Can America Recover?
On taking office following the resignation of Richard Nixon, President Gerald Ford said, “Our long national nightmare is over.”
Different time, different circumstances, but I here invoke the president’s words slightly paraphrased, “Our long national nightmare is almost over.”
The first nightmare was Nixon; the second, Donald Trump. The first, a Quaker from Yorba Linda, CA; the second, a billionaire bully and braggart from Queens, NY.
But the present nightmare ends November 8, when Donald Trump is crushed by Hillary Clinton, who will win with more than 60-percent of the vote and more than 400 Electoral College votes.
In my last column for the Sentinel I wrote that Donald Trump is “evil.” When I saw it in print, I thought maybe I gone a tad far, that calling someone “evil” is serious stuff.
That question was cause for further reflection when a reader emailed to say I had, indeed, gone too far; that he had tolerated my “left-wing” rants long enough and he was done reading me.
I did what I always do, answered politely and respectfully, but then the story broke about the Access Hollywood tapes and I knew I was right – Donald Trump is evil!
When my wife, La Verle, worked in the Washington, DC, bureau of Newsday, the great Long Island newspaper, she was known as “Sweet Spokane.” She is that, most of the time, but Trump has got her ire up – way up.
At first, Trump was known to her as a “horse’s ass.” But as the presidential campaign became increasingly bizarre and brutal, becoming more and more unbelievable, La Verle’s ire also increased; so Trump has been elevated to a higher degree than ”horse’s ass.”Yikes, never thought I would hear that from “Sweet Spokane.”
If Trump were anywhere near a normal human being, he’s not, but if he were, my wife’s reaction should scare the hell out of him politically, because, in her reaction, she’s hardly alone.
If bringing my wife into seems a digression, it’s not, because it underscores the effect Trump has had on politics – everywhere.
Trump is evil and the consequences of his despicable campaign will be felt for years to come – for who knows how many jihadists and extremists his rhetoric has fathered though his inflammatory, insulting, demeaning, degrading, words?
I have oft stated my views on Trump, here and elsewhere, but given that I am a Kennedy/Dukakis Democrat, there is no doubt a conservative readership might just blow me off, as in, “Oh, that’s Mitrovich being Mitrovich.”
Fair enough, but read what two notable and honorable conservatives have said about trump:
Michael Gerson in the Washington Post:
“Trump has made the party a laughingstock among the young, a toxic brand among minorities, an offense to many women, and a source of worry among U.S. allies and alarm among national security professionals. And this was before Trump pronounced himself unshackled from the style-cramping expectations of his establishment Republican captors. The main use of his newfound freedom has been to attack GOP leaders. House Speaker Paul D. Ryan, Republican of Wisconsin, has authored ‘bad budgets.’ In what way? They were ‘very, very bad budgets,’ Trump elucidated. He ‘wouldn’t want to be in a foxhole’ with Sen. John McCain, Republican of Arizona — which, presumably, was the point of Trump’s five Vietnam deferments.”
“Trump’s descent into ideological psychosis is tainting the reputation of all who were foolish enough to associate with him. Consider vice-presidential candidate Mike Pence. Interviewed recently on ‘Face the Nation,’ he defended the Republican nominee’s verbal assault — Trump has called them ‘sick,’ ‘horrible’ and ‘phony’ — on women who accuse Trump of sexual assault. This reaction is justified, Pence said, because of Clinton’s ‘deplorables’ comment.
Here is one of the chief promoters of Christian morality in politics employing the ethical reasoning of nine-year-olds in the schoolyard. Someday Pence (and others) will look back on their shattered standards and ask: For this cause? For this man.”
David Brooks in The New York Times:
“Politics is an effort to make human connection, but Trump seems incapable of that. He is essentially adviser-less, friendless. His campaign team is made up of cold mercenaries at best and Roger Ailes at worst. His party treats him as a stench it can’t yet remove.
“He was a germophobe through most of his life and cut off contact with others, and now I just picture him alone in the middle of the night, tweeting out hatred.
“Trump breaks his own world record for being appalling on a weekly basis, but as the campaign sinks to new low after new low, I find myself experiencing feelings of deep sadness and pity.
“Imagine if you had to go through a single day without sharing kind little moments with strangers and friends.
“Imagine if you had to endure a single week in a hate-filled world, crowded with enemies of your own making, the object of disgust and derision.
“You would be a twisted, tortured shrivel, too, and maybe you’d lash out and try to take cruel revenge on the universe. For Trump this is his whole life.”
Charles Blow of The New York Times, is not a conservative, but an African-American gentleman who has emerged as one of the nation’s finest columnists. In writing about the women who have accused trump of sexual assault, Mr. Blow wrote:
“His response to these charges has been surprisingly — and perhaps, revealingly — callow. He has mocked, whined, chided, bemoaned and belittled. It’s as if the man is on a mission to demonstrate to voters the staggering magnitude of his social vulgarity and emotional ineptitude. He has dispensed with all semblances of wanting to appear presidential and embraced what seems to be most natural to him: acting like a pig.
“Furthermore, everything is rigged against him, from the media to the election itself. He’s threatening to sue The New York Times. He says he and Clinton should take a drug test before the next debate. “These are the ravings of a lunatic.”
And, here is my friend, E.J. Dionne, writing in the Washington Post:
“Donald J. Trump has now driven home, in a way no apologist, enabler or timid analyst can plausibly deny, that he is far too nasty, immature and frighteningly undisciplined to be president.
“This should be a wake-up call to political analysts who have gone out of their way since Trump announced his candidacy to pretend that he was the ingenious creator of a political special sauce who deserved our respect for ‘speaking his mind.’ No, Trump all along has been a clinically self-involved con man who never took the issues, the presidency or the future of our country seriously. Can there be any doubt that his campaign is a branding exercise gone, quite literally, mad?”
Finally, as a person of the Christian faith, I know I do not get to determine who is or isn’t a Christian, but that understood, I must say to my sisters and brothers in the faith, if somehow, someway, you think Donald Trump is fit to be president of the United States, before you vote November 8, you need to spend some quality time in prayer and reflection, and then, if you still think Trump deserves your vote – than God have mercy on your soul.
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George Mitrovich is a San Diego civic leader. He may be reached at gmitro35@gmail.com.
Category: Local News, National News
