Donald Trump, Trump Loyalists, and The Politics of the (UN)Reasonable

There’s only one thing left for the Republican party to do to restore its credibility with the American people – but will they finally stand up to their own creation?

Whether you love or hate politics, it’s not hard to see why the system is so broken. Politics, politicians, and the entire political process appears to be as credible as a bullshit salesmen at a rodeo. The challenge we face isn’t that we disagree, or what we disagree about, nor even the fact that we don’t talk about our disagreements.   The real problem is that we care so incredibly, inexplicably much about losing and we’re so preoccupied with blaming “the other side” that we would hijack an entire election and risk the safety of our country just because some among us can’t bear to acknowledge that Trump is as vile as we know him to be, too vile to support.

For the last year and some change, we’ve been subjected to regular highly offensive, highly inappropriate, disqualifying statements by the candidate-turned-nominee of the Republican party, Donald J. Trump. (J stands for Jackass).  I won’t characterize them as “gaffes” or “misstatements” as those terms suggest a mistake, or a lack of intent.  These statements and actions by Donald Trump are clearly calculated, intentional statements that affirm his ignorance, his lack of curiosity, his lack of understanding of both foreign and domestic policy, coupled with his blatant racism, prejudice, bigotry, misogyny and hatred for people of color, people of different faiths, immigrants, veterans, the disabled, and of course, women. These are the comments of a low-character, narcissistic demagogue. Let’s recap, shall we. (NOTE: SADLY, this is not an exhaustive list…this is the result of very brief research of Donald Trump quotes, the majority of which were made during his Presidential campaign).

On the Mexican People

• “I will build a great wall – and nobody builds walls better than me, believe me – and I’ll build them very inexpensively. I will build a great, great wall on our southern border, and I will make Mexico pay for that wall. Mark my words.”
• “When Mexico sends its people, they’re not sending the best. They’re not sending you, they’re sending people that have lots of problems and they’re bringing those problems with us. They’re bringing drugs. They’re bring crime. They’re rapists… And some, I assume, are good people.”
• “You haven’t been called, go back to Univision.”
• “That could be a Mexican plane up there — they’re getting ready to attack” 
• “I’m building a wall. It’s an inherent conflict of interest,” referencing U.S. District Judge Gonzalo Curiel, presiding over his Trump University case, whom he described as having “an absolute conflict” in the case because the judge is “of Mexican heritage.”
• “Happy #CincoDeMayo! The best taco bowls are made in Trump Tower Grill. I love Hispanics!”

On Black People

• “Our great African-American President hasn’t exactly had a positive impact on the thugs who are so happily and openly destroying Baltimore.” 
• “I have a great relationship with the blacks. I’ve always had a great relationship with the blacks.”
• “Laziness is a trait in the blacks. … Black guys counting my money! I hate it.”
• “I don’t know what group you’re talking about. You wouldn’t want me to condemn a group that I know nothing about. … If you would send me a list of the groups, I will do research on them and certainly I would disavow them if I thought there was something wrong.” “The Ku Klux Klan?” “You may have groups in there that are totally fine and it would be very unfair. So give me a list of the groups and I’ll let you know.”  ” I’m just talking about David Duke and the Ku Klux Klan here.”   “Honestly, I don’t know David Duke.”

On Muslims

• “Donald J. Trump is calling for a total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States until our country’s representatives can figure out what is going on.”
• “I’d like to hear his wife say something,” in response to criticism from the Muslim father, Khizr Khan of a deceased Army hero.
• Interviewer: “Is there a difference between requiring Muslims to register and Jews in Nazi Germany? Trump:  “You tell me.”

• Interviewer: “Is there a Muslim problem in the world?” Trump: “Absolutely.  Absolutely.  I don’t know of Swedish people knocking down the World Trade Center….There is a Muslim problem absolutely, all you have to do is turn on your television sets.”

On Jewish People

• “The only kind of people I want counting my money are little short guys that wear yarmulkes every day.”

On His Daughter, Ivanka

• “I don’t think Ivanka would do that [pose for Playboy], although she does have a very nice figure. I’ve said if Ivanka weren’t my daughter, perhaps I’d be dating her.”  
• “Yeah, she’s really something, and what a beauty, that one. If I weren’t happily married and, ya know, her father …”
• If she experienced sexual harassment at work, he hoped his daughter would “find another career or find another company.”

