Donald Trump and the Politics of Improvisation
The spirit of improvisation finds its ultimate expression in the workings of American democracy. Like improvisation, democracy believes every voice, however marginal or foolish, should be heard, every vote counted.
Then along came Donald J. Trump whose irrepressible spontaneity knocks much of this rosy vision about improv and democracy into a cocked hat. Presidential historian Jon Meachum calls Trump “Unabashedly improvisational.” David Axelrod describes him as “an improvisational performer, long on chutzpah and borscht belt put-downs but short on facts.” We’ve all seen it. The man gives no thought to the next thing out of his mouth. If Hermes the Trickster, the lord of boundary crossing, god of thieves and liars was the first improviser, Donald Trump the con man is his dark doppelganger, a dark echo point by point.
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