Some People Want a Petty Tyrant

Several years ago, when my oldest son had just turned four, we drove from our home in Kansas City to Orlando for a family vacation. At the time we had two children under the age of four, and the trip required frequent potty breaks and rest stops. We made one such stop just outside of Nashville at a McDonald’s with a playground. We ordered our lunch and sat outside watching our four-year-old son and two-year-old daughter navigate the playground equipment. Sitting near us was a group of five or six women chatting with each other. It was obvious that the other children on the playground belonged to these women and that this was an organized play-date. As I watched my children play, I noticed that one of the boys on the playground was blocking the entrance to the biggest slide. Like a bouncer at a nightclub, he was letting his friends pass, but was blocking the way for everyone else. This boy appeared to be older than my son, and was noticeably taller and larger. Several times my son attempted to squeeze his way around this child, but each effort was rebuffed. My son, being a pretty good-natured kid, just turned around and played on the other slides and equipment. I could tell, however, that my son was getting frustrated at not being allowed to slide down the big slide.

The gaggle of women sitting next to us could both see and hear this playground tyrant dictating who could enjoy the slide, but said nothing to the child, I suppose because he was letting their children pass. Finally, my son became frustrated enough that he physically pushed past this bully, knocking him on his behind. The bully began to cry and scream for his mother (typical bully response to being challenged). I called my son over to me to talk about what had happened and to try to resolve it without further altercation. Before I could say anything to my son, one of the women sitting next to us told the would be despot, in a saccharin-sweet-southern-drawl, “sweetie, you don’t have to take that from him, if he pushes you, you go ahead and hit him right back.” I was speechless. None of the other women chimed in to tell this woman that it was her son who was the instigator. I looked at the woman with an expression of shock, she returned my gaze with a self-satisfied smirk. I realized that she knew that her kid was a bully, but she didn’t care. In fact, she was encouraging it because he was her little bully.

There is a significant portion of the population that actually like a bully, as long as it’s their bully. Polls indicate that Trump’s supporters don’t really care about his positions on policy (mostly liberal, and sometimes incoherent and impossible to reconcile to one another). Rather, people who support Trump do so because they actually like his caustic personality. They like that he’s a bully and a petty tyrant, because he is their bully and petty tyrant. If Trump were running as a liberal democrat — which, based upon his ideology, would make much more sense — I have no doubt that the “conservatives” who love that Trump “tells it like it is” (not true) and “fights against the establishment,” (a term so vague as to be without meaning) would be screaming bloody-murder about Trump’s politically fatal short-comings.

If Trump were a democrat, republicans would take notice that Trump referred to women as “pieces of ass” and mocked a reporter with a handicap. They would be disgusted at his reference to Megyn Kelly “bleeding out of her wherever,” and recoil at his threats to punch protesters in the face at his rallies. They would be shocked at Trump’s insistence that he would bring back not just waterboarding, but torture far worse (war crimes, freaking war crimes). They would shudder at electing someone who is amoral and proud of it, and who boasts of his sexual conquests of married women and serial adultery. They would see his veiled threats and bombast as evidence of his paper-thin skin, not of his strength. They would scream from the rooftops that he is a narcissistic and perhaps mentally unstable individual, unfit for public office. They would bristle at his insistence that he had to research white supremacist groups — including the KKK — before he would denounce them. They would shake their heads in disgust that his first reaction when someone brings up Planned Parenthood — an unapologetic abortion mill — is to defend all the good work they do. They would find his praise of Putin, and the Chinese government’s response to Tienanmen square disqualifying (last week he re-tweeted a Benito Mussolini twitter account, and has re-tweeted white supremacist accounts on several occasions).