On Women

• “All of the women on The Apprentice flirted with me — consciously or unconsciously. That’s to be expected.”
• “You could see there was blood coming out of her eyes, blood coming out of her wherever. In my opinion, she was off base.”
• “The only card [Hillary Clinton] has is the woman’s card. She’s got nothing else to offer and frankly, if Hillary Clinton were a man, I don’t think she’d get 5 percent of the vote. The only thing she’s got going is the woman’s card, and the beautiful thing is, women don’t like her.”
• “A woman who is very flat-chested is very hard to be a 10.”
• “Nice tits, no brains.”
• “All of the men, we’re petrified to speak to women anymore. We may raise our voice. You know what? The women get it better than we do, folks. They get it better than we do. If she didn’t play that card, she has nothing.”
• “Look at that face! Would anyone vote for that? Can you imagine that, the face of our next president?! I mean, (Carly Fiorina’s) a woman, and I’m not supposed to say bad things, but really, folks, come on. Are we serious?”
• “Ariana Huffington is unattractive both inside and out. I fully understand why her former husband left her for a man- he made a good decision.”
• “You know, it really doesn’t matter what they write as long as you’ve got a young and beautiful piece of ass.”
• “I mean, we could say politically correct that look doesn’t matter, but the look obviously matters… like you wouldn’t have your job if you weren’t beautiful.

On LGBTQ people

• “It’s like in golf. A lot of people — I don’t want this to sound trivial — but a lot of people are switching to these really long putters, very unattractive. It’s weird. You see these great players with these really long putters because they can’t sink three-footers anymore. And I hate it. I am a traditionalist. I have so many fabulous friends who happen to be gay, but I am a traditionalist.”

On Veterans

• “(John McCain is) not a war hero…. He’s a war hero because he was captured.  I like people that weren’t captured.”
• Trump in VA receives copy of Purple Heart from a vet: “I always wanted to get the Purple Heart. This was much easier.”

On His Political Opponents, Elizabeth Warren, Women, Native Americans, etc….

• “She’s a woman that’s been very ineffective, other than she’s got a big mouth,” about Sen., Elizabeth Warren. “I don’t know if you’d call it a fraud or not, but she was able to get into various schools because of the fact she applied as a Native American, and [she was] probably able to get other things.  I think she’s as Native American as I am, OK?”
• “You mean Pocahontas?” Also about Elizabeth Warren.
• “If Hillary Clinton can’t satisfy her husband what makes her think she can satisfy America?”
• “Lyin’ Ted Cruz, one of the biggest liars I’ve ever seen in my life…He walks in, bible high, puts it down and then starts lyin!”
• “You know what she said? Shout it out, ’cause I don’t want to. OK, you’re not allowed to say – and I never expect to hear that from you again – she said … he’s a pussy.”
• “Don’t worry about it Little Marco, I will!”
• Jeb Bush: ” I won the lottery when I was born 63 years ago and looked up and saw my mother. My mother is the strongest woman I know.” Trump: “She should be running.

On Disabled People

• “I get called by a guy that can’t buy a pair of pants, I get called names?”
• And this.

On Asian People

• “When these people walk in the room, they don’t say, ‘Oh, hello! How’s the weather? It’s so beautiful outside. Isn’t it lovely? How are the Yankees doing? Oh they’re doing wonderful. Great.’ [Asians] say, ‘We want deal!’”

On Domestic Policy

• “There has to be some form of punishment” when asked about women who have abortions.
• “Justice Ginsburg of the U.S. Supreme Court has embarrassed all by making very dumb political statements about me. Her mind is shot – resign!”
• “We’re losing a lot of people because of the Internet. We have to see Bill Gates and a lot of different people who really understand what’s happening and maybe, in some ways, closing that Internet up in some ways.”
• “The concept of global warming was created by and for the Chinese in order to make U.S. manufacturing non-competitive.”
• “Listen you motherfuckers, we’re going to tax you 25 percent.”
• We’re going to bring businesses back. We’re going to take businesses that were from New Hampshire, and went to Mexico, and bring them back to New Hampshire, and you can tell them to go fuck themselves.”

On Himself

• “My fingers are long and beautiful, as, it has been well documented, are various other parts of my body.”  
• “Look at those hands. Are they small hands? And [Republican candidate Marco Rubio] referred to my hands — if they’re small, something else must be small. I guarantee you there’s no problem, I guarantee.” 
• “I’m speaking with myself, number one, because I have a very good brain and I’ve said a lot of things.”
• “I know words, I have the best words. I have the best, but there is no better word than stupid.” You can say that again, Donald.
• I have “one of the all-time great memories.”
• I have “one of the best memories in the world.”
• “Did I say I have a great memory or one of the best in the world? I don’t remember saying that.   As good as my memory is, I don’t remember that, but I have a good memory.”

