Are Americans Chumps and Suckers?

The Italian poster for 1973’s The Sting, known in Italy as La Stangata. Paul Newman and Robert Redford starred in this story about two American con men.

If you live in America, you’re more likely to be scammed than the citizens of any other nation.
In 2024 alone, victims reported losses totaling $12.5 billion.
As as we all know, however, most loses are not reported.
We are too embarrassed.

The United Kingdom (the European country that we’re most similar to culturally) is also a big target for fraud.
The U.K. is the “credit card fraud capital of Europe.” 

One ancient type of scam was traveling medicine shows.
This type of con originated in medieval Europe.
200 years later, British patent medicine sellers began selling their products in the American colonies.
After the Revolution, Americans began to sell “home grown” concoctions to their fellow citizens.
The Golden Age of “snake oil salesmen” was between the end of the Civil War and the early 1920s.
Today, telephone scams, and internet scams, have taken the place of the traveling medicine show.

The British poster for 1967’s One Born Every Minute, known in America as The Flim-Flam Man. George C. Scott portrayed rural con artist Mordecai Jones in this film.

I recently read Four White Horses and a Brass Band: True Confessions from the World of Medicine Shows, Pitchmen, Chumps, Suckers, Fixers, and Shills.*
This book is the autobiography of Violet McNeal, an American con woman who was active from 1904 until the early 1920s.
Presenting herself as “Princess Rose Blossom,” Ms. McNeal sold a nerve tonic called “Vital Sparks,” proclaiming it a “virility cure.”
Her mixture was made from melted buckshot candy (small balls of peanut butter, sugar, butter, and chocolate) combined with powdered aloe.
Later, close to the end of her career, she adopted the persona of “Madame Pasteur,” and sold rejuvenation herbs while dressed up in a college cap and gown.
Violet didn’t just sell one product (or service) in her journey as a con woman; she sold many.

An early edition of Four White Horses and a Brass Band, the autobiography of Violet McNeal.

Violet’s autobiography was originally published in 1947.
At that time, Ms. McNeal did a press tour giving lectures around the country on her sad and fascinating adventures.
The back matter of her book presents the reader with two typical grifter scripts, as well as a glossary of pitchmen terms (ie: “ballyhoo,” for entertainment leading to the sales pitch, and “coconuts” for money).
It’s amazing how much the scripts read like current TV ads for beauty products and health foods.

A lobby card for The Lady Eve (1940). In this film, swindlers Jean Harrington (Barbara Stanwyck) and her father Colonel Harrington (Charles Coburn), run a scam on Charles Pike (Henry Fonda), an innocent brewery millionaire and snake scientist.

Ms. McNeal, and her ilk, traveled from town to town, selling chopped grass, “special” soaps, and potions, to rubes and yokels.
Sometimes her fellow grifters dressed in the guise of Quakers, Native Americans, swamis, or (like Violet) Chinese princesses, selling their products.
Wandering thieves like Violet’s first husband (Will Archambault, aka “Tiger Fat Davis”) amassed a large fortune from his scams. All this, despite being a serious cocaine addict.

Will Archambault taught his 16-year-old protege (Violet), that “no one but a sucker ever works.”
He also trained this naive Minnesota farm girl to take opium, enjoy alcohol, desire fine clothes and jewelry, and take advantage of the sexual needs of other men.

A lobby card for Catch Me if You Can (2002). Leonardo DiCaprio played Frank W. Abagnale, a real-life scammer who sometimes impersonated a medical doctor, and conned people out of millions.

In the early 1900s, the American Medical Association became a force to be reckoned with fighting against quackery, and introducing regulation to the selling of remedies.
The AMA was instrumental in the passage of the 1906 Pure Food and Drug Act (the bane of Mr. Archambault and Ms. O’Neal’s existence).

Adding to the scandal of medicine shows, many local government officials were actually in on the grifts.
They charged scammers large fees to sell fake products in their “territories.”
Perhaps, if the pitchmen had annoyed wealthier citizens, police departments would have put them in jail.
Since the victims of scam artists were basically the poorer people, however, pitchmen were seldom punished for their misdeeds.

I suppose that America has always been a “grift magnet” because of the basic materialism baked into our culture.
America may have more religious diversity than any other country.
As French scholars Alexis de Tocqueville and Ernest Duvergier de Hauranne have pointed out, however, America also has an inordinate love of money.
Other factors that turn us into a gullible society are human trust in authority (or what we perceive as authority), love of the exotic, and curiosity about new inventions. 

