Is the United States inching closer to having a President Donald Trump? It’s not as far fetched an idea as one might think.
The current election season in the U.S. has been so wild and unpredictable that non-traditional candidates like the aforementioned billionaire business tycoon Donald Trump, or even retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson have turned the road to the election upside down and inside out.
The American public has grown weary of the more traditional professional politicians like Jeb Bush and his ilk, and have cast them aside for plain-speaking businessmen like Donald Trump or leftist Bernie Sanders whom they feel reflect their own voices and concerns more fully, and in whom they feel they can more safely place their trust.
After last week’s Super Tuesday and Super Saturday nominating contests in several states, Donald Trump developed a strong lead among Republicans, and Hillary Clinton forged ahead among Democrats. Trump’s ascendence has been so unexpected and yet so meteoric that the Republican Party is in turmoil, with other candidates like Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio pulling out all the stops to try to prevent The Donald from becoming totally unstoppable.
It may be too little, too late, though, as it seems to be just a matter of time before Donald Trump becomes the official Republican nominee to face off against the likely Democratic nominee, Hillary Clinton to become the next president of the United States.
We may really be on the cusp of having President Donald J. Trump in the White House.
Or would we really be electing President Lex Luthor??
You don’t have to be a comic book nerd like I was when I was growing up to have heard of Lex Luthor, the evil genius billionaire business tycoon who was always the arch-nemesis of Superman in Metropolis, the comic book equivalent of New York City.
There have been countless stories with Superman and Lex Luthor over the years, with the Man of Steel always finding a super heroic way to foil Luthor’s evil schemes.
One of the more intriguing Lex Luthor storylines in recent years has seen him find a new direction for his evil genius and his wealth; getting elected as President Luthor, and using his new presidential powers to outlaw the super heroes or otherwise cause them unprecedented harm.
So as this topsy turvy election cycle winds closer to having someone like Donald Trump, a seemingly evil genius billionaire business tycoon, be the official nominee for one of the major political parties, the more it seems that art is imitating life and life is imitating art, and we are inching closer to the President Lex Luthor storyline becoming a reality.
What if we extend the super hero and super villain analogy to some of the other top candidates in the current election cycle (as well as other top names from pop culture), and find their analogs in the characters who will be appearing in the upcoming blockbuster super hero movies, Captain America: Civil War and Superman vs. Batman: The Dawn of Justice? We actually find some interesting parallels.
Let’s start with the next most obvious parallel after Donald Trump and Lex Luthor. That would be our real life Tony Stark, the boy genius turned billionaire inventor, Elon Musk of Tesla Motors and Space X.
While he is not involved in the elections, Elon Musk is single-handedly revolutionizing the automobile industry with his amazing electric Tesla cars, the aeronautics industry with his Space X space crafts, and potentially the light rail industry with his proposed Hyperloop system. He is as close to a modern day Iron Man as it gets.
In the upcoming movie, Avengers teammates Iron Man and Captain America come into conflict after the government asks all super heroes to register and reveal their secret identities.
Who could be our modern day analog of Captain America, the World War II era hero frozen in ice for 60 years, before being thawed out and once again becoming a crusader, and symbol of justice and freedom, despite his advanced chronological age?
Getting back to the current crop of candidates, how about Bernie Sanders, the 78 year young Dynamo who is a tireless champion of the people?
Let’s switch over from the Marvel movies to those from DC, and their most popular hero, the Dark Knight himself, Batman.
Batman is the brooding super hero with no real super powers, but with lots of money, lots of cool gadgets, and an outsized interest in working out. He also has an unusual penchant for having wayward young men wanting to hang out or work out with him, and in questionable clothing, to boot.
Who would be the closest equivalent in modern day politics? I would suggest Paul Ryan, the zealous Republican congressman and new House Speaker who is known for leading other young congressman in fishy early morning “workouts.”
If Paul Ryan is our Batman, then who is his Boy Wonder, Robin?
You know, Robin, the young boy who becomes Batman‘s apprentice, and who has odd taste in boots? Look no further than Republican boy wonder Marco Rubio, who recently raised eyebrows with his curious footwear choices on the campaign trail.
If we’re discussing Marco Rubio as an analog for Robin, then what about the other major challenger for Donald Trump among the Republican nominees, Ted Cruz?
Ted Cruz recently axed his top adviser for playing too dirty on the campaign trail, but it doesn’t take too long of watching Cruz or listening to his speeches to realize that there’s something dark and disturbing bubbling underneath the surface with him. He seems like a madman with an eerie calm to him, but always on the brink of exploding. Ted Cruz is our Joker.
There have been storylines where the Joker and Lex Luthor team up to try to defeat Batman and Superman, but they end up fighting with each other, instead. Right now, Ted Cruz and Donald Trump are slugging it out, but how much scarier would it be if they joined forces, with Trump as the presidential nominee, and Cruz as his Vice President?
Let’s move to the next biggest DC hero to be introduced in the upcoming Superman vs. Batman movie, Wonder Woman, the super powerful Amazonian princess?
She’s the strongest of all female super hero characters, and prefers to fly around in an invisible jet.
Well, the most powerful woman in American politics, and the likely Democratic presidential nominee, is undoubtedly Hillary Clinton.
But the most powerful woman in world politics may be German chancellor Angela Merkel.
I’d stick with Hillary though. If only because Wonder Woman and Superman have a vague love interest with each other. And I don’t see Angela Merkel having a love interest with anyone, super or not.
Oh right, that begs the question of who is Superman.
We’ve got to go with Bill Clinton, who has a similarly vague romance with Hillary Clinton as Superman has with Wonder Woman.
And like in the comics and movies, everyone knows Superman has his Kryptonite. And we all know Bill Clinton‘s…
Come to think of it, given how sad our group of super hero analogs mostly are, maybe President Lex Luthor… err… President Donald Trump wouldn’t be such a scary scenario after all.
Rodney Hakim on Wordpress 