A Mexican Examines Two Faces of the US Presidency: Obama vs. Trump Jorge Volpi - Reforma
go to original March 24, 2017

Having Donald Trump run the government like a business sounds good in theory but may actually be a terrible idea. (Fusion)

You almost need only observe their two faces. The first: a friendly and restrained face, with almost no wrinkles or expression marks - not even after eight exhausting years - a bit impassive; the long face; alert and restless eyes; scanning more than observing everything; very short hair, at first very black, then graying; a very white and open smile, expansive and hypnotic; ears like a fierce wolf attentive to hear what is happening around him; a somewhat aristocratic grimace, a happy combination of empathy and distance. And a feature impossible to avoid, let alone in a society so concerned about differences and ethnic origins: black skin.

The second face is its reverse: a skull more square than egg-shaped; eyes barely visible behind bags untouched by surgery; eyebrows always arched, almost translucent; a sharp nose; a raised chin; thin lips hopelessly puckered in that snout that Alec Baldwin copies so well; his saggy and smooth cheeks, surely meticulously massaged; and a smile, which, if it appears by mistake, is brief and ironic, obscenely disdainful. Not forgetting that yellowish or whitish or orangey fringe that covers his forehead like an extraterrestrial creature with a life of its own. And, again, his skin: that pink tone, sometimes simply carmine or vermilion, which we usually call white.

As if the voters of that country had grabbed hold of the union of opposites or had wanted to replace someone with its exact opposite: one could not imagine two faces - not speaking of personalities or trajectories - more adverse or antagonistic, but also more representative of the divisions that have pervaded their society since time immemorial. First, a man who would seem to represent the melting pot himself - an African and Muslim father, a white mother, childhood in Hawaii and Indonesia, political career in Chicago - and then, someone who insists on embodying a WASP: white, male, and Protestant.

But do not think that we aspire to revive phrenology: one of our greatest evolutionary advantages has been the ability to read the faces of others. Let us therefore turn to their attitudes, as dissimilar as their features: the first, although somewhat professorial and unemotional, seems happy or at least reasonably happy; responsible and serene; charismatic and almost exemplary: perfection always irritates. The second, however, is always angry; always one step away from an outburst or fury; one step away from making fun of someone, insulting someone; a complainer and a bully.

If, facing the first, one immediately asks: how can this man remain so calm in every circumstance? Facing the second, the question is: why is this millionaire, to whom life has granted all privileges, so angry? And it is here, in the very formulation of this question, where we could find the key to his success, that is, why so many people voted for him.

Read the rest at Mexico Voices

Related: Mexico vs. Trump: Peña Nieto Repeats Moctezuma's Errors with Cortés (Mexico Voices)

Translated by Amanda Coe

Mexico Voices is a blogging endeavor aimed at raising the awareness of U.S. citizens regarding the destructive impact of the U.S. economic policy and the War on Drugs on Mexico - on its people, their economic and physical security and their human rights, on the nation’s dysfunctional justice system, and on the rule of law and Mexico’s fragile democracy. Visit the website at MexicoVoices.blogspot.mx

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