In 2012 during a foreign policy town hall debate between Mitt Romney and President Obama, a moment came where Romney levelled a false accusation against the President. Obama stood up to defend himself and Romney cut him off by saying “you’ll get your chance in a moment, I’m still speaking.” At the time I remember being surprised that such disrespect could be on display between two adults on television running for Leader of the Free World. Charles Pierce from Esquire put it best, “Outside of street protestors, and that Iraqi guy who threw a shoe at George W. Bush, I have never seen a more lucid example of manifest public disrespect… than the hair-curling contempt with which Romney invested those words. (I’ve certainly never seen one from another candidate.) He’s lucky Barack Obama prizes cool over everything else. LBJ would have taken out his heart with a pair of salad tongs and Harry Truman would have bitten off his nose.” Of course that moment was overshadowed later on by the now infamous moment when the moderator Candy Crowley did her job as a journalist and held a public figure accountable to his lies. We know how the election turned out. I also remember thinking that the 2012 election was the absolute worst the already stinking, fetid core of the Republican party could rot. I was wrong.
During last night’s town hall I watched a grown man refer to his opponent as “the Devil” who was filled with “hate in her heart” and promised to lock her in jail without evidence or trial. This of course was after he held a meeting before the press where he invited several women who at one time or another have accused the husband of his opponent of sexual assault, in an attempt to deflect away from his own sexual assault allegations, which he did not deny. The lengths he is willing to go to humiliate women to feel powerful is astounding. This was an exact exchange of words from the debate:
Anderson Cooper: You described kissing women without their consent, grabbing their genitals. That is sexual assault. You bragged that you have sexually assaulted women. Do you understand that?”
Donald Trump: No.
The debate went on for another 90 minutes after that but not a word mattered. The debate was over in that moment. The election was over in that moment. Donald Trump does not understand the law. He does not understand democracy. He does not even understand that his actions and words have consequences. We have all long understood that Trump is not a normal presidential candidate. But last night showed he is not even a normal American, not even a normal human being. And neither are his supporters.
I see so many people who claim to be a “normal” “sane” Republican who can’t fathom voting for that man. Let me assure you that you are in the minority. You have long been in the minority. Hillary was criticized for saying half of Trump’s supporters were a “basket of deplorables” and rightly so because the number is not half. It’s more. It’s the majority. If you are a conservative who claims to not be a racist, misogynist, ignorant bigot you are now the extreme wing of your faction. The fact that you refuse to see that or accept it is offensive to me.
But what offends me the most is not that Trump is an ignorant racist, misogynist douchebag. It is his almost arrogant disrespect for the basic tenets of democracy. He said if he were elected president he would lock Clinton in jail, as we discussed. He has invited his virulently racist and hate fueled supporters to loiter at polling stations and harass voters to ensure constituents do not try and “defraud” the election, a problem that doesn’t exist. Surely this will lead to violence on election day. He has asked the Russian government to hack Clinton’s emails. If Clinton or Obama had said any one of these things during an election they would be removed from the top of the ticket and thrown in jail.
When that tape was released on Friday, Trump’s “apology” wasn’t even an apology. It was a justification based on the situation followed by an attack on a former Commander in Chief. True apologies do not contain attacks. If my mother caught me speaking me about women like that and I apologized in the same way she would disembowel me like LBJ with the salad tongs. We all know Donald Trump is not a politician nor is he fit to be President of the United States of America. But he is not even fit to be a person in America. He is a disgrace and a sad reflection of the times we live in.
The Republican party that chose him was at one time the greatest example of idealism and freedom in the world. A collection of progressive people who saw the need to drag this country kicking and screaming into the future for the betterment of us all. Republicans fought a war to save this country. Two of my five favorite presidents are Republicans. How can a party with as great and noble a history as the Republicans follow a vile piece of filth like Donald Trump? How can a party founded by Abraham Lincoln and led by great men like Teddy Roosevelt and Dwight Eisenhower be reduced to a mashed potato stuffed into people clothes? As an American it astounds me. As a patriot it offends me. Watching the debate made me feel unclean. Watching that man prowl the stage and linger behind her while her back was turned made my skin crawl. This is what our democracy has been reduced to. Our nation was once called a “grand experiment” but now I weep for our glorious Union. The Republican party should be ashamed. America should be ashamed.
PS. All of this is setting aside the fact the fact that the town hall was a fucking disgrace in itself. These IDIOT undecided voters got to ask any questions they wanted and one guy asked the candidates if they would be “devoted to all Americans” if elected. Seriously? Two debates down with one still to go and so far we have had only one question asked about the Supreme Court and absolutely zero questions about the environment while a fucking hurricane is devastating Florida and the Caribbean. And the fact that the audience applauded (APPLAUDED!) Trump when he said he would lock Hillary in jail sickens me. Winston Churchill was absolutely right when he said the single greatest argument against democracy is a 5 minute conversation with the average voter. Thank god for Ken Bone.