On Foreign Policy

• “Appreciate the congrats for being right on radical Islamic terrorism, I don’t want congrats, I want toughness & vigilance. We must be smart!” in the aftermath of the Orlando nightclub shooting.
• “He’s not going into Ukraine, okay, just so you understand. He’s not going to go into Ukraine, all right? You can mark it down. You can put it down. You can take it anywhere you want.”
• “The other thing with the terrorists is you have to take out their families, when you get these terrorists, you have to take out their families.”
• “Isis is making a tremendous amount of money because they have certain oil camps, right? They have certain areas of oil that they took away…They have some in Syria, some in Iraq….I would bomb the shit out of ’em.   I would just bomb those suckers.”
• “Russia, if you’re listening, I hope you’re able to find the 30,000 emails that are missing. I think you will probably be rewarded mightily by our press.”

 On His Own Faith

• “I’m going to treat my religion, which is Christian, with great respect and care.” 
• “I think apologizing’s a great thing, but you have to be wrong. I will absolutely apologize, sometime in the hopefully distant future, if I’m ever wrong.”
• “I’m not sure I have ever asked God’s forgiveness. I don’t bring God into that picture….When I go to church and when I drink my little wine and have my little cracker, I guess that is a form of forgiveness. I do that as often as I can because I feel cleansed.”
• Jesus to me is somebody I can think about for security and confidence. Somebody I can revere in terms of bravery and in terms of courage and, because I consider the Christian religion so important, somebody I can totally rely on in my own mind.
• “We’re going to protect Christianity. I can say that. I don’t have to be politically correct. Two Corinthians, 3:17, that’s the whole ballgame … is that the one you like?”
• “‘The Art of the Deal’ is second to the Bible. … There’s nothing like it, the Bible.”

On President Obama

• “(Obama) doesn’t have a birth certificate. He may have one, but there’s something on that, maybe religion, maybe it says he is a Muslim. I don’t know. Maybe he doesn’t want that.”
• “An ‘extremely credible source’ has called my office and told me that Barack Obama’s birth certificate is a fraud.”
• “I am embracing the issue, and I’m proud of the issue. I think somebody has to embrace it because, frankly, the people that are – and I don’t like the name ‘birther,’ because I think it’s very unfair and I think it’s very derogatory to a lot of very good people that happen to think that there’s a possibility that this man was not born in this country, and by the way, if that were true, you know it’s very interesting, if that were true, it’d be the greatest scam in the history of this country.”
• “A certificate of live birth is not the same thing by any stretch of the imagination as a birth certificate.”

(Whew….that was rough.) 

The thing that many of us keep asking as we stand bewildered by the support Trump continues to get – surely, there has to be a line that he can cross, a line that once he crosses it, people have no choice but to walk away from Trump. Trump has proven (see above) that there is no line he won’t cross.  But is there a line for his supporters?  Is there a line for the leaders of the Republican party?   Even Trump stands in awe of the undying, undeserved loyalty he receives. “I could stand in the middle of 5th avenue and shoot somebody and I wouldn’t lose voters.”  You’re probably right, jackass. 

Aug. 21. 2015 Mobile, AL, Trump supporters at his campaign pep rally in Ladd Peebles Stadium.

If you’re supporting Donald Trump, as nearly half the voting electorate still appears to be doing, then you are now doing so with enough awareness of not only his statements, but the lack of character these statements demonstrate.  Any one of these statements could be disregarded as jokes or sarcasm or entertainment, or perhaps taken out of context, or even blown out of proportion.  But the TOTALITY of these statements serves to paint a clearer and clearer picture of who this person really is, how he views the world, how he views the citizens of this country, how he views you, how he views your daughter, how he views your friends, your neighbors, your colleagues, your classmates, your roommates, those with whom you worship, those with whom you serve, etc.

If you are privileged enough to not count yourself among any of the groups listed above, then congratulations.   Perhaps the stakes really aren’t as high for you in this election.    Chances are, you would be a White American man, (or I suppose you could be from Australia), like the overwhelming majority of the elected officials in the modern Republican party.  Most of them don’t seem to find the stakes very high either.   That, or we are fortunate enough to be represented by the most honorable, principled group of men in the history of mankind.   Because no matter who Trump goes after (see above), no matter how vile and disgusting or offensive he goes after them (see above), no matter how frequently he goes after them (see above), no matter how he continues to not learn the lessons of past “rebukes” and “disavowals” and perfectly timed and released political statements condemning the above, these men have withstood the tests of time and proved their undying loyalty for the good of themselves (*cough*white men *cough*), the good of their party (*cough* mostly white men*cough*), and the good of their country (*cough*well, under Trump, *cough* a return to the country of old, *cough* when white men reigned supreme *cough*).  Does anyone have a lozenge?  Ricola? Anyone?

