The Idea of Manhood

The Brits greeted Donald Trump with a big balloon showing him in diapers. 

That image of him is indelible  and spot on, as the Brits might say.

But why? What is it that people, at least some people, can see in him that his supporters cannot see?

In some way, it may have to do with the idea of what it is to be a man in today's world. 

Cutty, a character in "The Wire" whose given name is Dennis Wise, spent 25 years in prison after he shot a man then called the police to say he'd done it. The local drug kingpin, Avon Barksdale, needs tough, remorseless trigger men,"muscle" for his organization, and when Cutty arrives home from prison Barksdale gifts him a package of drugs. Cutty resists getting involved in criminal activity so soon after his release, but he soon finds there are  no other doors open to him and he gives the package to "Fruit" to sell at a 50/50 split, but when Cutty arrives for his pay off Fruit says the police took the package, a transparent lie, and when Cutty objects, Fruit shoves a pistol in his face and tells him to get lost.  

Later, Cutty joins a planned attack on Fruit's corner boys, ordered by Barksdale to send a message to the rival gang. Cutty finds himself face to face with Fruit, a man agains whom he has a significant grudge, but he cannot pull the trigger and Fruit flees. 

Reporting back, Barksdale asks Cutty how Fruit escaped and Slim Charles tries to say it was his fault, not Cutty's, tries to get Cutty off the hook. But Cutty looks Barksdale in the eye, the man Cutty depends on for income and he says, "No, that weren't it. I had him dead; could have taken that Kangol off his head with half his skull, but I just couldn't do it."
"Why not?" Barksdale asks, studying Cutty.
"Don't know why.  Just not in me anymore, I guess. None of this is."
"So what you gonna do?" Barksdale asks.
"Don't know," Cutty says, "but whatever it is, it can't be this," and he walks out.
One of Barksdale's lieutenants, watching this exchange remarks, as soon as the door closes behind Cutty, "Humph. He was a man once."
Barksdale never even looks at the lieutenant, just keeps looking at the door Cutty just exited and says, "Yeah, well, he a man today."

That idea of manhood, of being able to face the consequences of your own actions, of being able to look at yourself honestly and admitting what you cannot do, and what the truth is, no matter how it may disadvantage you is written into so much of "The Wire." 

Boys no older than 14 become men facing the truth on those Baltimore streets. They see that some of their friends cannot pull the trigger and they do not judge them wanting for that.  Michael sees it in Dukie, and tells Dukie he has other virtues, not to worry about not being a killer. Dukie says he cannot be a man; he's nothing better than a nanny to Michael's little brother. Michael, who will kill grimly, is not proud of his ability to pull the trigger. He views his ability to kill as a grim necessity, but he isn't proud of it.

There aren't many truly weak people in "The Wire," but Donald Trump looks like most of them.  Their defining characteristic is not the color of their skin, although most are White, but it is their fear of the truth, the truth about themselves, the truth about their place in the world, the truth about how other people see them. 

That's where Diapered Donald falls in. There is a certain terror in his eyes. He fabricates a world in which he is the tough guy, the strong man, but it's pretty clear he's not. He simply is not a stand up guy. Not the guy you want in the foxhole next to you.  All mouth, no action.

Pathetic really.
And what does that say about our countrymen who cannot see that?