This from Charles Blow, in the New York Times. Please follow link to original.
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There
are only a handful of days until Election Day and an end to this phase
of a nation’s — and the world’s — ebb and flow of anxiety. The day after
the votes are cast and counted that anxiety will either dissipate or
become a fixed feature. Which of these it will be is very much in flux.
While Hillary Clinton still maintains a lead in the polls and a built-in advantage
on the electoral map, recent polls suggest that Donald Trump is closing
the gap. There are now plausible — however improbable — electoral map
routes to victory for him.
I
leave it to others to make predictions about how all this will play
out, but I feel that I must say again, and until the last minute and
with my last breath: America, are you (expletive) kidding?!
I
simply cannot wrap my head around how others with level heads and sound
minds can even consider Trump for president of this country and leader
of the free world. The logic simply escapes me.
I
try to view it through the lens of economic anxiety, diminished
economic mobility and global pressure. It all seems understandable, but
then I’m reminded of Donald Trump, a billionaire whose businesses have on more than one occasion gone bankrupt, who stiffed contractors,
who outsources the making of many of his products and who brags about
not paying federal income taxes. All of which brings me back to: Are you
kidding me?
I
try to view it through a purely ideological lens in which people simply
tend to vote for the party nominee. It makes sense, but then I’m
reminded of Donald Trump, a man who isn’t really an ideologue but a
demagogue interested only in self-aggrandizement. And again I return to:
You’re kidding, right?
I
think of the family values voters on the right with whom I’ve become
acquainted over the years. Although I might have vigorously disagreed
with their positions and their inherent myopic anachronism, at least I
could say that they were as principled in their adherence to their
positions as I was in opposition to them. But then, again, I hit Donald
Trump, who is dragging traditional conservative paternalism into the
muck of perversion, who brags about sexually assaulting women, who makes fun of the disabled, who savors a lust for vengeance, who says he has never needed to seek forgiveness, even from God. Again, are you kidding?
I
try to think of it from a strict constitutionalist’s perspective, to
understand how strongly they want the vacancy on the Supreme Court to be
filled by a constitutional purist. But then I think of Trump, whose
Muslim ban would fly in the face of the Constitution, whose threats to
the press strike me as constitutionally hostile, whose advancement of
torture would seem to me constitutionally questionable (to say nothing
of its legality in the face of international norms and treaties). Are
you kidding, America?
I
try to think of it in terms of weariness with Washington and with D.C.
insiders, the Clintons in particular, and dynastic democracy in general.
I try to think of the intense Clinton distrust and even hatred that
exists in some quarters, sentiments only exacerbated by things like this
never-ending email saga. But then I hit Donald Trump, a real estate
scion who has been sued nearly 1,500 times and is currently being sued for Trump University deceptions and the rape of a 13-year-old girl. You have got to be kidding.
There is no way to make this make sense. Believe me, I’ve tried.
Donald Trump is a bigot.
Donald Trump is a demagogue.
Donald Trump is a sexist, misogynist, chauvinist pig.
Donald Trump is a bully.
Donald Trump is a cheat.
Donald Trump is a pathological liar.
Donald Trump is a nativist.
Donald Trump’s campaign has proved too attractive to anti-Semites, Nazis and white nationalists, and on some level the campaign seems to be tacitly courting that constituency.
Donald Trump — judging by his own words on that disgusting tape and if you believe the dozen-plus women who have come forward to accuse him of some form of sexual assault or unwanted sexual advance — is an unrepentant predator.
To
put it more succinctly, Donald Trump is a lowlife degenerate with the
temperament of a 10-year-old and the moral compass of a severely wayward
teen.
There
is no way to make a vote for him feel like an act of principle or
responsibility. You can’t make it right. You can’t say yes to Trump and
yes to common decency. Those two things do not together abide.
If
you are voting for Trump, you are voting for coarseness, corruption and
moral corrosion. Period. And if you are not actively voting against
him, you are abetting his attempt to hijack American greatness and sink
it with his egotism.
On
Election Day, America faces a choice, and it’s not a tough one, but a
stark one. It is the difference between tolerance and intolerance. It is
the difference between respect and disrespect. It is the difference
between a politician with some flaws and a flaw threatening our
politics.
Donald Trump is America’s existential threat. On Tuesday, America has an opportunity to defend itself.
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