Whenever I hear the word “arraignment,” I always think of the Notorious B.I.G.’s lyrics in “Hypnotize”: “At my arraignment / A note for the plaintiff / Your daughter’s tied up in a Brooklyn basement.” So I already had that in my mind when I saw the news coverage of Donald Trump’s motorcade. To get that song out of my head, I wrote over at Medium about how Donald Trump’s public defiance against his legal troubles echoes the likes of Biggie Smalls and other proud criminal protagonists.
Because Trump is so polarizing, it can be difficult to study and appreciate the way he presents himself. You don’t have to like his politics to understand that he connects with people much differently than most politicians. That’s something worth studying. In a democracy, the people who win are reflections of the electorate, which is all the more reason to look critically, carefully, and dispassionately at Trump’s ongoing significance on the American political landscape.
Jim Eltringham 