Ezra Kline, a young, critically acclaimed journalist and blogger who began his career with the Washington Post and is currently Editor in-Chief for Vox Media’s news website, has been writing and speaking quite candidly and informatively about the dangers a Donald Trump presidency poses to the nation and the world.
In a recent video he says of Trump, “This is not the kind of man we should have in the White House. This is not the kind of person I want to be neighbors with.”
A man he wouldn’t even want to have as a neighbor. That, I suggest, says it all.
But it also underscores for me what is the most difficult aspect of this presidential election: It just doesn’t make sense.
Donald Trump is not someone anyone should even want as a neighbor. He is self-centered, mean-spiritedness, without character or intellectual substance, all of which makes the fact that people are actually supporting him for the highest office in our nation mind boggling.
There are, as we know, serious consequences when nations choose the wrong person to lead their government. Need anyone be reminded of the names Hitler, Mussolini, and Japanese Emperor Hirohito to know what can happen when bad leaders take over.
The president of the United States holds unimaginable power to influence world events, and it is just as unimaginable that such power would be in the hands of Donald Trump, a man who reportedly asked a foreign policy expert why the U.S. couldn’t use nuclear weapons since we had them.
Still, many Americans want to make him president. As I said, it just doesn’t make sense.
I think that’s why an incident that happened in our area last week comes to mind as I think about this election.
A group of passersby saw a young woman getting ready to jump from a bridge into interstate traffic below. The first woman on the scene begged the girl not to do it. She tried to tell her she had her whole in front of her, that whatever she was thinking and feeling didn’t mean she was alone in the world. She assured her that if she gave herself a chance she would eventually see things in a different way.
Realizing she was not getting anywhere, the woman did something amazing. She managed to reach through the fence and grab hold of the girl’s belt just as she turned loose of the fence. The woman then held on as tight as she could while a policeman who had gotten there by that time cut through the wire with his bolt cutters in a desperate effort to reach this troubled and despondent teenager.
Without minimizing the tragedy of a young girl ready to jump off a bridge, it occurs to me that this scene is a picture similar to the predicament our nation is facing because of Donald Trump.
People give numerous reasons for supporting him…they are mad about something, upset with the system, tired of the same old same old, frustrated with their lives, filled with hatred for Hillary Clinton, are afraid of and for the future.
Yet none of it has anything to do with his qualifications for being president, and they don’t seem to care. They’re ready to jump off the bridge anyway.
Like the teenage girl, they refuse to believe that jumping is not the answer. It makes you wonder how anyone reaches a point where they think it is.
The good news is that the story about the girl ended well. With great effort the people managed to save her from herself.
That is my hope for this election, that there are more rational American voters reaching through the fence and holding on to the nation’s belt buckle than there are Trump supporters determined to jump off the bridge.
Hillary is NOT the answer! NOBODY wants more of the politics of the last 8 years. National and international disasters day after day. Taxing “the rich” will last only so long before “the rich” quit working to give it away to socialism. The economy is in the tank, and the only way to “fix it” is to get small businesses back on their feet without all the paper regulations and costs for obamacare. Hillary won’t do ANY of these things. So, voting for her is NOT the answer to the plight we are in. She is untrustworthy as a human, and everybody knows it. hillary is NOT the “answer” to your predicament. Go Green or go independant.
Erwin, you are saying things without anything to back up what you say. Taxing the rich? Bush tax cuts for the rich played a major role in the country’s economic meltdown, plus the rich keep getting richer. They are doing better today than they ever have, and their taxes are lower than they have ever been. If you believe in Republican economics you should live in Kansas or Louisiana where Republican governors cut taxes for the rich and bankrupted their states. Economy in the tubes? When Obama took office we were losing 800,000 jobs a month. We added 287,000 plus in June, most of which was from small businesses. If you want to argue, then at least bother to get some facts. As for Hillary, this election is about one thing – Donald Trump. He is not only a threat to our country’s well being, he is a threat to our democracy. He doesn’t care about facts (something you have in common, apparently), doesn’t care about the impact of what he says on other people or nations. Hillary is at least sensible, rational, and experienced, which is why thoughtful Republicans are supporting her.
Invest in the stock market, people! That’s where “the rich” are making their money! Do what they do. Start small, learn the ropes, build an investment portfolio! And you, Jan, go live in Chicago or Detroit or those other cities where Democrat politicians have run their cities for over 50 years, and the places are crashing and burning, destitute, desolated. Surround yourself with all those great Democrat policies and see how you would like it there, where you belong, by the way you talk. O-o-o-o This election is “about Trump”?? You wish! That takes the focus off Hillary and her loser behaviors, which is what you are attempting to do. Won’t work! We all know better !! GO, LIBERTARIANS !!!!
I guess the more than four dozen former Republican foreign policy officials who signed a letter declaring that they are not voting for Donald Trump because it would put national security at risk are just trying to cover up Hillary’s flaws. Erwin, you are living proof that some people believe what they want to believe in spite of the facts.
Great analogy Jan. Well said.
Still trying to make it about Trump . . . well, take this: