Trump Is The Quintessential Boomer

Demanding loyalty and allegiance.

Just want to say quickly upfront that I am not generally a fan of generalizing about generations, but yes, I am about to do it. I am sorry.

I grew up pretty liberal, and now I think I am “centrist,” whatever that means. I try to look at both sides of a given issue, even if I think one side is absolutely crazy — and yes, right now, that crazy side is more often than not the “right” side of the spectrum.

That said, for the last four years or so in America, we’ve had so much screaming about Trump at every turn. A lot of the Trump-screaming is confusing to me specifically because I grew up in New York City in the 1980s, and I saw New York Post headlines about him constantly. He is basically running the Presidency as an older version of his 1983 self. That’s really it.

And I think above all, as you yell about his many issues, you need to understand what drives him — which is the same thing that drives a lot of Boomers in professional contexts.

That would be loyalty.

Trump and loyalty

Let me lay out a couple of quotes and concepts for you:

• Trump once said: “I value loyalty above everything else — more than brains, more than drive and more than energy.”

• As noted here in Politico: Consider James Comey’s extraordinary dismissal; the “Dear Leader” Cabinet meetings convened for aides to bestow slavish praise; public humiliations of his attorney general and secretary of state; the banishment and subsequent contrition of top adviser Steve Bannon; speculation that Robert Mueller won’t last long as special counsel and the parade of lockstep minions whose forced exits from the campaign or the administration have not squelched their public displays of devotion.