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!

Politics of Change

Donald Trump has been trying to portray himself as the candidate of change, but not all change as good change. Simply saying he will smash or change what we now have is not good enough for anyone who is bright enough to pay attention. Does Trump know what is needed? Does he have what it takes to do what needs to be done? He is trying to convince us that his experience as a businessman answers both of those questions in the affirmative. The remarkable thing is that he does this while defending his checkered past by extolling as sound business practices his shameless exploitation of workers, contractors, and others, as well as extolling his use of our bankruptcy laws to stiff his creditors. He does this without apology or conscience. It is almost enough to make Ayn Rand blush, and she is dead.

Saying Donald Trump's campaign is unconventional is being far too polite. His campaign is a Saint Vitus dance best performed in a dim light that softens the appearance of his herky jerky motions. When the light is turned up, as it was in the last debate, everyone can see that in spite of Trump's grotesque contortions he is in serious danger of sliding away on the offensive and boorish words and deeds that litter his playground like banana peels in a monkey cage. At long last even the broadcast news media has finally decided to turn on some light and do some fact checking! This is not good news for Trump, who lies at least 80% of the time.

There is little doubt in my mind that Kellyanne Conwoman, Chris (just ignore the “facts”; the fact checkers have an agenda) Christie, and other Trump apologists had to gird their loins with leak proof underwear before dutifully trying to spin Trump's unspinnable debate performance to news people who were much amused by Trump's alternate reality whirlers trying to convince us that what we saw and heard is not what we saw and heard. The only solace for Trump's spokespeople, if there is any solace for them, stems from the fact that Hillary haters will excuse anything in order to justify voting against her and that the hard core Trump chumps have there heads in such a dark, fact proof place that they actually believe “Trump done good!” So here we have Paul Ryan, forever the Ayan Rand pseudo intellectual, saying he thought Trump “passed a number of thresholds” and showed “he could go toe-to-toe with Hillary Clinton."

But what gives comfort to the gullible does not win over anyone who thinks that facts matter. Other Republican pundits are at least realistic enough to recognize a pratfall when they see one, and they are lamenting the fact that Trump was tripped up by his own racial comments, his absurd birther allegations, and his bogus business dealings. He needs to stay on message, they say. He needs to keep hitting on bad trade deals and tout his ability to be the vessel of change! Everyone wants change!  They may not know what it is, but they want it.

If I were advising Hillary Clinton and Trump continues to portray himself as the vessel of change, I would follow Harry Truman's example. Who is it that has been preventing meaningful change? It is not Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton who have spent all their time trying to deny millions of people health coverage by trying to repeal the Affordable Health Care Act over fifty times. It is not Barack Obama or Hillary Clinton who have twice shut down the government and twice threatened the full and credit of the United States. It is not Hillary Clinton or Barack Obama who refuse to fund infrastructure projects, or who refuse to raise the minimum wage, or who refuse to pass any meaningful legislation at all. It is a Do Nothing More Constructive Than Going On Vacation Republican Congress that has slowed down the recovery and made the status quo quick sand. And, like it or not, that is Trump's party. That is the party he must please.  He can do nothing without them and what they do best is nothing!

One of the reason the Republicans give for not voting for Hillary Clinton is the Supreme Court, which still has a vacancy because of the Republican Party's intransigent hyper-partisanship. It is difficult to imagine that Hillary Clinton could possibly give us a Supreme Court that is worse than the one the Republicans inflicted on us. It was this horrible Republican Supreme Court that gave us Citizens United, gutted the voting rights act, placed a woman's right to choose in peril, and rendered so many despicable decisions giving corporations an unfair advantage over individual citizens. And if you think the Republicans will make the Supreme Court better you better think again; the unconscionable Republican Party is defying all tradition by not even considering a nominee to replace injustice Scalia. The Greedy Old Plutocrats actually want another justice like Scalia because injustice Scalia voted with the right wing majority on most of the Court's worst and most controversial decisions. Furthermore, Donald Trump has said his favorite Justice is Clarence Thomas who is widely regarded to be the most unethical Supreme Court Justice in modern times.

One can only hope that Trump continues to demonstrate how unfit he is to be President!