None of Trump’s behavior would be acceptable. Why? Because Trump, the liberal democrat Trump, would be someone else’s bully. But when he’s your bully, well… the anger, the hatred, and the pettiness are justified. Thus, Trump fans laugh at, or shrug off his behavior with the explanation that “at least he fights” (again, not true). That’s the thing about lackeys, they know what the boss is doing is wrong, but they don’t care because they’re the ones with the power. You defend dear leader even if you know that what he is doing is wrong. Trump supporters have pointed out to me that Obama and Hillary are a narcissistic demagogues with thin skin, without seeing the irony of electing a candidate with those same fatal character flaws. This perhaps explains why so many evangelical Christians have voted for Trump despite their values being completely out of sync with his. A sacrifice of principles on the altar of blind anger. Trump is a conman, and Trump supporters believe that they are in on the con. They believe, with heartfelt sincerity, that Trump will do the things that he says he’ll do. This, despite the fact that Trump is a serial liar and manipulator. If abandoning principles and cutting deals with Nancy Pelosi suits Trump you can guarantee that Trump will abandon those principles (this is based upon the fallacy that Trump actually had principles to begin with). But hey, he’s our unprincipled conman, so… ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

I won’t vote for a conman. I held my nose and voted for McCain and Romney despite not agreeing with either of them on a wide variety of issues. Why? Because both of those men were honorable men. I knew that both were guided by core principles and that both were men of character. I was disappointed that the guys I supported in the primary didn’t win, but I voted anyway because the alternative — eight years of Obama — was demonstrably worse. This year the republican party had the opportunity to nominate the most conservative nominee since Reagan. Even Jeb! would have fit this moniker. Instead, republicans have bought in to the long-con that is Trump’s whole life. They’ve chosen a man who not only voted for Obama, but gave money to Pelosi, Reid, and Hillary Clinton. Trump supporters have informed me that he is a businessman who gave money to a lot of politicians to curry political favor, as if that is a valid defense. The Koch Brothers are businessmen too, but you don’t see them cutting a $100,000 check to the Clinton Foundation. Why? Because the Koch Brothers actually believe in libertarian ideas and principles. Trump believes in Trump.

This year could have been the high-water mark for liberal democrats, it could have been the start of a receding tide of liberal policies. Instead, republicans have chosen the candidate who, less than 4 weeks ago, indicated that he thinks the individual mandate in Obamacare is a great idea and has advocated for government funded single-payer healthcare within the past year (he actually praised Scotland’s government run healthcare). They’ve chosen the only candidate whose favorable rating is lower than Hillary Clinton, and who, if the election were held today, would lose in a historic landslide. People seem to think that somehow Trump is going to become more likable the more people see of him. The opposite is true, Trump, despite dominating all other candidates in media coverage by an almost criminal margin, has failed to crack 40% in most state polls. He has consistently under-performed his poll numbers and lost several states in which — according to the polls — he should have won easily.

Further, Trump will not have the war chest necessary to convince people that he’s not a conniving conman with paper-thin skin when the general election begins. Hillary has already locked up the nomination and begun to build the coalition of rich liberal donors that will pour hundreds of millions of dollars into her painting of Donald Trump as a fraud and a grifter who preys on the poor and weak to line his own pockets (mostly true). Trump likes to tout that he’s self-funding his campaign. Even if this is true (it’s a claim that’s dubious at best), how does he compete with what could be a billion dollar war-chest? Trump hasn’t even started to court rich donors and many — including those who donated $200 million to Jeb! — are leary of Trump. Many more would rather not be tainted by associating with him. Usually reliable mega-donors like the Kochs won’t donate to Trump because he is the antithesis of what they believe in, not to mention that Trump has lobbed personal attacks at the Kochs in recent weeks (Trump’s a tactical genius!). Trump may be worth $10 billion as he claims (doubtful), but how much of that is liquid assets he could use to fund a campaign? If it’s all tied up in real estate, not much. Trump will start the general election with a severe financial disadvantage. And, if you believe that the media coverage of Trump has been unfair up this point — it hasn’t — then just wait till they’re actually interested in the cornucopia of skeletons in Trump’s closet. Mob connections? We’ve got em. Prostitution rings? You bet. Defrauding poor uneducated saps out of tens of thousands of dollars? Oh boy! Serial adultery? Ho buddy have we got some stories for you. In depth stories of Trump’s father’s ties to the KKK and Trump’s disdain for Blacks and Hispanics? This is going to be awesome!

