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In 1968, acclaimed British novelist James Graham “J. G.” Ballard wrote a bizarre short story entitled Why I Want to Fuck Ronald Reagan.  At the time, the late actor and former Governor of California was seeking to secure the candidacy for the Republican (Grand Ole Party or GOP) presidential ticket of the United States.

Amazingly, J.G. Ballard predicted that Reagan would one day become U.S. President solely by virtue of his psychosexual appeal, which was honed by years of acting in Hollywood productions such as 1964’s classic The Killers, directed by Don Siegel. Ballard was a master of dystopian fiction; in his world, humanity is essentially hopeless and eventually gets a logical comeuppance, hence the election and reelection of former President Reagan.

In 1990, Ballard partially explained the logic behind his Reagan prediction:

Reagan was the first politician to exploit the fact that his TV audience would not be listening too closely, if at all, to what he was saying, and indeed might well assume from his manner and presentation that he was saying the exact opposite of the words actually emerging from his mouth. A complete discontinuity existed between Reagan’s manner and body language, on the one hand, and his scarily simplistic far-right message on the other.

Essentially, Ballard argued that media politicians such as Reagan and the present-day presumptive GOP candidate Donald Trump represent the constituency’s capacity to destroy thyself. Ballard passed away in 2009, a few years before the Trump phenomenon came about. Since then, scholars have pondered what Ballard would have said about the strange and decidedly dystopian state of affairs that has been the primary elections in the U.S. to succeed President Barack Obama.

It is clear that Ballard left us too soon, and his departure is only underscored by his prescience, which continues to amaze us. On May 13, the film adaptation of his novel High Rise, starring Tom Hiddleston, premiered in the U.S., and it is currently available to stream on outlets such as Amazon Video, iTunes and Google Play. Ballard’s work has been previously described as “unfilmable,” but his books Crash and High Rise have already been given great screen treatments. It would be nice to see Concrete Island and Cocaine Nights being adapted to film in the near future.

• Author’s Notes: Mr. Britt Nelson is a political columnist special to The Costa Rica Star, and he has been covering the bizarre U.S. primaries. For this article, he has gathered opinions from various individuals, including his own political preference, and that of two of his children, one of whom tragically passed away in Costa Rica from a heroin overdose a year ago.
• It should be noted that Mr. Nelson is contributing his personal opinion as a registered U.S. voter living as an expat in Costa Rica. In no way this should undermine his objective work as a political columnist. Like everyone else, Mr. Nelson knows things and has opinions, but his political columns are reports of events in the campaign trail. If presumptive GOP candidate Trump makes racist statements, Mr. Nelson will report on such statements. If Hillary Clinton grows horns from her forehead, Mr. Nelson will make an observation about such mutation.
• The use of the noun and adjective “American” in this article conforms to the definition in Princeton’s WordNet: (A native or inhabitant of the United States), and the recommendation by the Associated Press Stylebook: (An acceptable description for a citizen of the United States). Natives and inhabitants of North, Central and South America are also Americans.
• I rarely apply a personal narrative in my reports, but I feel that it may apply in this case.
• One more thing: the profanity that appears herein is meant to be illustrative, not gratuitous. We live in Ballardian times, so we might as well get Trumpian, shall we?.

Explaining Trump is Not an Easy Task

Since Ballard is not around to discuss the Trump singularity, it is up to us to discuss. How did Trump happen? I asked Mr. Nelson, who has lived in Jaco Beach for the last six years and is a registered voter in St. Johns County, Florida.

Mr. Nelson does not plan to cast an absentee ballot from Costa Rica, but he will not abstain:

I hope to vote online from Costa Rica. Others do this .I am researching this now for a future column for the Costa Rica Star News. I looked into a group called Democrats Abroad on Facebook, but no Republicans are included. They seemed like crazed Hillary supporters from San Jose. They are way misinformed. My bet is they are a bunch of vegetarians in need of a 4-meat pizza named Trump!

With regards to the above, the U.S. does have a federal overseas voting service, which should be active once the general elections get closer. In the meantime, American readers should check out VoteFromAbroad.org, the easiest and most comprehensive online solution to the complexities of overseas voting. It is provided as a public service, in English and Spanish, by Democrats Abroad for the use of all overseas voters, regardless of party affiliation.

I also asked Mr. Nelson about Republican Senator Marco Rubio, who lowered himself to Trump’s level only to drop out of the primary later:

Marco Rubio always struck me as an immature college kid, fraternity type, who hardly ever went to class and passed with crappy grades. Well, that’s all he’s done in the U.S. Senate. He’s a total slacker. Check his voting record, it is one of the worst. His campaign was a joke and Trump sent him packing along with former Florida Governor Jeb Bush.

Mr. Nelson knows that some U.S. voters who fear a Trump presidency have spoken about escaping to Costa Rica to avoid the regime. A few American expats in Costa Rica would actually move back if Trump is elected. Such is not the case with Mr. Nelson:

I will stay in Costa Rica no matter who wins the USA presidency. I hope Trump wins. He’ll be a lot more fun watching on TV from my favorite beach bar. It’s time to circle the wagons in America and protect the US Constitution from all these minorities… and they are all gunning for it.

Finally, how in the world did Trump happen? Mr. Nelson posits:

Trump has become a political 100-foot high wave because American voters are fed up and angry with the establishment in Washington. Nothing of importance gets done. Year after year: Nothing.

