I have to say that I think it may be unfair to ask myself to write this piece tonight, given that I just sat through the only debate since I finally stopped tuning them out during the 2008 elections where I have been hollering at my television, and trying desperately to reign in the overwhelming urge to throw things at it. It is a rarity for me to scream shut up at someone at all, let alone someone who is not in the room. So, this is not going to be the reasoned, rational, restrained piece I had intended to follow up yesterday’s with. I’ll get back to my list tomorrow. For tonight, I suppose you could say my commentary goes to character. But, my gut reaction to the title questions is, Did you watch the debate tonight? ‘Nough said.
The sheer venomous sludge coming out of the mouth of Mr. Trump tonight is the reason I never got into daytime television, and I cannot say I appreciate being subject to it while trying to assess the issues of the day in the context of the men seeking the highest office in the land. I am weary of the rank hypocrisy of this man screaming liar at people, particularly Ted Cruz (though I’m pretty tired of him tossing that label around at Rubio and Bush as well). This is the same man that began the drumbeat mantra of Ted Cruz being a divisive person, based on, drum roll, the fact that his colleagues in the Senate don’t like him because he stood on the floor of the Senate and called the Majority Leader a liar in public. Of course, Senator Cruz called Senator McConnell a liar because, well he lied. Mr. Trump on the other hand calls everyone a liar because he doesn’t like what they have to say. As Senator Cruz proved in the dialog about Planned Parenthood and Mr. Trump’s position on cutting off funding for them. Did you catch that in the midst of all the tantrum throwing? Mr. Trump, still, at this very moment, believes Planned Parenthood does good things, just not as it regards abortion, but he can’t name a single one except the vague concept of “women’s health.” I’ve had it with this man, and his supporters for that matter, holding himself up as the only man telling it like it is and randomly calling everyone else a liar on every topic imaginable. And by the way, Rubio had a decent overall performance tonight, but shame on him for jumping on that particular bandwagon. I’ll get to that another day.
Beyond that, there are a couple things I want to hit on, in no particular order, so please bear with the stream of consciousness feel of tonight’s piece.
- Iraq – Mr. Trump has repeatedly said he was against the Iraq war. Tonight, and I’m certain other times in the past, he even went so far as to say he was against the Iraq war and they didn’t listen to him… Does anyone else understand how utterly ridiculous that particular comment is? It’s kind of akin to saying you should hire me to be the new coach of the South Carolina Panthers because I make a lotta money, and I knew all the plays the Tampa Buccaneers used after I watch Super Bowl 2003. The crap this man was spewing about the Iraq war in general has been debunked so many times it makes my head hurt (I know, I did the research, back in 2007-2012). But this comment is just plain ludicrous. Of course they, whichever they he meant, didn’t listen to him. Why on God’s green earth would they? He was just some average schmuck on the street with no insight into the intelligence or situation on the ground. Sadly, he doesn’t seem to have advanced much on those fronts in the intervening years.
- Profanity – I was actually a little tickled to see that I’m not the only one who has had a problem with this, and sadly I had to take a restroom break before I heard the full answer. But, I really didn’t need to hear the rest anyway. It began with him once again touting that he has friends (he says that a lot, I wonder who he’s trying to convince), and that those friends have paid him a lot of money over the years to do speeches. And that sometimes to make a point… that’s where I left ear shot of the TV. But, I can guess where he was going with that. Sometimes he uses language for effect. Here’s my problem with that. I teach my kids not to use language like that. Even my oldest boy, who is in the Navy and well over the age of majority, generally tries to avoid foul language around me, and apologizes when he slips. My younger sons (still near adulthood) also do not use profanity in front of me, and generally avoid vulgarity. They don’t do that because they’re afraid of me (they both top me by more than 6 inches). They do that out of respect. They respect the fact that I don’t like foul language, in spite of the fact it still sometimes slips out of my mouth due to my own bad habits when I was young. I try really hard not to use bad language for two reasons, first the Bible says not to (don’t believe me look it up), and second the much older of my reasons, my father taught me it made me sound stupid. He taught me I had enough intelligence to find a better way of saying the same thing without stooping to using four letter words. So, guess what, bad language slips out, but I have far outgrown using it on purpose for shock value or to make a point, and so have most of the people I know, including my children who aren’t even grown up yet. That Mr. Trump would deliberately choose words like those he called Senator Cruz or encouraged New Hampshire voters to say to companies returning from Mexico tells me either he is too stupid to find better words (which I actually doubt) or he believes we are too stupid to understand a reasoned, rational conversation. I really despise people running for office insulting my intelligence and the intelligence of my fellow voters. It irks me.
- Demeanor – last for tonight, but not least, as I watched the debate tonight, Mr. Trump’s demeanor simply made me cringe. I was cheering Jeb Bush and John Kasich for goodness sakes, and I am truly not a huge fan of either (thought Bush has pleasantly surprised me in the last two months). It got me to thinking. This man is asking to be made the President of the United States of America. As President of the United States, he would be in charge of all the Executive branch departments, the Cabinet, the White House staff, the Military, and the Secret Service would be required to work closely with him on a regular basis. For all of you reading this, who are either supporting Mr. Trump already or are still undecided but think you might, ask yourself this, would you want to work for or with a man who behaved like that toward people? Would you want to work in an environment where your boss may suddenly decide to call you rude names, start hollering profanities at people, threaten to sue people if the didn’t “straighten up” and all other manner of buffoonery, to put it politely? I wouldn’t. Do you really want to ask the honorable men and women who serve in our Secret Service, FBI, and other Federal agencies to subject themselves to that kind of environment, especially after what they’ve had to put up with in the last seven years? Really? That isn’t even about how he’d deal with foreign powers or with Congress. Think very carefully about if you would want him for a boss.
I think my rant for the night is done. Perhaps tomorrow (or possibly Monday) I will get back to the rest of the analysis of why Mr. Trump is not my pick. For tonight, I cannot for the life of me honestly understand why he is anyone’s pick. I get that folks are angry. I really do, as I mentioned to a friend of mine earlier. But being angry isn’t a platform. Lot’s of the people on that stage are angry. It’s just the rest of them actually have some solution to that anger other than vote for me and we’ll stop losing because I wish it so. Praying peace, and steady blood pressure for all of us out here tonight.
Be blessed and be a blessing, and happy voting!
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