A book cover for the novel Nightmare Alley, by William Lindsay Gresham. Tyrone Power played Stanton Carlisle (a grifter and swindler) in the 1947 film version of the book.

Some politicians who’ve opposed Trump (like Hillary Clinton and Mitt Romney), have described Donald Trump as a grifter.
Although Donald Trump was once mostly known as a real estate tycoon, he’s used the Trump brand in many other enterprises.
His Trump Shuttle didn’t turn a profit.
His seminar company, Trump University, was shut down in 2005 amid fraud allegations (with Trump paying $25 million to settle).
Trump Steaks was discontinued in 2014.
Trump Foundation was dissolved in 2018, for violating the key requirements of a charitable organization.

Trump showed the world how much he thought of American citizens on Saturday, October 12th, 2024, when the Trump campaign left thousands of elderly Trump supporters stranded, in 93-degree heat, in Coachella (California).
This was not the first time that Trump had shown disrespect for his voters.
Earlier, at a June 10, 2024 Las Vegas event, candidate Trump told his audience: “I don’t care about you. I just want your vote.”
At that single event, six audience members were hospitalized, and 24 more were treated for heat stroke.

A key difference between valid businesses, and shysters, are the products that they sell.
Violet McNeal sold candy to rubes, fooling them that her product would make them virile.
Donald Trump promised that he would improve the wealth and lives of Americans, and make America great again.
All he seems to be doing is aggrandizing himself, making regular Americans poorer, and making himself richer.

*Four White Horses and a Brass Band, by Violet McNeal, was reissued in 2019 by Feral House press.

It’s a Puzzlement

I’ve been trying to figure out since 2016 why Americans would vote for Donald Trump.

In 1966’s The King and I, King Mongkut of Siam (Yul Brynner) is puzzled by teacher Anna Leonowens’ (Deborah Kerr) lessons about Western culture.

As King Mongkut says in the Hammerstein musical: “Is a puzzlement.”
I have a shelf of books on the Trump administration.
I still don’t fully understand why people would vote for Trump, a man who is far from admirable.

There are various reasons why Trump was elected via the electoral college in 2016, and why he actually received more popular votes in 2020, than he did in 2016.
This memorandum is an attempt to explain why people still support him.

One reason why Trump won the electoral college (but lost the popular vote) in 2016, is the old story of rural Republicans having more power in the electoral college than big-city Democrats.
American novelist Barbara Kingsolver discussed—in a 6/12/2023 Guardian article, by Lisa Allardice—how rural people have become so tired of being mocked by city people that they want to blow up the system! 

In 1975’s Crazy Mama, Melba (Cloris Leachman, in red), pretends to hold her mother, Sheba (Ann Southern, in blue) hostage, so they can rob a grocery store.

Melba, Sheba, and Cheryl Stokes (Linda Purl) try to regain the Stokes farm, and fight back against a cruel America in the 1950s.

Wanting to blow up the system, isn’t just a goal of the rural South.
Many Americans are frustrated with news organizations, higher education, and the U.S. government.
These Americans believe that these groups look down on them, and are setting unrealistic standards for how they should behave.
(MAGA people oddly equate those organizations with Leftists and the Democratic party.
That’s a stretch.)
Meanwhile, mediocre CEOs, top tier performers, and sports stars rake in millions, while workers make less in real terms, than we did in the 1970s.
To these angry voters, a vote for Trump isn’t merely a vote for him.
It’s an act of rebellion against an elitist system. 

In posters for the 1960’s comedy Kisses for My President, the husband, and “First Fellow” (Fred MacMurray)—of President Leslie McCloud (Polly Bergen)—wore a demeaning flowery hat.

Another reason for Trump “winning” in 2016, was the fact that Hillary Clinton is female.
Although Clinton did win the popular vote, she won despite some voters not seeing her as “presidential material.”
Some voters may not support President Joe Biden in 2024 because they don’t want Kamala Harris to become President (in case of Biden’s death).
If Nikki Haley were somehow able to become the Republican nominee, would these voters really vote for a Sikh-raised, now Christian, daughter of immigrant parents?
I don’t think so.
The prejudice against women having presidential power is still too deep. 

