[I]t’s not like making easily falsifiable statements would be out of character for Trump. So far in this campaign, he has lied about little things (like Trump steaks) and big things (like his “100 percent” self-funded campaign). He has made untrue statements about what he’s done in the past (like saying he watched “thousands” of American Muslims celebrate 9/11) and about what he’d do in the future (like promising that his tax cut would pay for itself, a claim even conservative policy experts find laughable)….[He] has mocked his opponents as “Lying Ted Cruz” and “Crooked Hillary.”
I try hard not to hate. It’s an ugly, unproductive, destructively corrosive emotion that primarily hurts the hater, and I don’t want the sort of negative energy intruding on my life.
Of course, I’m not about to claim to be bathed in universal peace, love, and understanding. Just as a (not so) very wise man once said that “some people need to be killed,” there are those thoroughly objectionable ambulatory meat sacks amply worthy of opprobrium and disdain. It’s no stretch to admit that Donald Trump is one of those folks at the top of my list.
I’ll own up to it; it’s difficult not to hate a person who generates an almost reflexive desire to vomit. The fact is, the man’s a pig- a racist, sexist, misogynist, homophobic, Islamophobic hater, bully, and thug of the first order. I’m disgusted at the amount of air and face time he’s granted by the media to spew his hatred and self-serving megalomaniacal nonsense. His self-serving, piggish, and horribly insensitive reaction to the massacre in Orlando reveals much about his (pronounced lack of) character…and it ain’t pretty. To say I was disgusted wouldn’t begin to do justice to the revulsion I felt listening to him casting blame and making this tragedy all about him…as he does with virtually everything else.
Trump is the candidate who, according to independent watchdogs like Politifact, has lied most frequently and egregiously. And yet when reporters have tried to hold him accountable for his statements, he’s lashed out at them for their hostility and supposed mendacity — something he did again on Tuesday, when he called one reporter a “sleaze” and said, sarcastically, that yet another was a “beauty.” At one point, Trump said that most reporters “are not good people.” At another, he said “I think the political press is among the most dishonest people that I have ever met, I have to tell you.”
I’m used to Republicans offering up Presidential nominees not exactly ready for prime time and not renowned for competence, integrity, or an understanding of the world or the American middle class. What I find so thoroughly distressing is that this time around, the Republican nominee is a person who PolitiFact has determined to be lying 76% of the time. We could argue the numbers, but not the truth that Donald Trump lies as he breathes…and his supporters love him for it. His base seems not at all concerned that their candidate is almost completely devoid of integrity. To them, he’s “telling it like it is,” or “not taking crap from anyone.” The truth that he’s lying- to them, to the media, to everyone- seems of no concern.
For the sake of comparison, consider what would happen to Hillary Clinton’s prospects if it was revealed that she was lying three out of every four times she opens her mouth. It doesn’t take a Ph.D. in Political Science to understand that her campaign would founder in a heartbeat. For reasons I can’t begin to comprehend, lying only makes Donald Trump stronger.
Combine his epic dishonesty and lack of integrity with a megalomaniacal need to place himself at the center of every conversation…and what you have is a demagogue who believes he has the answer to every question and the solution to every problem. A real leader understands his limitations and isn’t afraid to surround himself with competent, capable people…even intellects superior to his own in some cases. A real leader isn’t threatened by advisors willing to tell him the truth. Trump surrounds himself with “Yes men” who tells him what he wants to hear. His reality is carefully crafted to fit his outsized ego and inflated sense of self-importance.
I don’t hate Donald Trump, but I find myself wanting to vomit whenever he goes off on a topic he clearly knows nothing about…which seems to be pretty much everything these days.
Is it any wonder I find myself fighting the urge to toss my cookies whenever I hear him raging, bragging, and lying about something he really should be ashamed of?
