This is book one in a series of four on emotional intelligence. By the end of this book, we’ll be able to understand and navigate the effect of cultural discord, media bias, and narcissism within our nation.

The Make America Great Again (MAGA) culture and ideology has been with us far before the election of President Donald Trump in 2016. For many non-Trump supporters, seeing the sheer volume of citizens rally around him from all corners of this country was a rude awakening to the cultural disconnects within the USA. MAGA is now pollical movement that cannot be trivialized or dismissed. It is a force, and it is here to stay.

Our media’s role in our country’s political discord has been in existence for generations, as well. Social and mainstream media’s motivations to be biased are stronger than ever with a growing list of entities vying for consumer’s attention. Thusly, our media is almost forced to feed into our biases to keep us entertained, no matter where we align on the political spectrum. Do we, as citizens, with individual responsibilities to elect officials within our democracy seek entertainment over raw information? Our history will show us the path we have chosen.

Narcissism: The third stream to flow into the confluence of this national river. As seen in the forewords, narcissism can have a profound effect on a multitude levels of society such as: family life, business environments, and social relationships. What is a narcissist, and does Donald Trump fit that title? Could an opportunistic narcissist exacerbate the issues we already had within our country? Or would a narcissist merely shed light on the reality we already had?

My attempts to put a decades-long association with an emotional manipulator into my rearview mirror were constantly interrupted weekly, sometimes daily, by the behavior, actions and reactions of President Donald Trump. It was downright creepy how much Trump’s reactions to certain situations would be just like the reactions I would expect from the narcissist I knew (shoutout to Joseph Burgo).

Those creepy personality coincidences were not an accident. Doing the research, narcissism has a defined set of traits that seem to be replicated by every narcissist we all collectively run across. Lies, gaslighting, triangulation, lack of accountability are common terms and traits of this disorder. Some of these terms I had heard of, but most I hadn’t. We’ll use EQ to identify and understand the actions, reactions and motives of narcissists.

Mathematically, if we add narcissism to our long-standing appetite to be entertained and then multiply that by our cultural distrust, can emotional intelligence balance that equation? If it cannot, we may remain the Divided States of America.

Emotional intelligence gives us tools to reach out, listen, and comprehend those with strong emotional ties to viewpoints different than ours. It can also give us the ability to not be emotionally affected by entities like our media which seek to keep us fixated in order to appease their sponsors.

However, wading into the deep waters of our differing political or media ideologies is not for lite swimmers. Topics like these usually bring out the worst in us when we even attempt to broach the subject. But these topics matter. So, let’s give it a shot.

Here’s to all the people who have suffered through emotional manipulators. Here’s to all those counseling individuals who are still struggling from narcissistic abuse. Here’s to all the citizens feeling frustrated regarding the emotional manipulation by our media. Here’s to all the folks who want to find a civil way to discuss our political differences. We’re all in this together. I hope we become the country we’re supposed to be.

Cheers.