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!
No comments:
Post a Comment