are trying to taste the fruits of democracy. On the other hand, truly democratic countries want to breathe a fresh wind of change and, as a result, they incline to the conservative alternatives step by step. For the latter group of countries, the republican/conservative option is considered as a new political brand that should be followed, supported, glorified, and praised.

Our postmodern society can be described as a broad, worldwide community of spectacle. The globalization processes strengthen the ties between people all over the world. People now do not want to take part in important world events. They rather want to observe scandals because these are interesting events, full of joy and excitement. This is known as the collective voyeurism.

In my opinion, Donald Trump is an extraordinary skilled showman and he is distinguished based on his subversive public appearance. Social psychology says that if somebody or something is salient in our field of perception, we can easily notice and remember him/it, and as a result of this shallow cognitive process, this entity can influence our attitudes, thoughts, emotions, and behavior. Therefore, this is the first ace that Trump uses to play the (pre)election game.

The second one is his background of many years standing entrepreneurship. To be more specific, he perceives the USA as a large business organization or international corporation (in terms of the foreign policy). Thus, he probably regards immigrants as 'applicants' who should fulfill all the prerequisites in order to be hired in a 'job position'. In this case, the job position refers to living and working in the USA. Insofar as Trump's primary preoccupation are real estates, building, selling, and marketing, it is not surprising that he wants to set up a wall along the border with Mexico similar to the Great Wall of China. His suggestion that Japan and South Korea should build their own nuclear weapons, while withdrawing the American troops from these territories, is also in accordance with his chief occupation " using innovations and changing strategies in a business corporation. Therefore, the pattern of his future chess-like moves can be predicted based on the foregoing considerations.

From the perspective of personality psychology, Trumps' childhood and adolescence experiences (he was fourth of the five children in his family, and he attended a military academy) have the following effect on his current public behavior and statements: it seems that he is a headstrong, ambitious person who wants to reach a high level of self-confirmation. He has to prove (to himself) that he is not a less important child as well as he is strong enough to survive in his physical and social environment. Additionally, he has a very high need for power, dominance, and autonomy. So, his participation in the election race is a sort of a self-transcendent gesture, influenced by his self-affirmation. However, I am afraid that Trump is too much self-centered that he will oversee or ignore American national interests. Furthermore, the fact that his wives were fashion model, actress, and photo model indicates that his personal value system is based on superficial beauty, appearance, and public image. His social (public) self is the only thing that matters (from his point of view) and it appears that the most appropriate social role for him is to be a celebrity i.e. well-known social figure, which is worth of all nation's attention.

Besides, his strengths are the following:

1) He is so self-confident and self-determined person that can resist other political leaders and show the world that the USA is still a strong, powerful, and vigorous country.

2) When he wins and succeeds, the whole nation can feel this winning situation as their own (as most people want to identify themselves with authoritarian, prosperous, and strict leaders).

3)  His business' experience can be advantageous to the USA if he will use it for appropriate purposes, because every country can be considered as a corporation, with its incomes and debts, as well as partnership with other countries.

Of course, there are two main constraints that have to be underlined:

1)    Psychologically speaking, he can be characterized as the A type of personality (these persons are short-tempered and impulsive, and their psychological nature makes them prone to heart attacks, poor relations with other people, etc.).

2)   I think that he is also a thrill-seeking person, and will show a kind of hazardous or high-risk behavior if he sits in the presidential chair.

On the other hand, Bernie Sanders is a truly democrat; however, his old age can turn away voters and make them not to vote for him, because psychology says that we perceive old people as those who are conservative, traditional, conventional, and not open-minded. Hillary Clinton's surname can make people recall the old times and think of her political engagement as old-fashioned. The other thing is her gender. From the corner of social psychology, nations want to set woman in place of their president, when they think that their country's power and economy is decreased. The logic that lays behind this decision is: ''If our country will fail, let 'the less (physically) strong' person lead it. We will get over the ultimate failure much easily if we can attribute it to a woman and not to a man''.

Because the three principal parts of the engine of the contemporary social machinery are competence, ambition, and aspiration (along with the high-achievement-seeking behavior), the USA.com is the more likely option than the democratic melting pot.

Selman Repišti,

April 3, 2016