Rigging Elections

For the second time in two decades the Democratic candidate for President has won the popular vote but lost the election.  How is this possible?  It is because, as Donald Trump has charged, the elections are indeed rigged.  But they are not rigged by the Democrats.  Rather they are rigged by the Republicans through a combination of voter suppression and gerrymandering that has made it all but impossible for Democrats to win in many parts of the country.  They are destroying our democracy. 

Donald Trump - A Clear and Presnt Danger!

Now this nutcase is telling his followers that if he loses the election, it's because it was rigged.  If he loses, and I sincerely hope he does, it's really because he's only been able to fool some of the people all the time.  The rest—like much of the Republican leadership—are all too aware that he is a slimy, lying, self-centered con artist who isn't quite right in the head.  He is by no stretch of the imagination fit to be President. He would be a menace not only to the U.S. but to the whole world.  As I've said before, I just can't understand why something that is so obvious to me isn't obvious to everybody.  What is he trying to do?  Start a revolution?  Whatever it is, it's totally irresponsible and seditious. The man is unhinged.

On Donald Trump

As Leonard Pitts recently said in his column, "the Republicans were right on at least one point: The nation does face a clear and present danger, a menace to our values, our hopes and our future."  That menace isn't Muslims or ISIS or immigrants or Mexicans or any other such threat.  That menace is Donald Trump   The man is a snake oil peddler.  He is immature and emotionally unstable.  He is no more capable of being an effective President than of flapping his wings and flying, though I'm not at all sure he doesn't believe he can do that as well as all the other things he claims. 

During my long lifetime, I've run across enough unscrupulous salesmen to recognize one when I see one.  And all my instincts and experience tell me that my assessment of Donald Trump should echo that of many other commentators.  He is a blatant liar, a loud-mouth, a bully, and a classic cases of narcissistic personality disorder.  How can anyone listen to him for more than a few minutes and actually take him seriously?  Why are these characteristics so glaringly obvious to some of us but not to so many others? 

Trump's only interest in being President is for what it can do for him, not the country.  It is a way of enhancing the Trump brand, which in turn makes him more money.  And that means he has no intention of doing the hard work of governing if he is elected.  Mike Pence would end up being the hardest working vice-president by far.  Which, despite my low opinion of Pence as governor of Indiana, is still a lot better than leaving things in the hands of The Donald. 

But let's just take a look at Trump, based on his own comments.  First, he has no respect whatsoever for the truth.  Fact-checkers are agreed that three-quarters of the claims he makes are simply not true. 

Then there is his boasting.  He understands everything better than anyone else!  So why have so many of his businesses gone bankrupt?  Why have so many of his marriages failed?  Why doesn't he seem to have even a basic understanding of foreign policy?  Or for that matter, of being diplomatic?  Everything is "Me, Me, Me!"  The man is unbelievably self-centered.  We do not need this in a President. 

What does he actually believe?  Who knows?  He says whatever is likely to get him the most attention at the moment.  Unfortunately, that tends to be bigoted, racist, ethnocentric, xenophobic, sexist, or just plain obnoxious.  In general, he shows all the signs of considering himself free from any requirement to behave reasonably or honorably toward others.  He is apparently completely lacking in empathy. 

Let's look for a moment at his repeated labeling of Hillary Clinton as "Crooked Hillary."  Another thing I have learned over the years is that one way to divert people's attention away from one's own questionable behavior is to make an accusation against someone else.  I've also learned not to trust people who are quick to distrust others; it usually means they aren't to be trusted.  So, based on everything I know about both of them, I'd say Trump is almost certainly a far, far, far bigger crook than Hillary.

Perhaps even more worrisome is his total unwillingness to take responsibility for his statements or actions.  He never backs down.  He never apologizes.  He never admits a mistake or that he simply doesn't know the answer to something.  These are not traits we want, or can even tolerate, in a President. 

Someone so insecure and thin skinned is not someone who should be given the reins to almost unlimited power! 

I dislike Ted Cruz (Lying Ted! in Trump's words) intensely, but for once I agree with him.  Donald Trump is not someone deserving of his or anyone else's endorsement.  This Republican candidate is a disaster waiting to happen.  We would be insane to elect him President.

Open Letter to Senator McConnell

Dear Senator McConnell,

I am writing as someone who considers himself a moderate.  Over the years, I have voted for members of both parties based on who seemed to me to be best qualified.  But since the rise of the tea party, I've found it harder and harder to justify voting for any Republican.  Members of the party seem much more interested in making political statements than in doing their jobs.  Your recent decision to refuse to even consider President Obama's nominee for the Supreme Court is just the latest and most egregious example of this.  The President's constitutional responsibility was to make the nomination.  Yours is to carefully and fairly evaluate the nominee.  By not doing so, you are violating your oath of office.  It doesn't matter that it is an election year. You are simply refusing to do your job, a job for which you are being paid by American taxpayers like me, and that isn't acceptable.  I'm sure I speak for many other American voters.  We are not fooled by your claim that it is a matter of principle.  It is clearly a matter of politics.

For our two-party system to work, members of both parties have to be willing to work together to find compromise solutions that don't really please either completely but that will work.  The current Republican absolutist determination to oppose anything Democratic is hurting our country.  It has to stop.  You have the responsibility to set an example for the rest of the country.  At the moment, that example is a bad one.  Donald Trump's success is just one symptom of the result.  If this continues, things are likely to get much worse. 

You were not elected to play politics.  You were elected to do a job for the American people.  I appeal to you to do so.

Dump the Trump

Having lived through the demagoguery of George Wallace, Joe McCarthy, and, worst of all, Adolph Hitler, I know a demagogue when I hear one.  I can remember as a child being frightened when someone even said the name "Hitler."  James Whitcomb Riley once said, "When I see a bird that walks like a duck and swims like a duck and quacks like a duck, I call that bird a duck."  I don't know about the walking and swimming, but Donald Trump definitely quacks like a demagogue.  And he sounds eerily similar to Hitler.  So I find it extremely scary that the latest results show that nearly half of Republicans are rapidly turning into Nazis by swallowing his nonsense.  The rest of the world is watching, and those outside the US definitely are not amused.  He is doing unmitigated harm to this country's reputation.  The crowd of hate-filled ignoramuses supporting him is doing its best to make it embarrassing to be an American.  Once again we are seeing proof of Edmund Burke's famous statement "Those who don't know history are doomed to repeat it."  Must we once again go through what we were subjected to during the Hitler years?  The path Trump is following is a far too familiar one.