Any moral high ground that the GOP could have touted going into the general election is erased with a Trump nomination. It’ll be a blast to see a narcissists with thin skin constantly being asked tough questions about the stupid things he’s both said and done over the last nine months — he seems to handle criticism well. It’ll be great to see a policy ignoramus like Trump finally be challenged to explain his positions — spoiler alert, he’s incapable of doing so. Hillary will largely be given a pass as most of the opposition material against Clinton has been common knowledge for the last eight years. If you’re a republican and you think that the vast majority of independent and moderate voters will flock to Trump because of Benghazi, you haven’t been paying attention. Benghazi has become a punchline. It’s white noise, people just don’t care. If Trump is nominated, Hillary doesn’t have to excite democrats, all she has to do is depress republican turn out, and that is already happening.

There is a significant number of conservatives (myself included) who won’t vote for Trump under any circumstances. All you need to do is to go on Twitter and look at the hundreds of thousands of people who have tweeted on the #NeverTrump hashtag to appreciate the anti-Trump movement. Some have pointed out to me that some people felt this way about Reagan when he won the nomination in 1980. Reagan, however, despite being a reformed democrat, had a 30 year track record of being a principled conservative. Unlike Trump, Reagan was a good and principled man and stood up for conservative values at every opportunity. Trump, on top of his buffoonery, has no such record and his views seem to change depending on what way the wind is blowing. Trump is not, and never has been, a principled conservative. Comparing Trump to Reagan is as ridiculous as comparing Obama to Lincoln (the better comparison is Trump to Nixon — both petty insecure crooks). Trump will fracture the GOP to the point that it may never recover, and may never win a presidential election ever again.

I have been told that I need to take a deep breath and get on board with Trump to stop Hillary. I won’t. People seem to be incapable of comprehending that either choice is unacceptable to me. Their call is for party over principle. I won’t be a part of a movement that decides that Donald Trump speaks to their values and principles. Trump is anathema to the values and principles I believed that I shared with fellow republicans. I don’t believe we share those values anymore. Republicans have chosen a petty conman and would-be tyrant to lead their movement. They can have their Vitchy regime, I choose to wander in the political wilderness rather than put party before principle. I’ll still fight for conservative values but not with the party of Donald Trump. I’ll have no regrets in November when I cast my vote for a third-party candidate. I live in a swing-state and I fully appreciate that this might mean another Clinton presidency. I still refuse to vote for Trump under any circumstances. In some ways his presidency would do more harm to the conservative movement from the inside than Clinton ever could from the outside.

It saddens me that the party of Lincoln and Reagan has chosen suicide. But I guess it’s not Lincoln or Reagan’s party anymore, so perhaps its death is an inevitability. A party without principles is no party at all. If you choose to be led by a petty tyrant with low moral character, you deserve to reap the whirlwind. But hey, they can do what they want to do, it’s not my party anymore. Simply put, I won’t follow a petty bully simply because their is an R next to his name. I don’t know all that much about Trump’s inner circle. I don’t know how he treats his wife, his children, his servants, or his employees in private. I don’t need to see any of those things to know that Trump lacks character. I have seen him treat those around him with contempt, condescension, mocking, and threats of violence. I have seen him make threats and veiled threats of lawsuits and blackmail to those who would disagree with or attack him. I have seen him be crass and ugly in an attempt to be funny and rile up followers. I have read about his exploitation of foreign labor while he lined his pockets. I have seen him lie about almost everything and everyone, even when the truth sounds better and is easily identified. I have seen his constant self-aggrandizement and belittling of others. None of these things are marks of character. Trump is not a person I would hold up to my children as a role model. And he certainly is not a person who I would line up to follow. Trump is a man with low character and virtually unlimited resources, which makes him more dangerous than most bullies. Trump’s nomination will further expose his suspect character and give him license to be even more dangerous and petty than he already is (Nixon!!!! YEAAAAAHHHHH!!!). Such is always the case with bullies. I won’t be a part of a movement that decides that character only matters when it’s the other guy with the dubious character. Character always matters.