Herein lies the problem with our party politics, our two-party system, the vitriol of our political rhetoric, the lack of informed decisions of our electorate, the manipulation of our electorate by our politicians and our media, and our lack of decency and civility: 

Politics, under no circumstances, should operate in absolutes.  “No matter what he says, no matter how many times he offends every demographic out there, no matter how ignorant he proves to be about running the country, I absolutely must continue to support him.”

Sounds ridiculous, right?  But for the Republicans who don’t count themselves among the White Aryan Resistance and their contemporaries, this absolutism is exactly what’s being demonstrated.

Party loyalty, you know.   Hillary is just as bad, you know.  The liberal mainstream media, you know.  NObama, you know.  

But this, the politics of un-reason, isn’t new, or exclusive to Trump supporters.  It’s part of the fabric of politics.  But the irrationality of the fringe was just that – fringe.   But now this fringe-level irrationality is the new normal.  Part of the reason Trump is even considered viable is because there was no one shouting him down 8 years ago when he took up the mantle of birtherism, suggesting that President Obama was instead a foreign-born, secret Muslim Manchurian candidate of sorts, part of an elaborate scheme to deceive the American people for some sinister cause.  Yep, it’s all there in the quotes above.  While the rest of the Republican leadership may not have taken up the birther agenda, they certainly allowed it to live and grow throughout our body politic.   That coupled with the rise of an angry Tea Party – who really only cared about fiscal responsibility and government spending, though their signage seemed to suggest they were more concerned with the President and his skin color.   That coupled with the rapid growth of Fox News anchors like Bill O’Reilly, Glenn Beck, Sean Hannity, and other tools of the devil, who regularly preached an anti-Obama, anti-minority, anti-Muslim, anti- gay, anti-intellectualism, anti-science, anti-tolerance, anti-poor people message to a viewership with less education and more emotional vulnerability due to the real challenges they faced.   That coupled with the legitimacy of pre-Trump – Sarah Palin, who was given a platform as a Vice Presidential running mate to John McCain, and told by the party to fall in love with this woman and her “maverick spirit”, who took that love and used it to spread a message of fear among many Republican voters.   All of that coupled with the “establishment” wing of the Republican party, finding their own way to embrace an anti-Obama, shut down the government if we have to, but give this man no victories, agenda.   Look at Mitch McConnell’s statement two years into President Obama’s first term.

AP Photo

“The single most important thing we want to achieve is for President Obama to be a one-term president.”  McConnell could have listed any one of the problems we continue to deal with as a country, but the biggest problem he saw was that President Obama was in charge.  Because he was black, because he was a Democrat, because he wasn’t Ronald Reagan, I don’t know.  But he and the rest of the Republicans were never interested in making the best out of the situation – from the beginning, they framed compromise and bipartisanship as unprincipled and they considered progress to be absolute. In a 2011 Republican primary debate, all eight Republican candidates were asked if they would accept a spending cuts deal, with 10-1 spending cuts to tax hikes.   All eight candidates raised their hand to affirm that if offered such a deal, they would refuse.  Of course, such a deal did not exist, but to say that if given such an opportunity to cut spending, they would still turn it down because it included 91% spending to 9% tax increases, all because they had signed a pledge of absolutism to Republican anti-tax lobbyist and local hobbit, Grover Norquist, is further evidence of just how foolishly far we’ve come.

Whatever happened to statesmanship? What happened to common sense leadership, interested not in party politics, but only in promoting the public good.

Statesmanship has been replaced by a largely unreasonable political class.  But it doesn’t end there.   Even the electorate itself has suffered from the politics of (un)reason.  Just look at how the crowd has responded to what would seem to be a political no-brainer – an issue where we really can all just get along.  At a campaign rally this week, a woman asked Trump about his recent comments criticizing the mother and father of a soldier killed in Iraq.  Surely, we can all agree to support the parents of one of our brave fallen soldiers, right?  The crowd booed her.

The crowd booed the woman. 

The crowd booed the woman who asked about the comments.  They didn’t boo the man who criticized the gold star mother and father, they booed the person who dared question it.

