Inside the Mind of a Psychiatrist –the Presidential Election, by Art Smukler, MD, author & psychiatrist

by artsmuklermd, posted in Penn State, Politics, Psychiatry, Self Examination, World events, a psychological view

Tuesday November 5, 2024, Donald Trump handily beat Kamala Harris and is officially the 47th President-elect of the United States. It wasn’t close!

I wrote numerous posts regarding Trump’s lying, narcissism, racism and on and on.

I obsessively pointed out why no one should vote for this man. How dangerous it would be, blah, blah, blah.

Then after it happened, after I got over my shock and disappointment, I put on my psychiatrist beanie (It has a Penn State Logo on the front).

What came to mind were the many years I spent as an undergraduate and medical student worrying about money. I was living on loans and never had an extra dollar. For me, every extra hour was spent studying and trying to reach my goals – get into medical school and then graduate as a physician. I did it, but paid an enormous price – constant worry and obsession about paying my rent, buying food, and gas. Everything I did was surrounded by an overwhelming fear of financial catastrophe.

I believe that is why Trump won. People overlooked his obvious character flaws to achieve one simple thing. They wanted enough money to live. To not spend almost every waking moment worrying about how they were going to pay the rent, buy food, and pay the medical bills. Kamala’s idea of giving new home buyers $25,000 was ludicrous. In California you can’t buy anything for less than $500,000. $25,000 buys you nothing.

Yes, there are bigots, racists, anti-LGBTQs, billionaires, pro-Israel people etc. who voted for Trump, but I truly think that the overwhelming majority of Americans simply want to pay the bills. They believed that Trump could help them better than Kamala. In this case “Money talks and character walks”.

Thanks, Art

#Trump, #Kamala, #presidentofUS, #moneytalks

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Published by artsmuklermd

Art Smukler, MD was born and raised in Philadelphia, went to college and medical school in Pennsylvania, and completed his psychiatric training at UCLA. He is a board-certified psychiatrist, specializing in the treatment of adults with a subspecialty in adolescents. As a member of the UCLA faculty, he ran an award-winning psychotherapy conference for psychiatric residents and received the coveted “Golden Ear” award. He has published in psychiatric journals, and won the award for excellence in creative writing at The Santa Barbara Writers Conference. Now a full-time author, he applies his deep understanding of the human psyche to the motivations of his fictional characters.

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