The Thursday after the Tuesday of the American presidential election in 2004 the cover of the London Daily Mirror had a headline over a picture of President George W. Bush saying "How can 59,054,087 people be so DUMB?"
That question was never answered as far as I ever heard.
in view of the unfolding events on the republican side of the impending American presidential election it seems that that question needs to be asked again.
I don’t know whether 59,054,087 is the right number this time, but apparently the number is becoming a bunch.
This time the phenomenon is frightening; last time it was laughable.
The fright comes from the fact that nothing has changed now that Trump has sewed up the nomination.
He is still a mean spirited, lying, possibly tax cheating, xenophobic, misogynistic, and generally uninformedly bigoted clown.
I find no fault with the several million Americans who have voted for him to date: they are all hoppin’ mad and not going to take it any more.
They are trapped – to some extent by their own device – in dead end lives.
They are mainly white men and having a mean spirited, lying, possibly tax cheating, xenophobic, misogynistic, and generally uninformedly bigoted clown be their president seems to them to be a way out of their plight.
Perhaps they see it as a way of getting even with a system in which they don’t feel equipped to win, because they aren’t equipped to win; perhaps they might feel taking the ship down will make for an opportunity to float to the surface in the wreckage to a new life with new opportunity.
Whatever their reasons they have heard Trump – he has been crystal clear from day one – and they like what they have heard and they have voted for him.
I can understand and respect that.
What I can’t understand or respect is that now we are going through the “uniting” phase where all those who said they would vote for Hillary or would not vote at all or who made noises about starting a third party or who made ominous threats about a brokered convention are all lining up and saying “he aint so bad; he never meant any of that mean stuff; he really likes women and some of his best friends are women; he really loves Mexicans – he just had a bad day when he was talking about them; he really believes in freedom of religion – he didn’t mean to purge all Muslims from America; and he has a strong and accurate world view including the necessity for the United States to be a dominant participant in robust world trade; he was kidding about the wall; and he really likes China”.
And so on, and so forth, et cetera, et cetera.
Really?
All those millions of hoppin’ mad white men who have already voted for him are going to be even more hoppin’ mad when they hear that.
Luckily the hoppers can all remain calm.
The mean spirited, lying, possibly tax cheating, xenophobic, misogynistic, and generally uninformedly bigoted clown is the real deal.
No amount of emotion packed close ups of his dewy eyed daughter being interviewed telling us how inaccurate our impressions of him are, no matter how many clownishly sensitive attempts at rapprochement with various women news people he initiates, no matter how many taco tweets he twitters, Trump is still what he has represented himself to be: a mean spirited, lying, possibly tax cheating, xenophobic, misogynistic, and generally uninformedly bigoted clown.
But, "How can (number to be determined later) people be so DUMB?"
Unfortunately, this time that is not a laughable question.
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