The Apprentice Effect

You may or may not know this but I produced over thirty episodes of the original show including most memorably the first episode, the lemonade stand.

I was the show producer – director in the field for the women’s team and shepherded episodes 1, 5, 9 & 13 through post-production, watching hundreds of hours of “tape.”

I got good at reading subtle cues following super smart business people around as they tested their book smarts on the streets of New York.

The first boardroom was over six hours. I transcribed the whole thing in my hotel room from VHS tapes. It was grueling. I know for a fact, I am the only producer who did this since following this, we got them transcribed. I didn’t sleep between shooting, writing up intensely detailed notes from eight cameras, conducting interviews to cover anyone getting fired (unlike the bachelor or survivor where they have an inkling because of how the cast reveals it to the producers) because, ultimately, the beauty (and incredibly risky endeavor) of the show was that Trump could fire who he wanted. He listened to varying points of view but we had to be prepared for anything and stay one step ahead of the psychology of the individual to tell some kind of cohesive story that had three required elements: it must be fair and authentic; it must make sense; and it must decifer a business thesis principle that would be proven by the final decision on who deserved to go the most.

What does this mean over the course of the next 134 hours and 23 minutes until the day of reckoning? It means be prepared for the worst, work for the best. Most importantly, stay alive.
When asked what a Trump supporter believes, I took a stab at a summary statement based on my observations and background.

These are some thoughts to consider before you write in your candidate:

The apprentice effect

1) that he means what he says;

2) that he will get corruption out of politics because he’s a “straight shooter”;

3) that he is the mega-successful mogul portrayed on “The Apprentice,” rather than in debt to banks in China;

4) that he will make them rich like him;

5) that he will fix health care, lower taxes and national debt;

6) that he is not a career politician;

7) that he is not Obama who delivered us Isis and enabled banks, did everything he claimed he was against;

8) they believe what slogans they are fed because they are angry at the corruption and self-serving profiteering that both parties have enjoyed for far too long;

9) they are ashamed of Clinton’s propensity for scandal, we are a nation of puritans when it comes to our mythology – we want to believe they are hearing us but ultimately Donald probably doesn’t know what he’s getting into.

The system is broken, the status quo is a “coup of corruption” turned into game of thrones without the cute dragons.

It has been said we are two countries – and indeed that is true. But we’ve been coopted to think the differences are between us, when the real widening divide is between us and people who think they are above the law, say one thing but do another, pathologically lie about whatever is expedient while avoiding any true specifics or accountability when it’s pointed out that their plan will actually hurt us more. On both teams.

I could explain the thinking but it’s pointless because no one cares. They’ve been manipulated into emotional and visceral reaction – voting against instead of voting for- thanks to a system that supports the inept (doesn’t understand classified information) and blatantly disingenuous (absolute bluster and fabrication in service of ego and bizarre twists to show how “of the people” you are), which they buy like tobacco-flavored crack.
A system so full of corruption and deceit that no one knows what will happen in a week. These polarizing and ultimately destructive to us as a nation need to stop promoting the fantasies. Capitalism and endless growth are mythological beliefs that will bring us to war because war creates jobs and evetyone from China to Russia to Venezuela to Lebanon wants to kick our cocky hypocritical asses (it didn’t just start in the last 8 years and no one president is to blame, but the whole lot of them and congress too).
Get ready. Plant your garden. Stay true to your beliefs.

“The greatest [calamity] which could befall [us would be] submission to a government of unlimited powers.”

–Thomas Jefferson: Declaration and Protest of Virginia, 1825. ME 17:445