Grumpy Old Country Parson on one current Political Candidate

The NYT predicts a very close presidential election, too close to guess who will win. It is shamefully humiliating when the United States of America has as one of its principle candidates a man with the morals of Caligula and the political acumen of Nero. His campaign speeches whine about being cheated out of the last election and hounded by law enforcement.  He demeans and defames former friends and allies and any other public voice he fears (he is a fearful man).  He  remembers times that never were, promises what he can’t deliver, and pontificates on what he clearly doesn’t understand.

How on earth can a man convicted of sexual assault, libel, and corporate fraud be thought trustworthy of national leadership?  How can a man who defrauded students with his fake university, and worthy causes with his self serving foundation be trusted to address the needs of the people. How can a man who has abused and vilified every person of color be trusted to represent all Americans without prejudice?  How can a man awaiting trial on 91 felony counts and capable of fomenting an insurrection be trusted to uphold and defend the Constitution?  How can a man who kept and hid top secret files, promiscuously sharing them with others, be trusted to be Commander in Chief?  How can a man whose previous term as president was marked by chaos, cuddling with dictators, self aggrandizement, economic malingering, and wholesale destruction of America’s standing in the world be trusted not too do it again?

Were that not enough, he is a man whose life record is one of duplicity, betrayal, cheating, lying, and mob-boss like intimidation.  He is the sort of person very few would want as a coworker, next door neighbor or in-law.   Yet here he is leading a national political party and its likely nominee for an election political pundits say is too close to guess at the outcome.  How can that be?

He is an old man with the personality of a middle school bully.  Street smart in many ways, he is ignorant of even basic knowledge about domestic and world affairs, history, and lacking any sense of common decency. And yet, there he is.

A significant portion of the voting public believes this man likes them, is like them, is on their side, and will protect their interests. Like the veteran huckster he is, he has said the right things to keep them believing in him while he holds them in contempt, uses them to enrich himself, and has no interest in protecting anyone or anything other than his own self image.  In a truly bizarre moment in American political history, he is up against a primary challenge from a popular member of his party who is admirably qualified in every way but has only the slimmest chance to become the nominee.  She would not be my choice for president, but in her own way she would have the best interests of the nation at heart. 

Perhaps that’s beside the point.  What bothers me is that the nation has come to this point at all.  How can so many people be so thoroughly misled by such an amoral huckster who only wants to be boss of bosses and stay out of jail. 

He is backed by a few dozen men smarter and more calculating than he together with a few dozen more in Congress who appear to want to make the U.S.A into an authoritarian Hungarian style neo-fascist state.  Does a voting majority of Americans really want to abandon all pretense of following our hard fought way of constitutional republican democracy? What about life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness? What about government of the people, by the people, for the people? I am a man of deep faith and hope, and have some hope and a little faith that the American voting public will wake up and not destroy the nation by chasing after his vanity and their illusions.

© Steven E. Woolley