Beware the Trump Water Monster

Trump is increasingly scaring everyone, as he is more and more seen as a fearsome monster who has to be stopped.
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Trump is increasingly scaring everyone, as he is more and more seen as a fearsome monster who has to be stopped. For example, in a recent Huffington Post blog, Joe Selden wrote: "I now believe the anti-Trump movement has reached critical mass in the country, and that Trump - even if he is the Republican nominee - will not win the election. And he will have done so much damage to his brand, his party and the country, that he will not be easily forgiven, if forgiven at all."

It is in that spirit that I have been writing a series of articles comparing Trump to the many monsters in mythology who have terrorized many people. But often they have been defeated by a powerful hero, much like a James Bond of ancient times. I previously compared Trump to the dragon St. George fights, to a Chimera, to a Cyclops, and to Medusa.

He might also be compared to the terrifying water monsters that can be found in many cultures - the Kelpie of the Irish, the Charybdis of the Greeks, and the Kraken of Norse mythology. These are all water beasts that have terrorized, captured, and devoured sailors, much like Trump has been terrorizing and destroying anyone who gets in his way, and most recently threatening that there might be violence if he is denied the nomination - though, of course, he isn't to blame if it happens. It will be his devoted minions who carry out his warnings of potential violence, much like the Nazi Stormtroopers tore through the cities of Europe, killing anyone deemed an enemy of the state.

The Kelpie is described by folklorists as a supernatural shape-shifting horse that haunts the rivers of Scotland, which might be especially fitting since Scotland is the scene of one of Trump's battles with the locals over building a golf course. Eventually, he beat down the opposition to build it. As the folktales go, the Kelpie could take many forms and had an insatiable appetite for eating humans. Most commonly it appeared like a beautiful tame horse standing by the riverside, so it appeared as a tempting ride for a tired traveler. But once anyone mounted the horse, they would find themselves in great danger, since the horse would rear and charge headlong into the deepest water and submerge with a noise like thunder, as it took each traveler to a watery grave. Or sometimes the Kelpie would appear like a hairy humanoid who lurked in the vegetation by the river, leapt out to attack passing travelers, and crushed the life out of anyone it grabbed.

Likewise, Trump seems to have a voracious appetite for taking on everybody and anybody, from Megyn Kelly and Marco Rubio, to large organizations like Univision and Fox News. Should anyone dare challenge him, he strikes back through his insulting words or lawyers, as in his effort to discredit Tarla Makaeff, a lead plaintiff in one of three suits against Trump University for fraud. Now she wants out, because she is so exhausted by the process of challenging Trump. Alternatively, like a tame horse, the Trumpie might appear very friendly, though it can turn on a dime, such as Trump's effort to at first praise and then discredit Ben Carson, when he was an opposing candidate, when he likened Carson's "pathological temper" to that of a child molester. But later Trump became the nice Trumpie again, when Carson came forward to endorse him and may even try to be his Vice President.

Yet the Kelpie does have its weak spot - it's Achilles' heel so to speak, although in this case it isn't his heel. Rather, the Kelpie's power of shapeshifting is claimed to come from its bridle, so anyone who could grab and hold onto the bridle could force the Kelpie to submit to their will. And supposedly one Scottish clan, the MacGregors, gained possession of a bridle, after one of their clan members saved himself from a Kelpie. After that they passed the bridle down from generation to generation,

So who can put the bridle on the Trumpie today? It would seem that Ted Cruz, John Kasich, and the Republican Party establishment are certainly trying; and Cruz has stepped up as the one to put on the bridle, as more and more Republican Party members are joining his campaign to defeat the Trumpie, while the media and even the online hacker group Anonymous have come forward to attack him, too. In fact, the Anonymous campaign to shut down Trump's websites sounds a little like a campaign to keep the Trumpie out of the virtual waters where he thrives, much like the MacGregors were able to stop the Kelpie's efforts to find his victims in the river waters, after one of the MacGregors grabbed the bridle and forced the Kelpie to submit to his will.

As for the other water monsters - the Charybdis of Greek mythology and the Kraken of the Norse myths, I'll describe the comparisons to Trump next.

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Gini Graham Scott, PhD, writes frequently about social trends and everyday life. She is the author of over 50 books with major publishers and has published 30 books through her company Changemakers Publishing and Writing. She writes books and proposals for clients and has written and produced over 50 short videos through Changemakers Productions and is a partner in a service that connects writers to publishers, agents, and the film industry. Her latest books are Scammed, Lies and Liars: How and Why Sociopaths Lie and How to Detect and Deal With Them, and The New Middle Ages: How the Growing Inequalities Between Rich and Poor Threaten Our Way of Life.

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