Trump’s popularity is not too hard to understand. The current treatment of our military veterans is disgusting. Illegal immigrants are flooding across the southern border with Mexico. President Obama is letting in 10,000 Syrians without papers by September 30^th, and ISIS murderers coudl be among them. Obama is letting go of Islamic terrorists jailed at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba and closing the facility. Trump will reopen it fast and fill it up with those murderers and throw away the keys. I could go on and on about why Trump is the people’s choice. Sanders, too, is interesting. I like his tuition-free college and free health care plans. He wants what Americans have been paying for and not getting anything in return except broken promises, endless delays and continuing BS for years. Sanders and Trump are a lot alike.

Mr. Nelson was kind enough to get the following opinion from his son Jesse, a 33-year old commercial fisherman who resides in the pristine Ketchikan region of Alaska. Jesse is a long way from his former home of Putnam County in Florida, and he does not exactly share his father’s opinion of the Trump enigma. I had to edit the note below for grammar and style, and I redacted a portion that truly worried me:

I’m a registered Republican who votes Libertarian. I did watch the Libertarian party debates [which included John McAfee!]. I am probably one of 12 Americans who actually did. It was nice to see people who are capable leaders debate about real issues without pulling cheap shots. These men actually give a damn about America and would put this nation on a proper track.

 

I feel anyone who buys into this mainstream bullshit that is American politics is an idiot. Just look at who is running. Americans are as a whole stupid, and our electoral process is proof. But as far as the mainstream [politicians] go, Bernie [Sanders] I feel is the most genuine; i feel he actually cares about the average American. However, I do not feel he would abide to the Constitution.

 

Trump is a racist, he is a sniveling child incapable of handling the citizenry. [Trump] never had a real job; Bernie, however, has been standing up for the common man. Poopie pants (Trump) starred in a fake reality show. He pretty much hates women. He is proven inconsistent in his values from abortion to religion and to his own political affiliations. He is an elitist, and he is part of the problem. All he is [really] good at is selling. What’s scary is that he is selling himself only to further his legacy and only to feed his ego.

 

Trump is a piece of shit. If given the chance… [REDACTED]. As far as [Democratic candidate Hillary] Clinton, I’ll only say this: I’d rather see Trump win. Trump will say anything and promise anything to win, but he will not live up to what he promises. This is what America deserves, we allowed this. The only way to fix our system is to completely destroy it, violently. But that will not happen either. My only solution is to put more distance between myself and the system, move farther away from the dead zone. I refuse to live in the Lower 48 states. America is fucked and if you vote for either side you are to blame.

 

The above is certainly a Ballardian worldview. I have a feeling that if Ballard were alive today, he would probably buy Jesse a large scotch, which the late novelist explained before he passed: alcohol used to provide a large proportion of my calorie intake and my life enhancement, but I’m too old for that now.

Finally, I asked Mr. Nelson about what his sadly departed son Coady would have made of the Trump spectacle. I brought up the fact that it has been a year since the incident, to which Mr. Nelson replied:

Yes, this year has passed quickly. My goodness. Yes I have many memories of talking about news events with Coady. He had opinions…lots of them.

And here it is:

My son, Coady Nelson, died in Jaco Beach, Costa Rica a year ago on June 8 at 26 years old. He died of a drug overdose at the home he shared with me.

 

Looking back, I remember Coady to be political in that he favored the legalization of marijuana nationwide, he was in support of gun laws and the Second Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. Because of his own involvement with the Florida courts and local jails, he also wanted to see changes in the judicial system, especially with regard to court appointed attorneys, sentencing, probation and parole. He also begged for help from local state-supported drug rehab centers and was repeatedly denied because there was no room for him. 

 

After Coady’s beloved mother, Jeni Nelson, died of cancer when he was only 17, his life spun out of control. He spent a total of about 3.5 years locked up in Florida due to drug-related crimes he was convicted of. When he was finally released from jail and the court system he came to live with me, mainly because at the time there were no other choices.

 

It was very hard for Coady to tell me of his horrible experiences while in jail, but he did. My son was raped repeatedly in jail in Putnam County, Florida, by African American inmates — never once by Caucasians or Hispanics.

 

Repeatedly, my son was raped in jail and nobody did anything to stop the continuing abuse. That’s life in jail. He told me jail employees would laugh, snicker and look away. He would weep over the memories and so would I. They called him ‘Chicken Little’ and ‘C Money’ in jail. Yes, he wanted to see changes in how inmates are treated by other inmates and jail staffs.

 

If Coady were alive today my bet is that he would be in favor of both Bernie Sanders and Donald Trump because they both want to bring real change to America and not just lip service from do-nothing-career politicians. No matter what, and no matter how much time goes by, he will always be my wonderful, beautiful son, who in his last months and weeks had accepted our Lord Jesus as his savior and was baptized into Christianity just 15 days before he died. He was looking for a way home to his Mom and he found his way.

 

For the record, and as previously stated by The Costa Rica Star, Mr. Nelson is forever grateful for the chance his son Coady got in our country, and he has personally spoken highly about the gratitude he feels towards the Fuerza Publica officers, the OIJ investigators, and the prosecutors from the Garabito canton, who all felt that Coady deserved a second chance.

If there was an easy answer to the Trump conundrum, J.G. Ballard may have been able to deliver it. Alas, like Coady Nelson, he is no longer with us.