Trump seemed less uniquely contemptuous when Ed Koch, New York’s braying, limelight-grabbing mayor, was around to insult constituents by calling them " wackos," or to brag about making the City Council president cry. Similarly, Trump’s reflexive bullying was less uniquely noticeable when George Steinbrenner, the Yankees’ pinstriped martinet, was around to hector his players, harangue his managers and hire a gambler to dig up dirt on his star outfielder. Trump’s nastiness stood out less when legendary Hollywood agent Michael Ovitz would say things to dissatisfied clients such as, " My foot soldiers who go up and down Wilshire Boulevard each day will blow your brains out,’’ just as Trump's scornful self-regard seemed less unusual when John Gotti, the Mafia's preening "Teflon Don," was out and about getting away with actual murder.Īs the decade wore on, '80s Man and '80s Woman began to wear out. Though prominent in the '80s, Trump looms larger today, no doubt because he is alone. POLICING THE USA: A look at race, justice, media He is his own loudest cheerleader and his own most faithful fan. This is Trump at his Trumpiest: He must be a winner in everything. team romped to 83 gold medals, with '80s Man and Woman chanting, "USA! USA!" in an ecstasy of triumphal gloating. When the Soviet bloc boycotted the 1984 Olympics, thus removing most of America’s serious rivals, the U.S. "Awesome!" "Tubular!" "Bad to the bone!" Almost always, he would accompany these cries with an exuberant high-five.Īlong with looking and talking and sounding big, '80s people liked winning whenever possible, they liked putting the two together and winning big. They liked it when Sylvester Stallone and Arnold Schwarzenegger annihilated whatever needed annihilation, just as they liked it when U.S. armed forces overwhelmed a Caribbean flyspeck called Grenada. For example, he called his normal necktie a "power tie" and his minuscule midday meal a "power lunch.’’ (Trump has never lost that habit: Everything he says - "It’s going to be huuuuuge" "I will be the greatest jobs president" - is bloated with hyperbole.) Eighties Man similarly embraced big sounds. Extremely vocal, he filled the air with exclamations. Unlike '80s Woman, '80s Man did not go in for big fashion instead, he inflated his vocabulary. She wore suits with big padded shoulders, cocktail dresses with wide flouncy hips and, from time to time, a bra with pointed cups that probably deserved a warning label from the Consumer Products Safety Commission.įor his part, '80 Man also had big hair, especially the swoopy, swervy Sydney Opera House-like hairdos favored by Kajagoogoo and Flock of Seagulls (Trump still favors a scaled down Billy Idol version). Eighties Woman wore hers in a permed and heavily Aqua Netted hedge extending 3 or 4 inches from her scalp, or massed haphazardly atop her head like an undertended ficus. Eighties people liked big, especially big hair. Slapping his name on everything he owned, the fast-rising Trump became the archetype of the '80s Man and '80s Woman - brash, arrogant, vulgar, vain and aggressively pleased with themselves.
![flock of seagulls hair trump flock of seagulls hair trump](https://2loud2oldmusicdotcom.files.wordpress.com/2019/09/18jt66.jpg)
With critiques of détente, big government, high taxes and welfare spending, President Reagan delivered a corrective to '70s mushiness.īy 1984, it was morning again in America, and the Great American Id was everywhere, large and in charge. Embassy in Tehran, Soviets occupied Afghanistan and interest rates occupied the 18% mark, the All You Need Is Love era thudded to a stop. When you hear him call people "losers," deride war heroes, stigmatize whole swaths of humanity or shower contempt on his critics, you could be hearing utterances that are freshly minted but whose origins date to the heady, haughty heyday of the '80s.Īs sharply as any decade could, the '80s broke from its predecessor, the '70s, an amiable decade characterized by shag carpeting, shag haircuts, shagging and a gauzy altruism left over from the '60s. Not only was Trump among the outstanding icons of that decade, but perhaps he alone continues to express himself with all that decade’s overweening narcissism. Nonsense, you say the world is crawling with people who remember the 1980s. But remembering is not the same as embodying.
![flock of seagulls hair trump flock of seagulls hair trump](http://d1hekt5vpuuw9b.cloudfront.net/assets/60ff503b764257728e829cd334b44304_combover-300x300_gallery.jpg)
"Yonder walks one of the last great examples of '80s Man."
#FLOCK OF SEAGULLS HAIR TRUMP TV#
Whether you adore him or abhor him, the next time Donald Trump trudges across your TV screen, make your children watch.