Grate America Again?

Make America Great Again infers a return to something. Judging by a talking points memo addressed to Trump Surrogates Mr. Trump wants to revisit a time when Kenneth Starr greatly exceeded his commission as Special Prosecutor appointed to investigate the alleged Whitewater scandal.  Far from being a time of greatness this is a time that marks a low point in America's political history.

Unable to find any wrongdoing on Bill Clinton's part regarding Whitewater, Mr. Starr deliberately set out to find something, anything for which Bill Clinton could be prosecuted. What Mr. Starr found, of course, was Mr. Clinton's sexual dalliances and the scandals and civil suit resulting therefrom. The insanely partisan Republicans led by Newt Gingrich then used Bill Clinton's alleged perjury in Paula Jones' civil case as grounds for impeachment. Needless to say that the impeachment itself became the biggest scandal, as well it should have. Instead of the issue being one of perjury the pubic accurately concluded that it all came down to sex. The hypocrisy and insufferable sanctimony of the Republicans was too much to bear, and Larry Flynt, the self described smut peddler, offered a million dollar reward to anyone who could prove she had an affair with a member of Congress. Newt Gingrich resigned in disgrace before Mr. Flynt could reveal the information he said he had on Gingrich, and Gingrich's heir apparent as Speaker of the House, Bob Livingston, resigned from the house as a result of an affair exposed by Larry Flynt. "Many other prominent Republican members of Congress [who voted for impeachment] (including Dan Burton[15] of Indiana; Helen Chenoweth[15] of Idaho; and Henry Hyde[15] of Illinois, the chief House manager of Clinton's trial in the Senate) had infidelities exposed around this time ..."

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Oddly enough during the height of the Monica Lewinsky/Paula Jones scandal Bill Clinton's job approval rating was sixty percent. What went down was his reputation for being honest and trustworthy. Not being content with attacking Bill Clinton the Republicans also used Hillary Clinton's understandable defense of her husband to besmirch her character and veracity. This is where Trump comes in because, as the talking points to his surrogates makes perfectly clear, he is now trying to defend his misogyny by tarring Hillary Clinton with the same brush used back then. It does little good to tell Trump that this tactic used against Bill and Hillary Clinton did not work out well for Republicans, or that women object to someone using the husband's infidelities against the wife as much as they object to men using a woman's weight to belittle her!  Nor can you convince Trump that instead of making America Great again this return to a past fraught with sanctimonious hypocrisy will grate on America and anger better than half of its population.  Nothing penetrates Trump's self absorption unless it confirms an image he already accepts.

I was much amused by an intellectually dishonest Trump Surrogate (is there any other kind?) that appeared on MSNBC this morning. Her argument was to deny that Trump does anything that is boorish and/or misogynistic, but that he should stop doing it!