Some Americans fear more than Feminism.
They’re afraid that their way of life is being threatened.
I suppose that, from their perspectives, the current world doesn’t make sense.
They want to go back to the 1950s, when men were men and women were women, and white Anglo-Saxon Christians were unquestionably at the top of the food chain. 

Donald Trump (himself) gives directions to Kevin McCallister (Macaulay Culkin, left) in 1992’s Home Alone 2: Lost in New York.

Director Chris Columbus says Trump “bullied” his way into the movie; Trump claims he was “begged to appear.”

In 2024, star Macaulay Culkin is one, of many, trying to remove this bit from the film.

A reason why people support Trump—even those who don’t like him personally—is because he’s promised “strong leadership” and maintaining “traditional” values (just as other Republicans have).
Trump doesn’t seem to have any values at all, except keeping himself solvent.
However, that vapidity allows people to maintain the illusion that his fuzzy values, somehow match theirs. 

There’s a culture war going on, and it’s heating up.
Each side considers the other side “mad” and unreasonable.
A few years back, big companies set up Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) departments.
Now, there’s a serious backlash against such departments, and Kentucky governmental officials are trying to outlaw them.
Many thousands of picture books were published on Black heroes, and containing LGBTQ stories.
Now, those books are being banned, along with dictionaries and encyclopedias (hated symbols of knowledge).
“Bad actors” are creating pornographic books, and convincing parents that these fake books are being used as textbooks in grade schools.
(The culture war is getting really ugly!)

I realize that people are tired of “the lesser of two evils” presidential elections, and pretending that previous U.S. Presidents weren’t flawed.
Presidents have made serious nationalistic errors during their administrations*—and distrust of government has been building.
This has resulted in isolationism, and those fears are being used by Trump. 

One factor is that—with so much confusing information available on the web—finding “the facts” has become difficult.
(See my 5/6/2023 memorandum “The Argument Over “Truth.”)
Believe it or not, people are going back to ideas like “the earth is flat,” and a literal belief in the Bible.
People are judging information by the source of the data—its’ side on the cultural divide—and only believing what they want to believe.
(After all, with computer-generated imagery and sound, anything can be faked.)

In 1971’s Fiddler on the Roof, Tevye (Topol) sings about not having to work hard, if he were rich.

Trump—the laziest President in U.S. history—spent 307 days golfing, the highest number for any US President, ever.

Another reason for Trump keeping his “fan base,” is the illusion that he’s a great businessman, and that he’ll run the country well.
Few realize that The Apprentice office was a stage set, and that Trump was a lazy CEO, interested mainly in selling his “brand.”
He was never as skilled at running the Trump Organization as his grandmother (who started Elizabeth Trump and Son), or even his father.
Besides that, the revolving door of Republicans who were fired, or forced out—during his administration—makes it clear that Trump was never a sound President.

Trump is a very “amusing” candidate, and that in itself may be enough to win support.
He mugs for the camera.
He hugs the U.S. flag.
Most of all, he’s conquered his phobia of shaking hands with strangers.
Trump’s rich man belief that he “owns the room” is very attractive to MAGA voters.
While most politicians are boring, part of being a con man is to be an entertainer.

George C. Scott played Mordecai Jones, in 1967’s Flim-Flam Man, known to British audiences as One Born Every Minute.

(N.Y. banker David Hannum said “There’s a sucker born every minute,” about a P.T. Barnum exhibit, but Barnum himself never said it.) 

One chapter in Aja Raden’s nonfiction book, The Truth About Lies, deals with the story of Gregor MacGregor (1786-1845).
MacGregor was a Scottish confidence man, who stole money from rubes—from Britain to Venezuela—for over 40 years.
Raden explains how the more deeply MacGregor’s victims were invested in his lies, the more stubbornly they insisted on believing in him.

I once planned a memorandum on why Trump would be a bad president again.
However, I’ve decided that it’s not worth my time.
Nearly every reason why Trump must not win election in 2024, is out there for all to see and hear.
Many follow him blindly, or (worse still) imagine that he’s somehow better than Joe Biden.
Instead, I’m planning memorandums on why the Republican 2017 tax changes wreaked havoc, why the Trump wall cost as much as $46 million per mile, and why we should all vote in 2024.

*For further information on “bad judgment calls” made by U.S. Presidents, read The Spy Masters: How the CIA Directors Shape History and the Future, by Chris Whipple (Scribner, 2020) and Profusely Illustrated, by Edward Sorel (Alfred A. Knopt, 2021) a memoir that has 172 great illustrations!