The only thing more shocking than Donald Trump’s lewd dialogue with Billy Bush in the now-infamous hot-mic tape is the number of people who have defended him and shrugged off his comments as “boy talk.” At the same time, many of us have struggled to understand how anyone—especially a woman—could be undisturbed by such vile attitudes and the implied admission of sexual assault against multiple women.
Michelle Obama’s emotional statement that these revelations have shaken her to her core are juxtaposed against memes showing Julie Andrews joyfully dancing atop the mountain with the caption “This is me not caring what Donald Trump said about women.” Dozens, if not thousands, of women have taken to social media to write impassioned defenses of Trump and to state their continued enthusiastic endorsement of him and their intention to vote for him to serve as president of our country.
Baffled by such unreasonable and unthinkable responses, I’ve struggled to get inside the thinking of women who can support a blatant misogynist and evangelical Christians who can support a person who so flagrantly violates their own stated beliefs.
To be able to have a discussion with anyone, I have to understand the other person’s argument: not just the conclusion but the claim, evidence, and reasoning which led to the conclusion. A couple of weeks ago, I was in a group discussing the ongoing conflict between Israel and Palestine. With such clear evidence that the Israelis are responsible for gross human rights violations against the Palestinians, the question I needed to have answered is “What is the argument for many people’s one-sided support of Israel?” By what thought process do so many people justify Israel’s actions and place all of the responsibility for wrongdoing on the Palestinians?
When my daughter told me that my son-in-law adamantly opposed her plan to buy all white towels for their new home, I asked “What is his argument?” What is the thought process which leads to the conclusion that having all white towels is bad? What did white towels ever do to him?
Likewise, I have tried to understand the reasoning which could lead a woman or an extreme right-wing Christian to want to elect a president who has so outspokenly violated everything they hold dear. I don’t know, but here’s one conclusion I’ve drawn: If you were delusional enough to think Donald Trump was fit to serve as President of the United States of America before the hot-mic tape was released, nothing in that tape would change your mind. That tape was not the wake-up call; it was the confirmation of a thousand wake-up calls we’d received long before the tape was released. Those who were still not awake simply can’t be wakened.
Americans have accepted sexual improprieties in our presidents throughout our history as a nation: Thomas Jefferson, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, John Kennedy, and Bill Clinton, to name the most familiar. Presidents, presidential hopefuls, and scores of others in high office have been brought down by sex scandals; and many of them have survived the ordeals, their reputations tarnished but their heroic status intact. Here’s a link to a list of 25 of our most admired and influential leaders who have embroiled themselves in scandalous behavior: http://www.gq.com/gallery/the-twenty-five-greatest-philanderers-in-american-political-history#26. I make the distinction between scandal and scandal-worthy behavior because before the advent of the 24/7 news cycle, many of these facts were not widely known; if those people lived today, however, their every move would be followed and reported.
Groping, skirt-chasing, lusting—none of these are new to us in the lives of our national leaders. Thomas Jefferson, in addition to his well-documented long-term relationship with his half-black slave Sally Hemings, is rumored to have had affairs with at least two other women. When Bill Clinton was impeached, it was his lying, not his philandering, that most people were unable to accept and for which they believed he should be prosecuted. In case anyone is wondering when we might have our first gay president, some believe we already have, in the person of James Buchanan.
And if consent is the thing that separates the acceptable from the unthinkable, I don’t believe Jefferson’s relationship with Hemings can be strictly defined as consensual, given the vast distance between them in terms of power and status. It seems most of Bill Clinton’s dalliances were classified as consensual, although he has also been accused of using his power and position to take advantage of women.
Other rumors from this source, http://www.salon.com/2015/02/08/the_7_biggest_presidential_sex_scandals_in_history_partner/, would have us believe that Andrew Jackson may have been married to a bigamist, since he married her before she was divorced from her previous husband; Republican saint Ronald Reagan was accused of rape in 1952 and the devoted Nancy allegedly had a fling with Frank Sinatra; Bush 41 and 43 have both been accused of extra-marital affairs, and 43 was accused of rape by a woman who later died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound.
Regardless of how much is true and how much is rumor, sex scandals are nothing new to us; and some of them have barely diminished our admiration for the perpetrators. I think it helps that we didn’t find out about Jefferson until a couple of centuries after his death, and we didn’t even know about Kennedy when he was in office. People’s private lives, even when they held high office or aspired to hold high office, were considered private. They did their jobs and established their reputations without the distraction of having their most private moments blasted out on TV and Internet every minute of every day. By the time we knew, we had learned to love and value them for their service and could forgive, though not condone, their private sins.
Those whose scandals have been made public during the age of the blow-by-blow news cycle have often, however, had their political careers dashed by their private sins; remember Gary Hart and John Edwards. And even those whose sex lives have remained either private or unremarkable have other unthinkable acts on their records, such as FDR’s executive order authorizing the internment of tens of thousands of Japanese descent, including both American citizens and non-citizens (in addition to his sexual dalliances). Abraham Lincoln, freer of the slaves, did not hold 21st-century ideals regarding equality between blacks and whites or the possibility of our living together in harmony.
As Americans, we are obviously not accustomed to being governed by saints. How then do we defend our outrage and revulsion over the contents of Donald Trump’s hot-mic tape? I would argue that the tape is less remarkable for what it reveals about him than for its confirmation of what we already knew. This is concrete evidence which, for those of us who already found him abominable, confirmed and strengthened our conclusions. On the other hand, those who saw him as the American messiah were understandably not swayed in that opinion because they’ve seen it all before. Please don’t misunderstand: I am as appalled as ever by what we heard on that tape, but I’ve come to understand why others are not. The fact is it’s not those appalling statements that make Trump unfit for the presidency; those statements simply confirm why we already knew he was unfit.
