TRUMP AND THE JED CLAMPETT “GAMBIT”

Political pundits enamored of Trump have fawned over him as some type of political genius who defied all expectations.  How else to explain how Trump has perplexed political “experts” who have continuously written his political epitaph.

I’m one of those skeptics, however, who fails to see any form of genius in Trump as a person or as a political player.  Instead, I attribute Trump’s success to what I call the “Jed Clampett Gambit.”

 Remember Jed, of the old Beverly Hillbillies sit-com?  Remember the show’s theme song?

”Come and listen to my story about a man name Jed,

A poor mountaineer, barely kept his family fed.

Then one day he was shooting at some food,

And up through the ground came a bubbling crude.

Oil that is, black gold, Texas tea.”

No, I’m not drawing similarities between Jed and Trump as individuals.  Jed was poor. Trump, even if not the billionaire he claims, is not.  Jed was a gentle, reflective soul, Trump is not.  Jed was self-effacing, Trump is the antithesis of self-effacement.

No, the similarity is the way they struck “gold.”  It was serendipity for both of them.  Jed was shooting at some food, when his errant bullet struck oil pay dirt.  Trump was shooting from the hip, as he oft does, when his mean-spirited volley hit political pay dirt.  

His “I’ll build a wall and will make Mexico pay for it “mantra struck a resonant, if unharmonious, chord with a segment of America that has a reservoir of enmity for migrants.  And he has ridden this horse into the 2024 election corral. 

Trump struck political pay dirt but he did so inadvertently.  I’m confident that, when this century’s list of political geniuses or geniuses of any type is compiled by historians, The Donald will not be on that list.

“Come and listen to a story about a man named Don,

A rich old man with a penchant for The Con.

Then one day while a-screamin’ for a Wall,

He found his niche while foolin’ all y’all….”                          

In November, y’all  come back now, y’hear?