Prince and Donald Trump

by philg

Prince was a remarkable person, one of the most successful human beings ever. His intelligence and drive freed him from the financial and have-to-go-to-work or have-to-take-care-of-kids constraints that most of us live with, but they also brought him temptations that most of us will never know. Despite his conquest of the music world, Prince apparently succumbed to drug addiction.

What does that have to do with the political candidate that so many people love to hate? Donald Trump was born into a level of wealth that most of us cannot imagine. By maintaining civil relations with his father he could probably have sat on the beach his whole life, never making a decision more challenging than which Club Med would be nice this time of year. Certainly he had the money and leisure time to be an alcoholic, a prescription drug addict, or a street drug addict. Instead of taking on the responsibilities of marriage and children, he could have followed in the footsteps of one of our richest Bostonians, a man roughly Trump’s age, whose reasonably-appropriately-aged girlfriend surprised him by returning early from a trip to Newport and discovered him in bed with two 22-year-olds from Craigslist. (She looked to me for sympathy after this incident and I responded with “There may not be a shortage of guys who would do that if they were billionaires.”)

As Bill Burr notes in this video, starting around 6:30, most of us can’t know what it is like to be tempted at this level. He says “How can I judge these guys? I can barely handle the temptations of Facebook.”

The worst that the Trump-haters at the New York Times could dig up about The Donald is “Crossing the Line: How Donald Trump Behaved With Women in Private,” in which he purportedly asks a woman to wear a bathing suit (even that part may not be true). Ancient Romans certainly would have expected a lot more depravity from anyone with wealth and power (and maybe modern Romans too? See Silvio Berlusconi.)

I’m not a Trump fan and, given that I vote in Massachusetts, it isn’t worth my time to educate myself regarding the merits of any national political candidate. But I do think that Trump deserves credit for not succumbing to temptations that the rest of us can’t imagine.

Shorter version of the above: Most Americans can’t handle the temptations presented by going into a casino. Trump apparently managed to avoid the temptations presented by owning a casino.

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22 thoughts on “Prince and Donald Trump”

  4. “Instead of taking on the responsibilities of marriage and children certainly he could have …..”

    Is this a joke? Apparently you’ve never heard of Donald Trump prior to 2015. He’s a serial adulterer, likely paid for abortions, and brags about supplying (largely inherited) funds while mommy or nanny took care of the kids.

    May I suggest a change in the blog’s motto: “A troll post a day.”

    http://www.slate.com/blogs/xx_factor/2016/04/04/on_abortion_donald_trump_won_t_say_whether_any_of_his_sex_partners_have.html

  6. It’s funny how Trump is a real-life ethical slut (won’t violate the privacy of his former sex partners) and this is used to “prove” that he “definitely” paid for abortions.

    Guy can’t win with people determined to see him a certain way. I find his treatment of his sex partners to be on the decent side, and whenever they are directly asked, they seem to say much the same despite the high financial incentives to claim otherwise.

    This was interesting, I like Trump and Prince a bunch. Both amazing men.

  7. It’s funny how Trumpians alter quotations like adding the word “definitely.” Or how they portray a serial adulterer as a family man, or alternatively call him an “ethical slut”.

    He’s such an “ethical” slut, he carried own very public affairs while still married, and bragged in his book about bedding down other men’s wives.

    http://www.cnn.com/2016/01/27/politics/ben-sasse-donald-trump-affairs-salesman-iowa/

    It is interesting how economic conservativism, free trade, family values– these all apparently get trumped by anti-immigrant nativism in the political priorities of many purported “practical conservatives.”

  9. Prince’s dependence on pain meds was likely caused by injuries accumulated from a lifetime of dancing and performing. Same fate that befell Michael Jackson.

    Watch Madonna trying to perform strenuous dance moves, well into her forties. “I rattle when I dance, like a pill bottle…” (referring to meds consumed).

  11. Free trade depresses fertility, so it’s anti-family values and it’s also the antithesis of conservative economics. Whatever Trump is as a nationalist-populist, he isn’t a standard Republican issuing those talking points, and perhaps this will give him sufficient crossover appeal when the time comes to vote for a non-felonious President.

    Trump is, as far as I can tell, as close to pro-natalism as we’re likely to get this generation, and that’s fine by me.

  12. Prince did basically die from overwork. It’s surprising James Brown held up as long as he did.

  13. Mitt Romney’s characterization of Trump is as good as anybody’s. Mores aside, Trump is a rich clown. Surprisingly ignorant about the world for a man of his age. Does not know how government works. And offers simple answers to complex questions. His popularity is a “birds of a feather” thing. Trump is in the same orbit as his fans. He’s just rich.

