Wednesday, August 28, 2024

TWGB: Winning on Character!

 

A little while ago, Rich Lowry took some heat for writing a column suggesting that Trump could "win on character", which seems stupid as hell, but meant something like using policy as demonstrating that he's steadfast to his principles or some such drivel. I noted in my last post that there was something "weird" about using hallowed ground for a campaign photo-op--but it gets worse. The Trump campaign muscled aside a civilian employee who tried to stop them from filming the event for their use. 

Well--this is consistent with Trump principles to be sure. We can all remember Trump using tear gas on protestors to clear the way for a photo op at a church and using his cabinet members and a bible like props. Maybe we also remember when he exploited a murder victim's funeral, alleging he had spoken with her family when he had not, and claiming things he had read in an obituary were memories they had shared with him. 

Trump uses people as things. That is his character. Maybe he wanted to use a photo op to counter the claim that he considers our war dead as "losers" and "suckers", which was resurrected in part by his gross assertion that the Presidential Medal of Honor, which he has awarded to political allies, is in some ways better than the Congressional Medal of Honor, awarded to military heroes of conspicuous bravery. Maybe it's to counter the book just out by his former national security adviser General McMaster. 

Come to think of it, when we look at who Trump consistently is, it really is hard to see how he could "win on character". This is the man who betrayed our Constitution over his 2020 loss by instigating a riot at the Capitol and setting in motion a plan to avoid the transfer of power despite losing his election.


And he would betray the Constitution in violation of his oath again if it serves himself to do so. He simply has no concept of duty greater than his own desires. And he has enablers of obviously no better character themselves. 

We are reminded of this because he has just been reindicted by another grand jury for his resistance to the peaceful transfer of power. This comes just after a filing to appeal the dismissal of Trump's classified documents case on the grounds that the special counsel was wrongfully appointed. Can anyone say that Trump's consistent lying about his 2020 election loss (he just told Dr. Phil in an interview he could win California if Jesus was counting the votes, which is one of the most pathological things I've ever heard) and his hoarding of top-secret national security docs in a country club shitter reveal anything particularly great about his character? 

Trump has a profoundly poor character, and his acolyte JD Vance, a jughead who makes ordering donuts look like a root canal and who is Yale-educated but says things that suggest he doesn't understand how separation of powers works, seems to be a pathological liar, too (and probably has some Mommy issues, just saying). 

If anything, Trump's character is simply rot, dead to him, toxic to the rest of us. He should be cut off from access to power ever again. 

1 comment:

bowtiejack said...

Thank you.
Love your work.
I assume any day now he will burn down the Reichstag and blame it on "the immigrants".
The interesting thing about Project 2025 and the Third Reich is the ample supply, in both instances, of the soulless to staff up their death camps, secret police, and other activities.

Coleoptera

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