I live in Connecticut, and hence, I generally see nothing of the campaigns of the presidential candidates, because the last time this state went Republican in a presidential election was in 1988 when George H.W. Bush beat the Democrat, Michael Dukakis. You may remember the key moments in that election's publicity. There was the Willie Horton ad run by Bush, which made reference to Horton's release from prison on a weekend furlough, despite the fact that he was convicted of murder and was serving life without the possibility of parole. He didn't return from his furlough and committed rape, murder and robbery before he was caught. Dukakis had supported the program, though it existed when he took office, and the decision to give a weekend furlough to Horton had nothing to do with Dukakis, then governor of Massachusetts. The other prominent moment was Dukakis riding in a military tank with his head sticking out of the turret as he sported a tank commander's hard helmet that dwarfed his face. He looked ridiculous, and as to the Horton ad, he barely made a response. And in a presumable effort to take the high road, he did not respond in kind either. So much for ethical behavior in presidential politics.
The reason I bring up the Bush/Dukakis election is fear that the outcome of this election may reflect that one...and for the same reasons. At the moment, I have no fear that Trump will beat Clinton in this state, but with almost two months to go, that's far from certainty because the characters of the two candidates are somewhat reminiscent of that former contest. Trump will say anything, and while much of what he says gets reviewed for accuracy these days, as with the Horton ad in 1988, intellectual honesty is not the coin of the realm these days. In this election, people seem prone to believing what they want to believe without much regard for what is true, much less accurate--there is a difference--and because Hillary is somewhat hapless in her decision making when it comes to her personal candor, Trump has donned something of a mantle of candor himself by simple dint of invidious comparison. It started with all that finessing of his own boorishness with fulminations about political correctness, which became a blanket excuse for ignorance, bigotry and outright fabrication and prevarication. His supporters, who may not be a "bucket of deplorables," to coin one of Hillary Clinton's more innocuous contretemps, are eager enough to pillory her that they will seize on anything without question, and Trump is either too stupid or too ethically malleable to eschew canards and calumnies. So, all this roiling of the waters over Clinton's emails tends to exclude the reality that it did not harm...at least none that anyone has ever produced any evidence of...and her campaign's failure to promptly inform the public about her recent bout of pneumonia is being ginned up into another scandal: much ado about nothing in my estimation, but not in that of Trump supporters.
Of course, nothing can be done about Trump's noisome assertions and innuendos, or even his outright lies. He claimed that a black minister in North Carolina had deliberately undermined him with her congregation when in reality, she actually admonished the parishioners to desist when they became somewhat raucous over Trump's descent into opponent-bashing. He had been invited only to explain his positions relative to the interests of the African-American community. Somehow her intervention on his behalf...her insistence on decorum in the church became nervousness and preordained antipathy in Trump's mind when he was asked about the uproar after the fact, but I guaranty that his advocates ignored the evidence to the contrary that was aired immediately after Trump's self-serving characterization of the pastor and the events. Those supporters of Trump who are disinterested in the realities won't be swayed. But all the while, the independents are listening and hearing very little from Hillary Clinton, or at least that's the way it seems here in Connecticut. And it isn't because Clinton has nothing to work with.
Trump's business practices--and they are relevant because he vaunts his success as a credential for the presidency--have left him with many enemies...victims in most cases. There are contractors who didn't get paid for work done on Trump's casinos when he declared his various and sundry bankruptcies. There is the fact that he is actually a somewhat minor figure in New York real estate though he touts his influence in that business as if he invented it. There is the fact that, like George W. Bush, his money came from the previous generation, both men's progenitors being moguls who endowed them with their financial seeds. There is Trump's lack of constancy as evinced by his three marriages and of course, there is his refusal to disclose information about his finances, which are at the core of his braggadocio.
Maybe Clinton will be unleashed by the national audience that the debates will create in a few days...at least I hope so. But she had better not wait any longer than that. The ghost of Willie Horton is rattling around, and that isn't good.
Your friend,
Mike
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