Wile E. Coyote or Foxy Fox?

Most people are familiar with Wile E. Coyote and the Road Runner as cartoon characters from Looney Tunes.  In each episode, Wile Coyote attempts to catch that fast-running ground bird, the Roadrunner, but is never successful.  Coyote comes up with all kinds of absurd and complex contraptions to try to catch his prey—and all of them “backfire” with Coyote losing the game.

The term “foxy fox” implies a person who is “cunningly shrewd.”  Erwin Eugen Rommel, the German general and military theorist, was nicknamed the “Desert Fox” during the African campaign in World War II.  

A fox is very adept at concealment and can run with great speed for long periods of time.  A fox has tremendous stamina.  One of the fox’s cleverest hunting techniques is “charming” or “conning” its victim. When it gets close to its prey, the fox will slyly perform some rather weird antics—leaping, jumping, rolling, chasing itself—thus charming the prey’s attention.  Meanwhile the fox is moving closer and closer for the kill.

How do we characterize Donald Trump? Is he a Wile E. Coyote or a foxy fox?  Like the Coyote, he has come up with all kinds of absurd statements and slogans to conn us, but unlike the Coyote, he seems always to avoid the “backfire,” typically by providing an alternative reality.

Perhaps he is more like the fox. He does seem to have a strange, but cunning shrewdness.  His weird antics continue to charm his base.  He has “joked” about the possibility of a third term (in spite the two- term mandated by the Constitution).  He tweeted last weekend: “(do you think the people would demand that I stay longer?…).  In March 2018 he said of the Chinese President:  “He’s now president for life.  President for life.  No, he’s great.  And look, he was able to do that.  I think its great.  Maybe we’ll have to give that a shot someday.”  He said at an event at the White House just a month or so ago: “I was going to joke…and say at least for 10-14 years, but we would cause bedlam if I said that, so we’ll say six.”  I wonder if there might be a “document locked up in a vault in the White House that has a 10-step plan to make Donald Trump president for life.”  Trump’s antics, strange as they may seem, have a purpose—to conn his prey.  Whether he can be characterized as Wile E. Coyote or a foxy fox, yours truly will remain the Roadrunner, creating “backfire” not only for an illegal third term, but a “backfire” to avoid even a  second term.

Another Backyard Wonder....