By Scott Robertson
So there I sat with my teenage daughter Sunday night watching Donald Trump try to explain his way out of the disastrous “hot mic” recording. She stared daggers at the screen as Trump said that it was just locker room talk, that his opponent’s husband had done worse things, and that he (Trump) was going to end ISIS, so let’s move on.
I am a Republican. I have been for most of my adult life. My daughter now self-identifies as a Democrat. Thanks Trump.
Thanks for becoming a real-life caricature of the horrible things liberal Democrats say about Republicans. And thanks for turning the least electable Democrat since Jimmy Carter circa 1980 into the favorite to win the White House.
How am I supposed to make my daughter believe the crudities my party’s nominee puts forth aren’t representative of those who nominated him? Every time she sees a red ball cap that says “Make America Great Again” what she hears is, “Grab them by the (expletive deleted).” That’s how he presents my party.
Trump speaks of women with terms that I would be fired (and rightly so) for using. His explanations for it fail utterly.
His argument that Bill Clinton did something worse in no way exonerates Trump. It just means we’re looking at two individuals whose behavior is indefensible instead of one. The existence of something worse does not pardon something bad.
The argument that Trump’s comments were merely locker room banter is equally flawed. Locker rooms are like any other environment. They may contain a range of individuals from gentlemen to louts. Decent men do not become boors just because they’re in a room with a drain in the middle of the floor. Even were that not true, someone who cannot distinguish speaking in a locker room from speaking with a live microphone clipped to his jacket hasn’t the wits to be the spokesman for the free world.
My daughter sees the exodus of disgusted former Trump supporters in the party. But she also sees a good number of his supporters staying on. She sees they will forgive Trump any sin rather than abandon their nominee. She sees the party – my party – as choosing everyone like him over everyone like her. I doubt she is alone.
So let me again say something I have said in this space before. Donald Trump is not a real Republican, nor should he ever have been viewed as one.
He is not a Constitutionalist. In the first debate, despite claiming to be a Second Amendment supporter, he argued with Clinton only over whose guns should be taken away. He also favors stop-and-frisk, which flies in the face of the Fourth Amendment.
He is not an evangelical conservative. His love of gold alone would keep Aaron smelting calves till Judgment Day. By his fruits we may know him; the wait for a thorn bush to bear grapes is long.
No, Donald Trump is not a Republican. He is merely a vulgar, crass hustler who has been played for a fool. He was propped up specifically because he would be easy to tear down.
The national media, you may remember, rewarded Trump for his brash behavior during the primaries. He got more airtime than any Republican candidate by far. Why would the media, populated more by left-leaners than right, do Trump that favor? The answer is in the emails Wikileaks released this week from Clinton advisor John Podesta.
The Hillary Clinton campaign worked the media to help get Donald Trump nominated. Read that sentence again.
Don’t believe me? Google “pied piper candidates.” In an April 7, 2015 email, the Democrats spoke of undermining moderate Republicans including Jeb Bush and Marco Rubio while building up “pied piper candidates” including Trump, encouraging the media to portray them as more serious candidates during the primaries. Should anyone be surprised that now, with the primaries over, the media are as unfriendly to Trump as he is to them?
So here we are, less than a month from the election, faced with the stark realization of what happens to those who follow the pied piper. He leads them over a cliff.
I will never vote for Hillary Clinton. But I cannot vote for Donald Trump. I am writing in the name of a Republican and praying that we will have repaired the damage to our party within four years.
My daughter, you see, will be old enough to cast her own ballot by then.