These are the things we already knew about Donald Trump before October 9, 2016, which make him unfit to serve as our president, even IF he were a model of marital fidelity.
Donald Trump is unfit to serve as president because he knows nothing about our Constitution or how our government works. Thomas Jefferson was a scholar who wrote our Declaration of Independence, one of the most brilliantly composed documents ever published. Although he was out of the country serving as Minister to France during the time the Constitution was being drafted, his other writings fill volumes, and excerpts from them line the walls of the Jefferson Memorial in Washington, D.C. Bill Clinton is best known for 115 consecutive months of economic expansion, the longest such period in American history, along with major contributions to providing jobs, advancing education, and lowering unemployment.
Jefferson and Clinton were not models of purity or piety, but our country is indebted to them for their brilliant minds and lasting imprint on our government and culture. Trump, on the other hand, is a demagogue whose only claim to excellence is that he will fix everything he perceives to be wrong with our country—even though 16 months into his campaign, he has yet to tell us how he would keep any of those promises. He is the most ignorant person ever to seek the presidency; and even IF his accusers’ claims were to be proven false, which I’m sure they will NOT be, he would still be unfit.
Donald Trump is unfit to serve as president because he has no respect for most of the people he would be “serving.” He has insulted and alienated women, veterans and their families, blacks, Latinos, immigrants, and almost every other major group except angry white men. His so-called campaign rallies consist of attacks on the latest person who has gotten under his very thin skin. His persistent attacks on the Khan family should have eliminated him from the race long before the mic-on-the-bus tape was released. Bill Clinton showed more class during his impeachment than Trump has shown toward Alec Baldwin for his unflattering portrayal on SNL.
Donald Trump is unfit to serve as president because he is the most immature person ever to appear on a presidential campaign platform. From the constant ax grinding to his habit of turning everything his opponent says about him back onto her, he’s the equivalent of an emotional toddler and a functional fifth grader. When Hillary Clinton says he’s not presidential, he says she’s not presidential; when she calls him temperamentally unfit, he says she has a “terrible temperament.” This is reminiscent of the Pee Wee Herman line, “I know you are, but what am I?” Cute for a comedian, unbelievably childish for a presidential candidate.
And just this week his former ghost writer, Tony Schwartz, estimated Trump’s vocabulary at about 200 words. For perspective, child development experts say that a 2 1/2-year-old should know approximately 300 words. No wonder he can’t express complex ideas and when he’s reading prepared comments, he sounds as if he’s seeing them for the first time.
Contrast Trump’s juvenile rants with the eloquent speeches of FDR, which my stepfather still plays on his computer because they bring back memories of a revered president and wartime leader. Contrast Trump’s toddler tantrums to the lofty rhetoric of John Kennedy and Bill Clinton; all three of them are known for their sex scandals, but two of them are also known as brilliant leaders with a vast knowledge of and love for our constitution and our country.
Trump is unfit to serve as president because of the people he associates with or with whom he hints at associations. When his campaign was about to implode, he replaced his campaign manager with Steve Bannon, a person best known for his white supremacist attitudes and for creating an online haven for a diverse group now known as the alt-right. Trump has also been often accused of a bromance with Vladimir Putin, known for human rights abuses in Russia. As further demonstration of his childish thinking, he has defended his support of Putin with the line, “He says nice things about me, so I’ll say nice things about him.”
Oh, and have I mentioned that Trump is unfit to serve as president because of his utter lack of knowledge about other countries’ governments and our relationships abroad? From his fascination with nuclear weapons to his casual mention of destroying international alliances, he is a threat to our safety and security as a nation. Franklin Delano Roosevelt led our country through all but four months of World War II; under his leadership, we rebounded from the devastating attack on Pearl Harbor and had nearly achieved victory by the time of his sudden death. His masterful leadership during the most globally threatening event in history overshadows our knowledge of his private transgressions. Donald Trump, with his ignorance and immaturity, would more likely be the cause of than the solution to international conflicts.
Donald Trump is unfit to serve as president because he has a proven record of lying. Not only do his lies confirm that he cannot be trusted, they also insult our intelligence. He denies saying and doing things which are recorded on tapes readily available to thousands of media personnel and can be replayed by the push of a button. According to Politifact, 70% of all the statements they have checked are mostly false (19%), false (34%), or pants on fire (17%). And in true Trump fashion, he has turned this truth about himself onto his opponent, who, according to Politifact, lies less than any other politician they’ve fact checked.
His lies have contributed to his incitement of fear among his followers, fear that causes them to believe his messianic claims and remain loyal to him no matter how disgusting he becomes. FDR, in his first inaugural address, famously said this about fear: “The only thing we have to fear is fear itself.” Every time Bill Clinton speaks, he eloquently reminds us what a great country we live in, not a country which is on the brink of disaster and can be made great again only by electing an ignorant demagogue.
When it comes to sex in politics, Americans are not virgins. Even claims of rape and predatory behavior are not new. What this election has brought us for the first time is an ignorant, bigoted, misogynistic xenophobe who is a threat to our existence as a republic. Sex won’t destroy us, and rape can be litigated in our courts. Ignorance and bigotry are the real threats, and we simply can’t stand by in silence as our fellow Americans vote to send an ignorant, bigoted demagogue to the sanctuary of the Oval Office. We can’t let that happen.