A little artwork I did last weekend to illustrate the Donald effect. Thanks to Time magazine for the meltdown headshot.
I find it ironic that 8 years of Republican hatred toward Barack Obama (and even longer toward the Clinton’s) has resulted in the nomination of the wholly unfit Donald Trump, who is succeeding in destroying the Republican brand AND putting Hillary Clinton in the White House.
I get some of the frustration. The remnants of what we used to call the middle class have watched their jobs go overseas and to robots, they’ve seen the obscene accumulation of wealth at the very top of our American economic pyramid, and they’ve seen their impotent government doing nothing about it. They’ve also seen the rise of radical Islamic terrorism (I said it!), and they’ve been told by Fox News that it’s the black guys (and now of course Hillary’s) fault. Hey, Rudy “9/11!” Giuliani recently said there were no Islamic terrorist attacks until Obama became president! Is it in this alternate realty that you support Mr. Trump?
So now we have Donald Trump who has promised to “Make America (White?) Great Again” by building a wall, deporting 12 million brown people, and not allowing other brown people into the country who don’t worship the right god. I’m surprised he’s not proposing shipping all African Americans back to their continent, but given his ambivalence toward David Duke, maybe that’s in the long-term plan. Anyway, for my friends that support the Donald, I’m disappointed that the support of your candidate by a white supremacist and Trump’s tacit acceptance of it wasn’t enough for you to rethink your candidate. So as a public service, here are a few more reasons for you to reject Trump… What about:
- His Attack on ex-Vietnam POW, Senator John McCain, in spite of…
- His dodging of the draft during Vietnam
- His mocking New York Times reporter Serge Kovaleski for a disability
- His shallow judgment of women (Carly Fiorina, Heidi Cruz, Megyn Kelly)
- His racist attack on an American Judge of Mexican descent, Judge Curiel
- His tendency to encourage violence (“Nominate me or there could be riots.”)
- His conspiracy theory mindset (Ted Cruz’ father involved in JFK assassination, birtherism, election rigged)
- His admiration of dictators like Vladimir Putin
- His six bankruptcies
- His three divorces
- His refusal to release his tax returns
- His re-tweeting a white supremacist meme of the Star of David
- His support of torture like waterboarding and killing terrorist’s families
- His tendency toward knee-jerk, angry reaction to any perceived slight
I’m sure there are more, but damn, for those of you supporting the Donald, when will your love of country finally trump your Fox-fueled hatred of Hillary Clinton so that this man is denied the power he seeks? I know none of this will change your minds, but I had to try.
There seems to be three types of Trump supporters: 1) Scapegoaters 2) Hillary Haters 3) Conservative Republican Hopers
1) the scapegoaters want to blame the “others” for their lack of success. This type of behavior has been used for centuries. During the depression it was used to descriminate vs immigrants, Jews and other groups. This time around it is immigrants, minorities and Muslims. The bottom line is when a group of people are not as successful as they think they should be they look for someone to blame. Probably they should look in the mirror first.
2) Hillary Haters are the group that are so blinded by their hatred for Hillary and will believe any possible atrocity about her that the like Trump because he is NOT Hillary. It is entirely irrational and they say things like “Hillary should be hung for treason” or “Hillary for Prison”. When you say “for what?” they don’t really have an answer.
3) Conservative Republican Hopers. I have heard a lot of Fox commentators and other conservatives who talk about how Trump is going to return the Presidency to constitutional principles. They are confusing Trump with all the other candidates who ran for the GOP nomination. Trump doesn’t cherish constitutional principals or even know what they are. When asked about the fact that the Constitution would bar the US from blocking people coming to the US because of their religion, his response was the Constitution was a great document, but some parts are outdated and it doesn’t require us to commit subside. Can you imagine Ted Cruz, Rand Paul or Marco Rubio saying the Constitution is only a set of guidelines? Trump is not a constitutional conservative, but because some of his supporters are they just assume or want to believe he is, too.
The reality is that Trump is a carnival barker that is focused on formenting fear and division to win an election to an office he doesn’t want to hold.
I believe the majority of the America people will see him for what he is and reject him and what he stands for, but we will see if fear or hope wins on Nov 8.