Editorial,
The Week in Review – Analysis, Commentary, Opinion
08.13.2016
May You Live in Interesting
Times ~ Ancient Curse
Part One
Interesting times; I am not exactly sure if the times we are living in
are “interesting,” or merely absurd. Absurd is a fitting description for what
is happening in our national life, but if I were to use words like sad or
disturbing, bewildering or troubled, I would also be on good ground.
We are entering in to the final months of the presidential election, and
nominee of the Republican party gets on television every day; standing in front
of crowds, at large rallies, and enters into the most bizarre diatribe I have
ever witnessed in our political life.
Bizarre, troubling, bewildering, disturbing, sad; these words only
describe some of the feelings that I experience when I listen to this person
speak. I do not find him interesting, but every speech he gives tears at the
fabric of public discourse, and is destructive of the conventions every person
must adhere to, if are going to live in a civil society.
Our way of life requires honesty, truth telling, agreement on the meanings
of the simplest of things touching on our shared experience. Donald Trump, the
T-rump, stands up every day and works to destroy those conventions. This week, over
the course of several days, he stood in front of crowds, he got on television;
declaring that our sitting President is the “founder” of the terrorist
organization ISIS, with we are engaged in armed conflict. He stated that his opponent
in the presidential election to be the co-founder of this organization. He
stuck to these claims, repeating them, discussing his rationale (if you could
call it a rationale) for these claims. Many of his allies tried to help him
change this narrative, he refused their help. Several days passed before he
finally succumbed to the public pressure he was facing. Early in the morning he
sent out a message that he didn’t mean it, it was “sarcasm,” and then he
hedged, “mostly sarcasm” he said, “mostly.”
The I didn’t mean it defense
has been used by T-rump, repeatedly. The campaign cycle is littered with his
bizarre exclamations, covered over by his even more bizarre explanations.
Now all politicians lie, bend the truth, spin the narrative, but the
Republican candidate appears to live in a land of make believe, one that is completely
divorced from the truth. He lies about his business acumen, his net worth, his
charitable giving, his banking partners (foreign governments), his aliases, his
manufacturing practices, the taxes he pays, his wife’s immigration records, her
education and credentials, his draft deferments…He lies. He cons. He scams. He
does not pay his bills. He engages in fraud, and this person has a very realistic
chance of becoming the next President of the United States.
