And for 8 years now a strange being has been leading the country: an elegant man, in tailored suits, who seems to apologize for his country on a regular basis, but who never seems to change much of anything. A man who was exhausted after having finally arrived at the White House. One who, as if to devote himself indefinitely to his exhaustion, would go on to receive the Nobel Peace Prize before having barely articulated three sentences on foreign policy. But with his head in the clouds, Barack Obama awakened a hunger for a movement that a country, always eager for a little show, expects from its leader. Nevertheless, Obama remains below our expectations, but perhaps we expected way, way too much of him.

Let’s go back in time a little, to 2008, when John McCain, often ashamed of the attacks the Republican party tried to throw at Obama, chose Sarah Palin as his vice president nominee. Palin, the great flame-thrower, the amazing soccer mom, stopped at nothing: unapologetically pro-life, supporting the right to bear arms, and the promotion of oil drilling in Alaska where she had been governor since 2006, all while posing for a photo in full huntress-mode, 4×4 purring as if she were taming a wild horse (apparently she even rides in rodeos). Jacques-Alain Miller said about her: « For now, a woman who plays the « castration » card is unbeatable. » ¹ Lest we forget that she even declared herself a lipstick-wearing pitbull. Poor Barack, faced with this self-declared lipstick-wearing pitbull, almost crawled right under the sofa. But, propped by his wife, he managed to navigate, dodge. Dodging, however, only works once.

What a surprise, then, that the punishing rhetoric is emerging this time from the mouth of man! Well, of a man, that’s easily said. Trump, though, is a brand, and, like the angels, he has no sex. He hovers over his casinos, his buildings, his production companies. His bank card is never rejected. This guy doesn’t worry about the deduction of anything, however, he is ready for it all. He is like Spider-Man. Speaking of which… well, it’s useless to speak about it. Such a confiscation of language logically leaves room for blows, and, as a matter of fact, blows are currently being thrown at him from all directions.

To what is such success due? The indestructible Trump always adds an inch to the bar he must clear, flying over the limit when we were all thinking « no way, he won’t do it! ». But Trump does. He always does. And so it goes, ‘til the next little sentence, up until the next vulgar comment. What’s the price of being indecent? Trump will be paying longer than the duration of our poor, mortal lives.

Let’s make one thing clear—it’s a crazy race, to the point that not even a bolt lock could hold back the Trump drive that’s flowing through the air. And that—contrary to what’s being heard here and there, in Europe or in the United States—soothes the middle class voter who has started dreaming, identifying with Trump the super hero. It’s the ultimate comfort for the coward within each and every one of us: we put ourselves in the wake of those who dare, and we believe ourselves to be protected by them because they move on, unprotected yet impervious to danger. Remember the comments on the man’s hair. It resembles nothing; Trump reaches beyond all things corporeal. Even his shortcomings prove to be advantages. He’s a Super-Palin in the body of a man. He is even more powerful, perhaps, because he is doing exactly what Palin herself stopped doing. What Palin couldn’t do but what only he can. For if Trump can’t lose anything, he has added an important component to the Palin system, a component that had been lacking all along: the luxury of masculine ownership is that his penis is tightly screwed on. Didn’t he get an audience member to come up on stage to pull on his hair and make sure that it was real? This, Palin could never do. The circle is complete.

Of course, all accounts have to be settled eventually. Who will be paying first? Trump or his voters? It is difficult to say. One thing is certain: this will not end well.

¹. Le Point, September 11th, 2008