Those of us who believed the evidence was clear a long time ago that Donald Trump was intellectually, emotionally, and morally unfit to be president were not surprised by what he said on the sex tape released last Friday.
But what is shocking to us is the number of people for whom the tape makes no difference in regard to their support of him.
More than that, their reaction reveals just how much trouble our nation is in and the difficulty we face in doing anything about it.
First and foremost, their continued support – and even defense – of him makes it clear that they they are willing to dismiss a conversation that reveals Donald Trump is a confessed sexual predator.
In his own words Trump says he believes who he is gives him the right to assault women.
What kind of a man or woman says such a confession doesn’t change their support of him? The answer is someone who is not a very good and decent person themselves. They are condoning violence against women, against themselves, their wives, their daughters, their nieces, their friends.
That so many of those dismissing Trump’s words are evangelical Christians personally sickens me.
It is no wonder that they resist any genuine effort by people of good will to find common ground on moral issues. That would require a fundamental integrity their support for Trump proves they lack.
They say they are concerned about the moral state of our country, but what they should be worried about is the fact that some 40% of Americans, including themselves, are saying they still stand behind a man running for president who admits he is a sexual predator.
That brings me to something else the continuing support for Trump reveals, that the Republican political and religious right wing poses a serious threat to our democracy.
The basic reason why is that they refuse to deal in the world of facts. That means neither reason nor logic matters to them when it comes to solving problems. Like Trump, they persist in repeating charges and claims about Hillary Clinton and President Obama that have been proven to be false.
They show every sign of being so filled with hate that truth doesn’t matter to them. They tell outright lies and then defend it with sources that are themselves known for promoting lies.
As far as they are concerned, ends DO justify means. They care nothing about doing what is right, and certainly not what is right for the nation.
In Donald Trump’s world, if they were refugees they would never get into the country because they certainly don’t share our nation’s values.
If all that were not enough, continuing support for Trump also reveals the trouble our nation is in because it confirms the racism among Republicans I wrote about last time.
Can you imagine what the reaction of the people supporting Trump would have been had the tapes about him been about President Obama?
They would have vilified him to the point of wanting to lynch him without a trial just as they did to black men earlier in our nation’s history.
Short of that, they would demand impeachment proceedings begin immediately.
A letter to our newspaper summed up their racism in this way: “In June, a jury will decide if Bill Cosby should go to jail for committing sexual violence. In November, voters will decide if Donald Trump should be president of the United States.”
Our nation is awash in a racial divide we have tried to pretend doesn’t exist. Yet it shows itself over and again among Republicans and we continue to ignore it.
Republican or not, anyone, anyone, anyone who was not bothered by those who questioned if President Obama was a genuine American, but now says Donald Trump’s admission that he is a sexual predator does not affect their vote is a racist, period.
Our nation is not in deep trouble because racism exists. It is in trouble because one of our two major political parties tolerates it because it believes it works to its advantage.
Donald Trump will come and go, not soon enough for my taste. But the deep rooted problems that gave rise to his candidacy will remain.
The fact that Trump is as an admitted sexual predator, yet continues to have strong support among Republicans says quite unequivocally that the very people whose attitudes and actions lie at the core of these problems could care less.
And that is why the prospects of our country doing anything about them are hardly encouraging.
In his 1984 re-election campaign, Ronald Reagan declared, “It’s morning again in America.”
No one is saying that now, not least because Reagan’s own Republican Party is doing everything it can to ensure our nation remains in the darkness of an endless midnight.
linnposts.com 