On one of the last evenings on our very recent cruise I sat at dinner with a well-dressed, quietly spoken, American who never uttered a word unless addressed directly. Strangely his wife, at the other end of the table, openly revealed that they were divorced, lived apart but travelled together. Getting your head around that mix will conjure up all manner of strange thoughts.
Peter Carr
But putting aside their non-matrimonial personal arrangements my early discussion revealed that he was 81 and lived in West Palm Beach, Florida. Several years ago, I visited a family friend there (who had previously worked at Waikato Hospital) and I was given the grand tour of Palm Beach. Essentially it is a strip of land on a semi-island that protects an inland waterway. Many houses (including where I stayed) have their own boat berth at the foot of the garden. It’s an overall aura of sickening abundance of wealth.
In an earlier opinion piece, I mentioned that many Americans on the cruise were distancing themselves from the Stars & Stripes (even claiming to be Canadians), So I launched into a discussion regarding the source of this national alienation. Trump.
My newfound friend – at least that is how he appeared to me at that introductory point – looked me in the eye and very quietly told me two key things. Firstly, that he lived in West Palm Beach. Second that he had been, for 20 years, a member at Mar-a-Lago. Naturally the small amount of common sense that remains in me sounded a warning light that perhaps trouncing Trump was not going to lengthen the conversation with my new dining companion. So, sensibly for once, I changed course and we discussed more mutually beneficial matters but still danced around the edge of the current international, mainly financial, crisis.
Woman holding banner. Photo: Rosemary Ketchum, pexels.com
His key point was this. He did not like the manner by which the US president was going about setting the good ship USA on a proper and straighter course. But he made it abundantly clear that those who voted for him should not complain – for he is carrying out the current changes running through a list that he made abundantly clear prior the election.
Mar-a-Lago (‘Sea to Lake’) was opened in 1927 on 20 acres of waterside property. It is a highly exclusive club which was purchased by Trump 40 years ago and (hugely expensive) membership there gives reciprocal rights at 19 Trump-owned golf clubs. It is built in a Hispanic -Moroccan style some of which will bring tears to old boys of Auckland Grammar. Mr and Mrs Trump have used it as their principal home for many years, and it is five minutes’ drive to the President’s favourite golf club.
So, if you are a struggling, lowly paid, car manufacturing line-dominated employee in the Rust Belt , how do you ever think that ‘your’ president is going to get a hands-on feel for your personal situation when your key man rushes every weekend to his gilt-laden beachside, pool-enwrapped paradise with its 20,000 square foot ballroom? I’m not sure that the acronym MAGA could not be put to more practical uses.
Aerial View of a Sandy Beach in Florida. Photo: Chris the Island, pexels.com