In 2011, we watched as a gay soldier, currently serving overseas, IN UNIFORM, asked the then candidates for President about their support of gay soldiers in the military.  The crowd in the debate hall booed the soldier.

The crowd booed the solider.

The crowd booed the soldier, currently serving his country, those people, the citizens of this country, while in uniform….not for questioning the motives or goals of the war or about the need for U.S. occupancy in a foreign territory, but for merely asking whether he could expect these presidential candidates to support him as a gay man who wants to serve in the military.

I suppose it’s no surprise that our Republican leaders haven’t withdrew their support for Trump; they would likely be vilified for it.   Ted Cruz watched as Trump accused his father of killing JFK, made fun of his wife, mocked Ted’s Christianity, and repeatedly challenged his citizenship.   Ted Cruz did what any sane person would do – he refused to support the person who attacked him and his family, and he told the GOP delegates at the convention to instead do the right thing, and
vote their conscience.

The crowd booed him too. 

So in 2016,  when faced with the prospect of a Hillary Clinton presidency, who has repeatedly said she intends to work with Republicans in Congress, who has praised the need for bipartisan cooperation, who has a proven record of working with Republicans during her time as First Lady and as New York Senator, they instead maintain their loyalty to the guy from the comments above.  Even though we experienced 8 years of a Democrat in office, a black one nonetheless, and the world didn’t stop spinning (though there are some who might dispute that the earth actually ever did spin…because, you know, science), it’s not surprising that these same Republicans feel they must maintain their support of the guy from the comments above. 

But what if these Republicans were to make a political calculation here – not one that would find Hillary Clinton to be a great candidate, or even a good one….but one that find her to be merely an acceptable, reasonable alternative to the prospect of the guy capable of making the comments above.  I wouldn’t ask anyone to abandon their beliefs in conservative ideology and principles, nor to change their party allegiance.  I think what I’m saying is this….

What if we all just agreed to vote for the best person in the running for the job?

If we did, is there any REASONABLE calculation by which Donald Trump would be that person?  The only reasonable measure that would even come close would be the matter of nominating Supreme Court justices.  These are lifetime appointments and the next President will likely name at least one, if not multiple people, to the bench.  But with a Republican-controlled Congress, Leader McConnell can offer the necessary check to any Clinton nominee they find to be wholly unacceptable.  Beyond that, it’s far more likely that a Clinton presidency would involve more willingness to compromise than the Obama administration, and less likely to start a World War or a Civil War or the complete dismantling of the Constitution in the name of banning entire religions and ethnicities. If nothing else, we can assume he will continue to make the comments above, tormenting the groups that face the legitimacy of this type of rhetoric because of Trump’s careless, reckless, or likely, intentional statements.

But as the statements continue, and get worse….(I can’t even type fast enough to keep up with the latest Trump controversy – he apparently just kicked a crying baby out of his rally for interrupting his speech, and also expressed support for the primary challengers of John McCain and Speaker Paul Ryan, two of the people I’m talking about who refuse to withdraw their support from Trump), we are nearing the point where Trump cannot possibly win the Presidency, and instead will be remembered in history as a loser and a fool and a man who tried to leave our country worse than he found it.   But history will also remember those who stood with him, who stood in silence as he denigrated Blacks, Hispanics, Women, Disabled, Muslims, Veterans….AMERICANS!  Those who support Trump will be remembered for the decisions they made in these moments.  For those who refuse to stand up and speak out against Trump, and withdraw any semblance of support from him, they can no longer say that they do anything in the best interest of this country or its people.   There is no longer any measure by which support for Trump can be considered best for the citizens of this country.   For those whom he targets, he seeks to divide and blame and his policies, should he ever be given that power, would have a devastating impact on those Americans.  For those who support him, he makes you worse too, he speaks to your darkest demons, he plays to your worst fears and uses those fears to turn you against your fellow man.   No one will be better for having supported Donald Trump.  

President Obama was right in his remarks earlier today when he said,

“The question I think that {Ryan and McConnell] have to ask themselves: If you are repeatedly having to say in very strong terms that what he has said is unacceptable, why are you still endorsing him? What does this say about your party that this is your standard-bearer? ….There has to be a point at which you say this is not somebody I can support for president of the United States.”

At this point, my optimism in the American elected officials isn’t very high.  But the President is right.  Surely, there is a line.  Surely, there has to be a point when his own supporters will acknowledge him for who he really is, and say enough is enough.  There has to be some line that will make them speak out in the name of actual principle, and say they can’t continue down this path with this person.

There has to be.

There has to be.

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