I'm probably not the first person to note this, but Donald Trump's presidential campaign presents as an example of life imitating some fairly average art.
This morning I watched Donald Trump rhapsodising about the wall he plans to build on the border with Mexico ("It's going to be so tall ... it's going to be beautiful ... as beautiful as a wall can be") and then glorying in the expulsion of protesters from his rally. Then I read articles like this and this detailing the (often racially charged) violence that is becoming a commonplace at Trump's events.
And all of a sudden I was 16 again and watching this.
(While I am, as per my usual modus operandi, completely over-egging things here, this Atlantic Monthly story is pretty disturbing:
Just below the surface of a Trump rally runs an undercurrent of violence. There are few overt threats. But there are thousands of people who are deeply angry at the state of the nation, whose anger is being intensified by the speaker on stage.
The many protesters Wednesday provided targets for that anger. As Trump talked, a murmur would rise somewhere in the arena. A bunch of blue shirts (Fayetteville police) and gray shirts (Cumberland County sheriff’s deputies) would run toward its source. Somewhere, a young person would be standing, perhaps holding a sign. People around them would rip the sign out of her hands and tear it up. The cops would yank the protester out. Trump had a punchline for every one. “You see what he’s got written on his very dirty undershirt? ‘Love is the answer,’” he said. “I wonder who makes love ...” He trailed off.
The rest of the article is well worth a read as an insight into the form of politics Trump is practicing.)