Donald Trump, Really!?

OK, if you haven’t seen this breathtaking take on Sarah Palin endorsing Donald Trump from The Late Show (Colbert), you must.  I don’t laugh aloud like I used to, but this made my face hurt.

DT and SP.  Now THAT would be a ticket!  Scary, but loads of fun.  In a scary way.  

Trump himself doesn’t scare me.  There are always freaky, self-absorbed, narcissistic nut jobs.  There are always politicians who will say anything to get elected including fear mongering, Islamophobic, bullying, know-it-alls.  There have always been misogynistic, philandering, creepy, power-mad, lying, exploitive, simple, disgusting, weirdoes out there.  It takes all kinds to make this wacky world go ‘round.  I accept that.

What frightens me is that he… is… somehow… popular?!  LOTS of people in America not only don’t find him objectionable, they would actually vote for him to be the leader of the free world.  Make America Great Again?  It would be funny if it weren’t so terrifying.  Trump himself is a laughable buffoon, but to think that he could actually get the Republican nomination is like a poorly written comedic movie script.  

Only it isn’t funny. 

It’s scary.  

Because many people think he would Make America Great Again.

No, the spooky thing is that many people (although I don’t think I know any) say they would actually go to the polls and vote for him.  This despite uncountable ridiculous statements, any one of which could have eliminated him from the race if he’d said them four years ago. "I could stand in the middle of 5th Avenue and shoot somebody and I wouldn't lose voters," Trump said at a campaign rally yesterday. (http://www.cnn.com/2016/01/23/politics/donald-trump-shoot-somebody-support/)

Here are a few, just a few, other absurd notions right out of his mouth…

“An ‘extremely credible source’ has called my office and told me that Barack Obama’s birth certificate is a fraud"

“You know, it really doesn’t matter what the media write as long as you’ve got a young, and beautiful, piece of ass.” 

 “I will build a great wall – and nobody builds walls better than me, believe me – and I’ll build them very inexpensively. I will build a great, great wall on our southern border, and I will make Mexico pay for that wall. Mark my words.” 

“When Mexico sends its people, they’re not sending the best. They’re not sending you, they’re sending people that have lots of problems and they’re bringing those problems with us. They’re bringing drugs. They’re bringing crime. They’re rapists… And some, I assume, are good people.” 

“Our great African-American President hasn’t exactly had a positive impact on the thugs who are so happily and openly destroying Baltimore.” 

“The beauty of me is that I’m very rich.” 

“It’s freezing and snowing in New York – we need global warming!” 

“I’ve said if Ivanka weren’t my daughter, perhaps I’d be dating her.” 

“My fingers are long and beautiful, as, it has been well documented, are various other parts of my body.” 

"The point is, you can never be too greedy." 

"My IQ is one of the highest — and you all know it! Please don't feel so stupid or insecure; it's not your fault."

 

Hi IQ?  While almost everything he says in his shoot-from-the-hip campaign speech style is outrageous and laughable, the way he says them prove – if there were any doubt – that he is no rocket scientist.  I heard one of his campaign people say the other day that one of the reasons people adore him is because he is NOT nuanced, NOT politically correct.  They love his HONESTY and his INTEGRITY.  Right.

On Saturday, the Columbia, SC newspaper The State, wrote a piece that included an analysis of an hour-long speech he gave in Hilton Head last week.  Here is Donald J. Trump in his own words…  

And, you know, we’ve been a little bit — we had to respond to Hillary. She came out with that — she came out — remember, she wrote — she said, “He’s got a — he’s demonstrated a penchant” — I demonstrated — “a penchant for sexism.”

Can you believe it? Me? Nobody respects women more than Donald Trump. That I can tell you…

So, we have to do it. You can’t let people push you around. You can’t let people tell lies. You can’t do it.

Note: The Pulitzer Prize-winning website Politifact gave the Trump campaign its 2015 “liar of the year” for misstatements ranging from claiming to have seen “thousands and thousands” of New Jersey Muslims celebrating when the World Trade Center came down, to claiming the Mexican government channels criminals to the United States to a tweet that suggested most homicides of whites are committed by blacks.

And they said all of these people that are going to come in new, that never vote — they never vote, they don’t care — they’re going to mostly — I’ll tell you what, they’re going to vote for Trump.

That’s why they’re coming in, because they’re so fed up with the system — this corrupt, horrible system. They’re fed up with it and they’re fed up with those guys back there, the media.

They are the worst.

No, no, no. They’re fed up. They’re fed up with the media. I mean, I’ve got — and you know, not all bad, but there’s so much dishonesty in the media. And I like to call it out.

Note: Dishonesty!? Really?  “POT/KETTLE”

Our leaders are stupid and — and/or — you have to say and/or they have deals, because what’s happened is all of this money is being given to them by special interests, by all of these people, including lobbyists, and these lobbyists make our leaders do — our leaders, can you believe our leaders?

But I go home (after a debate), and I watch, and the pundits will say — and they can’t totally kill me, because we know it is happening, we know what’s happening — well, Mr. Trump was OK tonight. He was — I won every single online poll, I won.

Isn’t that nice? That’s a very — every once in a while, somebody can say something that hits you. Where are you? Who said that? Wow. So nice. Thank you. That is a nice one. That’s like, you know, every once in a while, there is a statement that is either nice or brutal. I think low-energy was a brutal statement, right? [Referring to a statement he made about Jeb Bush.]

If we have Hillary — I’ve got to tell you. I just saw where for the last week she’s been hitting me really hard with the women card, OK? Really hard. And I had to say OK, that’s enough, that’s enough. And we did a strong number. She’s not going to win. Any by the way, I love the concept — I love, love, love having a woman president. Can’t be her. She’s horrible. She’s horrible.

And you know really don’t — I’ll tell you who does not like — yeah, we’ll get Ivanka. Good. Let’s do Ivanka.

I’m number one by a lot and I spent no money. I mean, my plane cost me some money, but I spent no ads. Took a little radio ad in Iowa. But I didn’t do that — I took — I think the station is so lovely if you want to know the truth. But I spent essentially no money.

But I hear where they don’t want me to use hair spray, they want me to use the pump because the other one which I really like better than going bing, bing, bing —

(Crowd laughter)

—   and then it comes out in big globs, right, and you — it’s stuck in your hair and you say oh my God, I’ve got to take a shower again. My hair’s all screwed up, right?

            If I had a third grader who spoke like this, I’d ask for the intervention team.  And yet somehow, his self-proclaimed brilliance has caught on in a dangerous way.  And while he is funny to listen to, to laugh at, I don’t know that I have ever been so uneasy about the future of the United States.  

And when I started this journey, and it is a journey, and I do love you people. You’re amazing people. And by the way, you are so smart.