What happens when you cook up a scheme that will make you some easy money, through failure, but instead, your hoped-for bust turns into a booming success?
Of course I have just described the plot of Mel Brooks’ “The Producers,” a play and movie exploring the hilarious consequences of unintended success.
“The Producers” is the story of two theatrical producers, Max Bialystock and Leo Bloom, who scheme to get rich by setting out to produce the worst play ever written, getting rich old ladies to back it and then skipping town with the money once the show is a total flop. Complications arise, however, when the play, “Springtime For Hitler,” unexpectedly turns out to be a hit!
I can’t help but think of Herr Trump when I reflect on Brooks’ comedic masterpiece.
I am convinced Donald Trump entered the Republican presidential race as an easy and inexpensive way to promote the Trump brand. He had not intention of seriously contending for the Republican presidential nomination. Trump’s own former strategist, Stephanie Cegielski, confirmed the con.
Said Cegielski, “Trump never intended to be the candidate. But his pride is too out of control to stop him now… What was once Trump’s desire to rank second place to send a message to America and to increase his power as a businessman has nightmarishly morphed into a charade that is poised to do irreparable damage to this country if we do not stop this campaign in its tracks.”
Could Trump have made the non-seriousness of his campaign clearer from day one? No genuine candidate for the presidency has ever kicked off his presidential run by calling Mexicans, “rapists, drug dealers and criminals.”
But a funny thing happened after Trump threw his sombrero into the presidential ring. Instead of his offensive comments costing him support, his poll numbers skyrocketed. And that has been the story all the way up to Trump’s securing enough delegates to become his party’s presumptive nominee.
Like Bialystock and Bloom, Trump failed miserably at failing.
But, in the end, Trump will get his intended result … he will not be president. Intentionally or not, he sabotages his campaign with each passing day. There is hardly any voting bloc left Trump has not dissed or offended.
Unfortunately for Trump, instead of enhancing his brand’s reputation, it has been severely tarnished. Talk about ironic, unintended consequences!
The brand that Trump has fought so hard to make synonymous with luxury, glitz and glamour is now one drenched in bigotry, hatred and exclusion.
Photo | thehardtimes.net
How could “Springtime for Hitler: A Gay Romp With Eva and Adolf at Berchtesgaden” have ever been a flop?