Dear America,
A couple of months ago, Donald Trump boldly stated that he could walk down 5th Avenue in New York and shoot someone and not lose a single vote. Perhaps that is true, because if the last of his contretemps isn't enough to disqualify him in the minds of his supporters, nothing he can do in America will. Trump is the beneficiary of the political largess of David Duke, a long time southern politician who started out as the grand wizard of his local klavern of the Ku Klux Klan. He never ascended to office as far as I can recall, but I believe he ran for one or another more than once. He is a confirmed racist, and he is unabashed about it. So, when Trump was asked whether he disavowed the endorsement of David Duke, he said that he didn't know who Duke was and that he didn't disavow people without knowing something about them. At that point, Duke's Klan credentials were pointed out to Trump and he was asked again if he would reject Duke's support, to which he again said he didn't know enough about him. Unfortunately for Trump and his malleable concept of the truth, he had disavowed Duke's support just the day before, demonstrating that either he was lying when he told Jake Tapper of CNN on the air that he didn't know who Duke was, or he disavowed the support of someone he knew nothing about just the day before. But even with his bare, orange face hanging out, he tried to excuse himself, which is his wont. He claimed that he had been given a faulty earpiece for the Tapper interview, and he could barely hear what Tapper was asking. Of course, if you watch the interview, which you can do online, it is clear that Trump is hearing every word in light of the coherence of his responses to Tapper's direct questions...three of the...about the Duke endorsement. One of his answers was that he didn't even know who Duke was, though as it turns out, he had declined to partake of a third party run for office fifteen years ago by citing the membership of Duke in the party that wanted to nominate him.
If you go to New York City and look at the Trump Tower, you see a pretty accurate representation of Trump's values. The Ozymandian edifice is nothing but Trump's self-aggrandizement, like the statue of Ramses II for which the poem was named, what with the Trump name emblazoned on the front in gold letters taller than the man himself. And if you can find footage of the premises inside, you will see ostentation that Trump wants to believe to be opulence, but that is so blatant and tasteless that it makes clear how hollow Trump's character really is. And that lack of substance is further demonstrated by his willingness to rely on lame excuses for every misstep he takes, such as the earpiece in the Duke matter, rather than apologizing and admitting his mistake. When he didn't like the questions he was asked by Megan Kelly, for whom I frankly have little use myself, he made only thinly veiled reference to her menses as the explanation for what seemed unreason to him, and then he attempted to defuse the flap the remark caused by claiming that his remark about bleeding didn't refer to any particular part of Kelly's body. When he told the world that he thought that Carly Fiorina's face disqualified her for anyone's vote, he attempted to mask his contempt for Fiorina's appearance by claiming that he actually thought she was beautiful and that his remark about her face had been misunderstood--a preposterous effort at self-redemption given how explicit his remark had been. And now this Duke thing.
If Trump were a racist--and he may be for all I know--that might limit his potential, but because we have freedom of speech and thought here, it wouldn't disqualify him for the presidency. Racism is not a high crime or misdemeanor. If he weren't a racist, but just wanted the support of every racist he could get to vote for him by pandering to them, that wouldn't disqualify him either. Pandering to a particular group isn't impeachable either. If it were, every president would have stood trial in The Senate at some point in his presidency. But lying...that's another matter. Lying to the American people may not be impeachable per se, but lying under oath is. It wasn't the lying that got Bill Clinton impeached, it was partisanship and the oath he took before he lied one time...at his deposition. The moral turpitude that was at the heart of it all wasn't enough by itself, and Trump's turpitude isn't either. But he is a crass opportunist, and he'll say anything to get what he wants, and think he is being clever by doing so. Trump isn't immoral. He's amoral, and that is what disqualifies him for the presidency. I concede that amorality isn't a high crime or misdemeanor, but it would certainly lead to one, just like the Nixon Watergate tapes did. Trump is what used to be called a sharper, and though that by itself wouldn't get him caught, he is proud of what he is, and he's a braggart in the bargain. He couldn't help touting his successful gulling of someone, some time, and that would be his undoing, just as his attempts to excuse himself for his odious opportunism should.
I don't think Trump could get elected president, but I didn't think he could get the nomination for the presidency of the Republican Party either, and that certainly looks like what is going to happen now. If all but one of his opponents dropped out immediately, the ineluctability of his ascendance might be mitigated. But Cruz, Rubio, Kasick and Carson are all running out of personal ambition rather than a desire to serve, so none of them is going to go away any time soon, and soon might even be too late, so it looks like Trump in November. Our only hope is that the American people see what Trump is underneath it all, but frankly, Trump's supporters just don't seem inclined to look, and that makes me worry.
Your friend,
Mike
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