So this has been an exciting week of watching President Trump shoot himself repeatedly in the foot; he must be using a semi-automatic at this point. And I wondered for the umpteenth time: How did this over-privileged and inexperienced geriatric actually make it into the White House?

To this day the effects of this seminal decision on the part of the Electoral College are undermining democratic optimism as far away as Tanzania.

Whereas before we wide-eyed enthusiasts could get away with advocating better governance through the ballot, the post-Trumpian world is a much darker place. Now we generally come off as loons.

You would think that America has provided the much-needed cautionary tale that would cause ever more people to question the detrimental effects of embracing patriarchy. But humans are weird and if Trump has taught me anything it is not to discount the power of imagination in politics.

Trump is a wonderful caricature of the American Dream. He’s a “self-made man,” a very wealthy man whose name is writ large on solid items like buildings. Wealth, fame and power: The trifecta and he’s got it. And he sold it hard to voters who apparently wanted change so bad that they choose not to look into too much detail about the man.

Turns out the reality is unpleasant: His inexperience and character seem poised to explode his presidency before he even hits the one-year mark.

We’re much more forgiving, of course, in our African politics. In Tanzania, we have elected an authoritarian who has made no effort to hide his belief in a patriarchal approach to leadership. We had alternatives to the typical Old Man model that made themselves available and through their political debates some have acquitted themselves well.

But they were never going to capture the political imagination of the majority because they weren’t what we think we want. Which is, embarrassingly enough, a Daddy.

There is a Tanzanian Dream, you know. It involves the pursuit of a decent income and a “middle-class” life with prospects for raising of a healthy family that will achieve even more prosperity than oneself.

It involves moving away from rural hardship or at least turning land into a sustainable livelihood – and being secure in your land ownership. Decent access to healthcare and education, maybe some electricity, potable water. Oh, and liberties, we like those. In a nutshell, all of the advantages of a healthy economy and effective development under the warm blanket of a Daddy-figure to guarantee security.

I am not going to call my president a caricature of the Tanzanian Dream so much as a strong manifestation of it, which is great. The part that isn’t so great is the part where he takes the patriarchal aspect seriously. There is an irony in there: Government has to be one of the most complex, participatory projects there is out there. Trump is finding out the hard way that unilateral decisions of the advice-adverse type come with consequences.

I have a feeling that with the state of the Tanzanian economy, my autocratic head of state may face some challenges too, and sooner rather than later. The joke is on the voters – we’re the ones who vote in people who end up undermining the Dream they are supposedly in service of.

Maybe that is what is meant by the idea of “political maturity.” The trick, for the voters, is to be able to recognise the qualities of leadership most likely to deliver for them the environment in which to pursue their Dream realistically.

I am hoping that I belong to the first generation of Tanzanians who won’t carry over the Daddy issues of our predecessors so that we don’t mistake the “embodiment” of our ambitions as someone who can actually deliver. It could be a woman that we need, or a youth, in fact just about anyone except an old autocrat who is best placed to play Daddy, as it were. That’s one of the lessons I am choosing to take from President Trump: These old men, it’s okay to avoid them.

Elsie Eyakuze is an independent consultant and blogger for The Mikocheni Report. E-mail: [email protected]