So the amazing inevitable has happened and the Republican voters over-ruled the Republican
Party and nominated Donald Trump to be the Republican candidate for president
of the United States. Whew!
First, some
good things about this.
2016 has
been the year that an overlooked and forgotten minority has raised its voice in
a crude shout – what about us?!?. The
theme “Make America Great Again” speaks to the lives of these people. For many people, America is NOT great. For many people, the America they believed in
is gone and they are scared and angry.
These folks are the aging, white middle and lower middle classes who
have lost their jobs and their lives to globalization, de-industrialization,
and the Great Recession. Trump blamed immigrants, Bernie blamed Wall Street,
and both messages attracted a lot of votes.
Trump’s was more successful than Bernie’s and Trump won his
nomination.
I forgot
where I read it, but someone noted that Trump respects his voters. He “respects” them by paying attention to them, by not criticizing the way they talk or behave, by being overtly “politically
incorrect” (largely racist and misogynist), by speaking as crudely and simply as
possible in a language that attracts and arouses the dispossessed. He speaks for them and they think the will
help them. ?? Why they think he will help them is never
illuminated, it is enough just to be a vessel for their outraged voices of
protest.
The second
good thing to come from the Trump triumph is the shattering of the obsolete,
rigid, unworkable conservative ideologies that the purists have enforced upon
the Republican Party ever since Reagan had been turned into to a demi-god. The Republican field has a plethora of true
believer dogmatists running and they all got creamed. The fundamentalist Christian social
conservatives, the Libertarians, the budget scolds – all got creamed. The Republican
voters are not loyal to the ossified ideologies, they could care less, and they proved it in 2016.
Now for some
bad things about a Trump candidacy.
He is a
child. He has no impulse control. He continually says “he has no choice” when
he attacks someone who he feels has wronged him. I do not want a Commander in Chief with nukes
at his disposal to be someone who thinks “he has no choice” if his manhood is
challenged.
ISIS wants
the United States to be drawn into their attempt to establish a Middle Eastern Caliphate,
and Trump is the most likely to rise to the bait. ISIS, and al Qaeda, and the rest of the
extremists, know that the way to explode recruitment for their fanatical
religious cause is to have the West, and especially the U.S. attack them. Then, real hell breaks out.
He is not
only ignorant, but he has no desire to become informed. He has a delusional ego based notion that he
can walk into a situation and intuitively and instantaneously and miraculously
find the genius solution to any problem.
This is pathologically delusional, I am afraid. And unbelievably dangerous for us all.
He is
unconstitutional. One of the things he
is remarkably uninformed about is the Constitution and the nature of the
Federal Government. He thinks he can
change libel laws so he can imprison media that are critical of him. That is a
violation of the First Amendment. He
thinks he can keep Muslims out of the country based upon their religious
beliefs. Another violation of the first
amendment. He has promised to torture
prisoners - an actual promise to be a war criminal. And he has no idea how bad these ideas are,
he just sees himself as bravely uttering common sense “politically incorrect”
declarations. Astonishing.
Worst of
all, he doesn’t understand democracy. He
promises to imprison his political opponent, Hillary Clinton. That is not how democracies work. The heart of democracy is peaceful transfer
of power. His more rabid followers call
for her death by firing squad or hanging – and he doesn’t slap them down. Hard to believe.
Donald
Trump is campaigning as a tough guy, an authoritarian. It is natural for a
country frightened of terrorists to turn to authoritarian rule. He might be authoritarian, but I am pretty
sure he would also be stupid. He has already disavowed our alliance with NATO,
and he has supported a nuclear Japan and South Korea. America First (says Trump, his rabid
followers, and the pro-Nazi movement of the 1930s). His lack of knowledge leads him to remarkably bad ideas. And he thinks this makes him brave rather than tragically wrong.
It would be
hard for me to imagine that he would use the power of the military in anything
resembling a judicious, thoughtful, way.
Donald Trump
is a danger to the United States and to the world. The voters who are attracted to him, those
who have been left behind in a country that no longer has jobs for them,
deserve someone much, much better than him to give them the respect and dignity
that they need.
They have chosen a pretender.
They have chosen a pretender.
