I don’t have one complete and
effective answer for the problems of terrorism and gun violence. I don’t
believe adding more guns to the equation will help anyone but the gun makers
and vendors. I believe the recent Supreme Court decision regarding the right to
bear arms was flawed and will eventually be revisited, just as Dredd Scott and
Plessy v. Ferguson were revisited when more rational heads prevailed. I have
friends who own guns and friends who have had their families torn apart by
them. And I can still talk to each and all of these friends. Rational people
have differences that are resolved over time and lots of discussion. And yes,
some painful experience.
Santorum is an idiot and an opportunist
who thinks playing to his core means making outrageous and easily refutable statements.
Perhaps so, since his is a rather fringe core. He’s an idiot and we should not
let him near the Oval, even wearing a visitor’s badge. But he’s not dangerous. Because
as the polls confirm, he’s in no danger of doing much more than providing the
non-journalists running CNN and Fox and MSNBC to post a titillating sidebar.
Trump, on the other hand, is
dangerous. And not because he might ever actually occupy the White House – my faith
in humanity and Americans demands that I believe we’re just not that dumb. I
have to believe he will never get elected because to not believe that would
just be way too depressing.
The thing is, the danger of Trump
is not fourteen months down the road. It is here and now. Trump is damaging the
reputation of the country as I type this. His poll numbers suggest to the world
that somewhere between fifteen and twenty percent (keep in mind, we’re not all
Republicans) of likely voters actually claim to be riding his train to
Insanity. And our beloved media eat his crapola up, not because he has anything
useful – and certainly not anything respectable – to say but because they know
that people really do love a good, public train wreck.
He is hurting us every time he
opens his mouth and those of us who see through him view his supporters as
moronic lemmings while his supporters view us as their ideological enemy. His
spew need not be reasonable, informed or even intelligent. His posturing need
not be respectful and his claims need not be provable. In fact, better for Trump
when he is proven to have trotted out a downright lie. Because he’s maybe the
only person in the country who would be more horrified than would I should he
actually win election.
You see, Donald Trump is not in
this to become President. He doesn’t want to be King, he just wants to be the
kingmaker. In his shriveled little mind, it’s all about being seen and heard
and considered a Big Man; content is not important. So it’s not a problem for
him when he capitalizes on the tragedy and horror in Paris today to make
outrageous political comments. Because the sycophants at CNN and elsewhere gave
him what he sought – a platform and cameras.
Trump doesn’t want to have to deal
with the crushing details of being the Chief Executive and he’s said nothing –
No. Thing. – that would convince any reasonable person that he would have a
doctrine of any kind. Let’s face it, he’s using the wrong parts of speech for a
leader of a great nation. As you know and The Donald apparently does not, ‘great’
and ‘world class’ and ‘excellent’ and ‘fantastic’ are mere adjectives. Actually
planning real proposals for action in the world of adults would require the use of
those more substantial elements, things like nouns and verbs. Complete, actionable
thoughts expressed in coherent sentences. I wish the debate moderators and
reporters and editors and commentators would start asking him ‘How’? Because
then even his erstwhile supports might be compelled to acknowledge that he’s
rather short on answers to that simple question.
Trump hasn’t the sense or goodwill
to be ashamed. But the editors who decided to publish his insane gibberish on a
day that people of goodwill the world over are focused on the suffering in
Paris and Beirut and elsewhere, should be. 
As usual, you are a wise and perceptive man.
ReplyDeleteSo many of the reporters in the last 8 hours seem to have graduated from the Diane Sawyer School of Journalism. Their interview questions of bystanders and victims' families are designed to inflame instead of inform.
The lack of integrity and humanity in using this horrific attack for one's own benefit is almost (or equally) as horrific.