Monday
Here’s a heartening observation for those worried sick about Donald Trump being returned to power. Ryan Teague Beckwith of MSNBC’s newsletter puts the ex-president in the same category as two literary washed-up salesmen, observing, “There’s nothing sadder than an aging salesman trying to close one last deal.”
The salesmen he mentions are Willy Loman of Death of a Salesman and Shelly Levene of Glengarry Glen Ross, and he also throws “poor ol’ Gil“ from The Simpsons into the mix.
The scenes he has in mind are Loman “desperately trying to get that desk job” and Levene “pleading with his office manager for ‘the good leads.’” Beckwith writes that Trump has lately been reaching “new peaks of sweaty salesmanship on the campaign trail as he seeks to turn around a race that he appears to believe he could lose”:
Trump’s campaign has reached the “But wait, there’s more!” phase of the infomercial, as he has recently tossed off promises to abolish taxes on tips, overtime pay and Social Security; make in-vitro fertilization free to patients; cap credit card interest rates; cut car insurance rates and restore the state and local tax deduction in addition to the campaign agenda he already outlined.
Here are passages of Loman and Levene pleading. Loman has just learned that he is being “let go” by his old boss’s son after having given his life to the company. As you read them, imagine Loman and Levene as Trump pleading with an American public that has become weary of his shenanigans and that is beginning to walk out of his rallies:
Willie: I’m talking about your father! There were promises made across this desk! You mustn’t tell me you’ve got people to see — I put thirty-four years into this firm, Howard, and now I can’t pay my insurance! You can’t eat the orange and throw the peel away — a man is not a piece of fruit! (After a pause.) Now pay attention. Your father — in 1928 I had a big year. I averaged a hundred and seventy dollars a week in commissions.
HOWARD (impatiently): Now, Willy, you never averaged…
WILLY (banging his hand on the desk): I averaged a hundred and seventy dollars a week in the year of 1928! And your father came to me — or rather, I was in the office here — it was right over this desk — and he put his hand on my shoulder…
HOWARD (getting up): You’ll have to excuse me, Willy, I gotta see some people. Pull yourself together.
And here’s Levene begging for precious leads on houses in an upscale development. He’s talking to his supervisor in a Chinese restaurant:
LEVENE John…John…John. Okay. John. John. Look: (pause) The Glengarry Highland’s leads, you’re sending Roma out. Fine. He’s a good man. We know what he is. He’s fine. All I’m saying, you look at the board, he’s throwing…wait, wait, wait, he’s throwing them away, he’s throwing the leads away. All that I’m saying, that you’re wasting leads. I don’t want to tell you your job. All that I’m saying, things get set, I know they do, you get a certain mindset… A guy gets a reputation. We know how this…all I’m saying, put a closer on the job. There’s more than one man for the… Put a…wait a second, put a proven man out…and you watch, now wait a second–and you watch your dollar volumes…You start closing them for fifty ‘stead of twenty- five…you put a closer on the…
WILLIAMSON Shelly, you blew the last…
LEVENE No. John. No. Let’s wait, let’s back up here, I did…will you please? Wait a second. Please. I didn’t “blow” them. No. I didn’t “blow” them. No. One kicked out, one I closed…
WILLIAMSON …you didn’t close…
LEVENE …I, if you’d listen to me. Please. I closed the cocksucker. His ex, John, his ex, I didn’t know he was married…he, the judge invalidated the…
The desperation of both men anticipates their demise. Loman commits suicide while Levene is caught stealing the precious leads and faces possible jail time. If Trump’s current desperation turns out to be well-founded, the second prospect awaits him as well.
