It is becoming clear that Trump has no bounds concerning what he is willing to do – as long as he gets enough praise from his “base.”  Apparently he has few, if any, morals – and is ignorant to the point of being dysfunctional on his own.  He does what he is told by those that he hand picked to be in tune with his base.  An interesting bit of evidence about this is that not so long ago he claimed to be a staunch liberal, promoting many causes that he is now diametrically opposed to.  I think the reason that he is able to pivot like that is because he has no stake or understanding in the ethics or morality of his positions – he just wants to be “great” and praised.  Whoever gives him that gets his full support.

If true, that makes me wonder if perhaps a simpler, more gentle, approach might be in order in our attempting to keep him from destroying the country (and possibly the world).  He acts and talks like a toddler – just doing whatever seems right in the moment.  He is happy when his people tell him he is a good boy; he throws a temper tantrum when someone disagrees with him.  He doesn’t appear to be literate as he should no evidence of understanding history, science or anything that requires study and deep thought. 

So what to do?  We can increase the level of insults and fighting – but that clearly just escalates the situation.  We could just agree with him, which might tamp down his anger and ranting – but that seems to be futile and would just get his insane desires codified into Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) “case law” where it becomes almost impossible to root out and change.  Case law is FAR more powerful than actual written law as we are finding with the recent SCOTUS rulings that clearly violate the intent and common understanding of the Constitution.  We are discovering that the words of the Constitution mean almost nothing – all of the meaning is defined by the rulings of courts, especially the SCOTUS.   Doublespeak is real and healthy in these days of MAGA insanity.

It occurs to me that perhaps a better approach would be to consider him as the toddler he acts like and take some time to train him, kind of like we train our children and pets.  Maybe we need to watch closely for instances where he does something good (probably by accident at first), and give him a small amount of praise for that.  A small treat will result in a bit of dopamine being produced to help him “feel good.”  Dopamine is part of the reward system that drives us to seek out behaviors that offer rewards, thus making us feel pleasure and happiness.  It is hard wired into our bodies (including Trump’s).  Maybe we can make use of that to slowly guide him toward far more beneficial activities. I once had a boss that handed out single M&Ms for each instance of “good” behavior – it works!

Instead of responding to his bad behaviors with anger and insults, which only result in activing his “fight or flight” responses, maybe we can slowly lead him back to his much more liberal and compassionate past.  Instead of trying to push him, we might be able to lead him.  Rather like the jackass that he has proven himself to be. Country folk are very aware that it is impossible to push a donkey, but easy to lead one. 

As with training any wild animal (or child) it is important to know the eventual goals in order to identify the small actions that you want to reward on the path toward final domestication – otherwise you end up with something you didn’t intend. That of course means we, as a group, need to better define the desired end result.  What is it that we want from our Presidents?  How should they act? What should they know and what should they do?  Maybe this is a chance to do something more than just reaching into a bag of Presidential unknowns every four years, hoping to pull out something good.  Maybe if we spend some time more clearly understanding what we want so we can basically “train” Trump, we could also do a better job of defining the job description and qualifications for future elections.

Perhaps I can start the juices flowing by visiting a few “goals” that I would like to work toward:

• Our government should be compassionate and helping with regard to those that need help, especially with regard to healthcare (physical and mental), shelter, financial security, access to education
• The items in the Constitution govern our laws, they should also govern how we think about and treat others.  It makes a good basis for our individual “social contracts” between each other as well as with the government and the rest of the world.
• Our President should be working toward international unity and mutual assistance
• The government/President should be working to help us be more respectful and supportive of the environment.
• The President should be honorable, trustworthy, respectful, respected and perhaps above all – thoughtful
• We need our government to provide protection from other governments.
• We need the government to help create a stable economy that fairly supports everyone.
• The government should work toward ensuring a “fair” economic outcome for everyone (whatever that might mean). 

These ideas are just place holders for what we really think are important elements of the job of the POTUS (President of the United States).  I want to feel prideful rather than embarrassed about whoever is in that position.  Perhaps we (individuals, media, organizations) can influence the actions of the current POTUS by giving him “treats” (positive feedback) when he does things that we want instead of causing him to fight for his really stupid and destructive actions.  Fighting him about these actions hasn’t gained much, we seem to always lose.  Perhaps we can redirect the action with a more subtle and positive, approach.