By Sid Schwab / Herald Columnist
“I apologize to all the veterans and their families I’ve offended. It was a very bad mistake.”
Can anyone imagine Donald Trump saying that? About anything, let alone his Arlington National Cemetery desecration? One of the last honorable Republicans, John McCain did, using those final six words (DNYUZ: tinyurl.com/mccainsorry). Instead, after floating various excuses and lies, Trump went with “it was a setup” by the Biden administration and, yes, even Gold Star families (MSN: tinyurl.com/2setup4u)
Dutifully, J.D. Vance tried to flip it to attack Kamala Harris. “She wants to yell at Donald Trump because he showed up?” Vance said. “She can go to hell.” Big cheers. At the time, she’d said not a word about it. Later, she did, and remains topside.
In addition to Trump’s inability to take responsibility, there’s his lack of core values, seen as he set the 24-hour flip-flop record, on Florida’s six-week abortion ban. (Advice for the Vice President: when he attacks her changed positions, she should say, “He was once a pro-choice Democrat. I changed for the better; he changed for the worse.”)
Last week, to “Moms for Liberty,” who are, more accurately, moms for the exact opposite, Trump said this (X: tinyurl.com/nutsorliar): “The transgender thing is incredible. Think of it. Your kid goes to school and he comes home a few days later with an operation. The school decides what’s gonna happen to your child. And you know many of these childs (sic) say fifteen years later ‘What the hell happened? Who did this to me?’” It’s real; the quote, not the allegation: (tinyurl.com/2Breal4u).
Suspecting that Kamala Harris will do the transgenderizing surgery herself, it’s unlikely the “moms” were concerned that a would-be recidivist “president” uttered something so hallucinatory, so bizarre, so weird that no brain within two standard deviations of stable could have birthed it.
There are only two possibilities for being so loosed from reality: Either his mind is so unraveled that he actually thinks it happens, or he knows it doesn’t but assumes voters will believe and vote for him. Except within the most Foxified, uncritical, Trumpically unbalanced minds, both should be considered disqualifying for another stint in the White House. As we witness him becoming increasingly incoherent, everywhere, option one is the more likely.
Imagine: Trump, divorced from reality even more than from his first two wives on whom he cheated, is in the Situation Room, faced with a multifactorial international crisis, demanding that he process rapidly changing, incomplete information, and evaluate advice from his confidants. As he’s made clear, those advisers will have been chosen not for competence but for obsequious willingness to do whatever Trump asks, constitutionality and rationality be damned. He’s said he’ll purge his “government” of career experts, so the advice he gets will be useless sycophancy. The prospect of him applying his dissociative thinking, unrestrained, ought to be terrifying to everyone. Likely, he’d just ask, “WWPD”?
Who but MAGAs could trust him to make well-reasoned decisions in the best interest of the U.S.? Only those who love him for his hatefulness, finding all else irrelevant, could rationalize putting him back there, finger on the nuclear button. He’s promised to fire all general officers who refused to activate his impulsive, catastrophic ideas first time around, and replace them with ones like deranged, QAnon-adherent Michael Flynn.
If not for truthless rightwing and feckless mainstream media, the nightmare prospect of Trump again in office, babbling like he did to the “moms” while making critical decisions, should put him behind in the polls by 50 percentage points. That he’s not confirms the anti-democracy success of post-Reagan endumbification efforts by Republicans.
Meanwhile, Trump continues to stoke and praise violence. At a rally last week, an attendee leapt into the press area and had to be tased and restrained by police. Trump said, “That’s beautiful” and “That’s alright. That’s OK. No, he’s on our side.” The man to whom the Supreme Court gave near-absolute immunity for crimes. The man readying his mobs for another Jan. 6 (MSN: tinyurl.com/OKwithhim).
Who “our side” is, if not already clear, might be learned from his recent choices of rally venues: Howell, Mich.; Lacrosse, Wis.; Johnstown, Pa. What they have in common is that they were once known as “sundown towns,” cities in which Blacks were not allowed to be out after dark. Perhaps it’s unintended coincidence. I’m not one for conspiracy theories, but they are what they are.
Always for conspiracy theories, Trump is now suggesting the assassination attempt was an “inside job,” coordinated by President Biden (MSN: tinyurl.com/inside4u). But it balances the social media chatter that it was orchestrated by Trump, to get that money-making photo op (X: tinyurl.com/2takeyourcash). The evidence is that, like school shooters, the perpetrator was a solo, sick person.
There’s another sick person, too, one who endangers us all. Maybe not solo, though, as he’s the choice of a major political party. He was “president” once. Remember how it was (no paywall): (new York Times: tinyurl.com/recall4u). For the sake of all Americans, including his deluded supporters, he must never be again.
Email Sid Schwab at columnsid@gmail.com.
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