TRUMP SUPPORTER: "At this point in 1980, Ronald Reagan was trailing Carter by thirty points."
ME: "Yes, but Ronald Reagan wasn't a pig."
I've had to stop reading the comment sections of various online political sites. I always looked forward to reading the comments, because it told me what people were thinking. I could gauge the mood of the country, shall we say. But now, for every thoughtful opinion, some yahoo has to chime in with a personal attack on someone's wife or some imbecilic double entendre regarding the size of a candidate's hands or other body part.
Gauge the mood of the country? Well, it appears the country is in the mood to hate and it no longer cares who knows it. Trump didn't create the Trumpets; he simply gave them permission to let it all hang out. Trump is "one of their own"; "my kind of guy".
Here are some things that I imagine most people, like me, are concerned about: making a decent living for their family, not being thrown out with the trash at age 65 because they are suddenly homeless due to draining their 401K's just to make it day to day; not getting blown up on the rare occasions when they have enough pocket change to visit the mall. Stuff like that.
Here is what Donald Trump is concerned about:
"Look at my hands. They're fine...My hands are normal hands. During a debate, he was losing, and he said, "Oh, he has small hands and therefore, you know what that means...and what happened is I was on line shaking hands with supporters, and one of (sic) supporters got up and he said, 'Mr. Trump, you have strong hands. You have good-sized hands'...My hands are normal. Slightly large, actually. In fact, I buy a slightly smaller than large glove, okay." Source
So glad we cleared that up! Mind if I use those lines, Donald, when my boss presents me with my yearly three per cent "merit" raise, and I need to ask for more money? That'll wow 'em.
Ronald Reagan campaign speech, September 1, 1980:
Through this “Golden
Door,” under the gaze of that “Mother of Exiles,” have come millions of men and
women, who first stepped foot on American soil right there, on Ellis Island, so close to the Statue of Liberty.
These families came here
to work. They came to build. Others came
to America in different ways, from other lands, under different, often
harrowing conditions, but this place symbolizes what they all managed to build,
no matter where they came from or how they came or how much they suffered.
They helped to build
that magnificent city across the river.
They spread across the land building other cities and towns and
incredibly productive farms.
They came to make America work.
They didn’t ask what this country could do for them but what they could
do to make this refuge the greatest home of freedom in history.
They brought with them
courage, ambition and the values of family, neighborhood, work, peace and
freedom. They came from different lands but they shared the same values, the
same dream.
Today a President of the
United
States
would have us believe that dream is over or at least in need of change.
Jimmy Carter’s
Administration tells us that the descendants of those who sacrificed to start
again in this land of freedom may have to abandon the dream that drew their
ancestors to a new life in a new land.
The Carter record is a
litany of despair, of broken promises, of sacred trusts abandoned and
forgotten.
Let it show on the
record that when the American people cried out for economic help, Jimmy Carter
took refuge behind a dictionary. Well if
it’s a definition he wants, I’ll give him one.
A recession is when your neighbor loses his job. A depression is when you lose yours. Recovery is when Jimmy Carter loses his.
I have talked with
unemployed workers all across this country.
I have heard their views on what Jimmy Carter has done to them and their
families.
They aren’t interested
in semantic quibbles. They are out of
work and they know who put them out of work. And they know the difference
between a recession and a depression.
Let Mr. Carter go to
their homes, look their children in the eye and argue with them that in is
“only” a recession that put dad or mom out of work.
Let him go to the
unemployment lines and lecture those workers who have been betrayed on what is
the proper definition for their widespread economic misery.
Human tragedy, human
misery, the crushing of the human spirit.
They do not need defining--they need action.
And it is action, in the
form of jobs, lower taxes, and an expanded economy that -- as President -- I
intend to provide.
Source
Donald Trump campaign speech, February 24, 2016:
Every time I see him. It's hard for me to turn down money because that's what I've done in my whole life, I grab and grab and grab. You know I get greedy I want money, money. I'll tell you what we're going to do, right? We get greedy right? Now we're going to get greedy for the United States we're going to grab and grab and grab. We're going to bring in so much money and so much everything. We're going to make America great again, folks, I'm telling you folks we're going to make America great again.
So this was very exciting tonight. But I'll tell you it looks like we won by a lot evangelicals. … It's been amazing, the relationship. So we won the evangelicals. We won with young. We won with old. We won with highly educated. We won with poorly educated. I love the poorly educated.
Source
Sorry, what was that about Reagan and Trump again? I mean, c'mon! Twins separated by birth!
It's almost like:
And while we're rooting around in the mud -- and you know me -- I'm no Cruz fan; but as far as I can tell, the Cruz campaign had no part in the Facebook posting of Trump's wife's photo -- you know, the one she gladly posed for, naked, in GQ, when it was financially and I guess, professionally, advantageous to do so. I am perplexed as to why, now, Trump and the Trumpets are mad about it. And why Trump would threaten to "spill the beans" about Mrs. Cruz's depression. Ever been depressed? It's pretty life-shattering. Oh, I suppose not as life-shattering as having a nude photo appear years later when your husband has, on a lark, decided to run for president, but it's not as if some pervert was snapping pictures through the bedroom window. You posed for it!
And don't even get me started on the lackey apologists. The political squawkers have lost sight of not only their principles, but their skinny thread of morality. On Bret's expanded panel last night, when this topic naturally arose, I listened to George Will and I listened to A.B. Stoddard and I listened to Charles Krauthammer; and I said to my husband, just wait 'til they get to Laura Ingraham.
She did not disappoint.
"Immigration!" she yelped. "Trade!"
Disgusting.
There was a moment not so long ago when I almost felt sympathy for DT (not the DT's, but I guess one could be driven to that). It was when the Chicago squirrels decided they'd make a name for themselves by protesting...something...they weren't sure what...and trying to provoke on-camera mayhem. I felt bad for approximately a day. But then I got a load of DT's supporters itching to punch someone and a couple of them actually giving in to their bitter impulses. Winning! Their moms must be so proud!
Yea, hate. Hate is what I'm seeing, from my "establishment" vantage point. I wonder how these people function in their everyday lives. Sure, every day when I go to work, there are at least two or three people I'd love to punch, but decorum (and financial necessity) dictates that I act like a civilized human. And I don't exactly want to live in a world of hate. I'd actually like to feel some joy.
We had so much going for us as conservatives -- so much promise. We had a sure winner -- I won't belabor the point; it's far too late now, but we did. We had one. Sadly, much like me, I guess, he was too "establishment". Too competent. We don't want competence, dammit! Competence is for losers! And liars. Lyin' liars! We want somebody who's as coarse as our most debased instincts. Yea! Damn straight! That'll teach 'em!
We're doomed.
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