Trump Is Our Bad Boy

He’s our bad boy. You know, the one from high school who appealed to our rebellious side.

The bad boy always disobeyed the rules and got away unscathed; we lived vicariously through him.

Trump embodies James Dean’s portrayal of Jim Stark in Rebel Without a Cause. “Prior this movie,” wrote Terence Towles Canote, “most screen portrayals of teenagers were obedient, respectful of their parents, and rarely got into trouble.”

Like the prototypical teenaged rebel, Trump treats the less powerful with disdain as in his infamous remark about Megan Kelly, who he asserted had “blood coming out of her wherever.”

Like the stereotypical teenaged bully, Trump attacks establishment figures without a scintilla of shame, as when he argued that decorated Vietnam War veteran John McCain was not a war hero because he was captured.

Like the romanticized Jim Stark, Trump feeds the part of us that longs to destroy the prison bars imposed by civilization. We flock to the pseudo-freedom he models: not having to tell the truth; not having to care for others; not having to think.

But the more we indulge in the guilty pleasures he offers, the more he tramples on the very values we claim to uphold.