    Mitt Romney on Trump: http://www.politico.com/story/2016/03/full-transcript-mitt-romneys-remarks-on-donald-trump-and-the-2016-race-220176

    J.F. Kennedy vs Trump
    1) John Fitzgerald Kennedy VOLUNTEERED for service during World War II.
    2) John Fitzgerald Kennedy VOLUNTEERED for torpedo boat service in the Solomon Islands (hot war zone, South Pacific).
    3) John Fitzgerald Kennedy TOOK COMMAND of PT-109. The mission: ambush and sink Japanese destroyers.
    4) John Fitzgerald Kennedy was CITED FOR HEROISM when his PT boat was cut in half in the middle of the night by a Japanese destroyer
    5) John Fitzgerald Kennedy SWAM MILES towing a wounded crew member to a small island. John Fitzgerald Kennedy’s ACTION and LEADERSHIP saved the life of most of his crew (two crew members were killed during the collision with the Japanese ship).
    6) John Fitzgerald Kennedy’s SOBER JUDGEMENT saved the world from a full blown nuclear exchange with the Soviet Union during the Cuban Missile Crisis.
    7) John Fitzgerald Kennedy HATED WAR.
    8) Donald Trump is a punk. A loudmouth. And chicken-hawk.

  15. I’m afraid I don’t get it. It’s really not that difficult to afford a life of chemical or sexual excess. In my experience, it’s common at all economic levels. 21-year olds on Craigslist might be a bit of a splurge, but not a significant dent in the accounts of most professionals in affluent areas. (Granted, some 21-year olds are more expensive than others, be they whisky or women.)

    How did Prince get tossed into this salad? He was possibly-addicted, possibly-just-dependent on painkillers. He lived a much more physically strenuous life than most of us. It happens. I’ve known roofers with similar problems.

    Trump is an authoritarian, which is a personality type not predisposed to the lesser forms of addiction. He seems to be a pretty healthy guy, so I’m guessing he doesn’t have chronic back problems and a successful therapeutic history with OxyContin. But who knows?

  16. I’m sure JFKs various wartime efforts (and perhaps other activities) excuses his many carnal relations with communist and government spies and innocent underlings, as well as a varied cast of others. The very fact that he was and is thus comprehensively excused is actually the interesting part.

    Here is how Wikipedia defines a chickenhawk:

    Chickenhawk (also chicken hawk and chicken-hawk) is a political term used in the United States to describe a person who strongly supports war or other military action (i.e., a war hawk), yet who actively avoids or avoided military service when of age.

    The term indicates that the person in question is hypocritical for personally dodging a draft or otherwise shirking their duty to their country during a time of armed conflict while advocating that others do so. Generally, the implication is that chickenhawks lack the moral character to participate in war themselves, preferring to ask others to support, fight and perhaps die in an armed conflict.

    But Trump seems rather less blood thirsty than “we came, we saw, he died” Clinton or Nobel Peace Prize winner and drone striker Obama, and as we recall also did criticize the Iraq war in stronger terms than, well, anyone I can remember. He has advocated de-escalating the various conflicts with Russia and has talked about getting rid of NATO. So the term does not really seem apt. Of course, then there are ‘events, dear boy, events’. (In recent years also known as State.)

    Is Trump a ‘punk’? Urban dictionary tells us:

    Punk: Being your self and not giving a fuck what people think about you or say about you.

    Well maybe. Or:

    Cool caveman music with a fuckyou attitude.Only real punks know the sounds associated with true punk.

    Okay, that does ring fairly true. But I guess you mean something like the Wikipedia definition, “Punk, sometimes term for homosexual, as is pansy or queer.”. Mmm, I don’t feel it. While Trump took a strong position against the recent mass murder of gays in Orlando, moreso than Clinton or even Obama, he doesn’t strike me as swinging that way. NTTAWWT.

  17. Trump had an older brother who was an alcoholic and died young. Trump has reportedly never had a drink because he didn’t want to end up like his brother.

  18. @ paul kramarch(y?)k,

    I’m not going to debate JFK’s idealism, but need to point out that points 1 to 3 of JFK’s life choices were not independent of Joe Senior’s will in that regard. Remember that he was the spare, not the designated primary heir of the Kennedy name: Joe Jr., KIA in 1945.

    As for this thread, I find the idea of juxtaposing Prince’s and Trump’s life stories on the sole basis of their succumbing or not to opiates or alcohol addictions a very strange proposition indeed.

  20. Prince died of AIDS. It was informative to see the major outlets hide that otherwise decently documented fact. I guess the popular narrative is supposed to be that nobody dies of HIV infections anymore.

  21. My spouse, a doctor, is in the pharmaceutical industry and says it was a well-know secret Prince succumbed to the AIDS virus.

  22. @Paul Kramarchk:
    I had no idea JFK was a marathon ocean swimmer. You said he swam miles while towing an injured comrade. Wow. Miles?? In open ocean???

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