It is universally acknowledged, however, that this is not a normal election. One of Trump’s talents is the destruction and humiliation of his opponents, as the Republican candidates who have dropped out one after another can testify.
.. In 2013, he warned the Conservative Political Action Conference:
As Republicans, if you think you are going to change very substantially for the worse Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security in any substantial way, and at the same time you think you are going to win elections, it just really is not going to happen.
.. Elsewhere, Moore’s dissection of the Trump phenomenon was even more trenchant:
We should not demand to see the long-form certificate for Mr. Trump’s second birth. We should, though, ask about his personal character and fitness for office. His personal morality is clear, not because of tabloid exposés but because of his own boasts.
Moore went on. Voters should
count the cost of following Donald Trump. To do so would mean that we’ve decided to join the other side of the culture war, that image and celebrity and money and power and social Darwinist “winning” trump the conservation of moral principles and a just society. We ought to listen, to get past the boisterous confidence and the television lights and the waving arms and hear just whose speech we’re applauding.
Dear Reagan Democrats: Donald Trump Will Use You and Leave You
This isn’t a new or particularly interesting insight, but what is puzzling — truly head-scratching –is why even a Reagan Democrat would believe that Trump would champion his interests. It’s like leaving your husband for a philandering, bankrupt playboy and saying to your husband, “Well, yeah, he’s going to break my heart and ruin our kids’ lives, but at least he’s not you.” The hate gives way to self-destruction.
.. Given Trump’s contradictions and ad-libbed policies, I would say that God only knows what President Trump would do while in office. But I think we now have enough evidence to make an educated guess. He’d lie repeatedly, shift positions constantly, act impulsively, and — through it all — seek to intimidate and bully his opponents. That’s not conservatism, liberalism, or even populism — that’s just demagoguery.
How Donald Trump Partied During the Vietnam War (video: 8 min)
Over the weekend, Donald Trump disparaged Senator John McCain’s military service record, saying he prefers soldiers who weren’t captured. Reporters have now looked into Trump’s activities during the Vietnam war. Cenk Uygur, host of The Young Turks, breaks it down. Tell us what you think in the comment section below.
“It was the spring of 1968, and Donald Trump had it good.
He was 21 years old and handsome with a full head of hair. He avoided the Vietnam War draft on his way to earning an Ivy League degree. He was fond of fancy dinners, beautiful women and outrageous clubs. Most important, he had a job in his father’s real estate company and a brain bursting with money-making ideas that would make him a billionaire.
“When I graduated from college, I had a net worth of perhaps $200,000,” he said in his 1987 autobiography “Trump: The Art of the Deal,” written with Tony Schwartz. (That’s about $1.4 million in 2015 dollars.) “I had my eye on Manhattan.””*
What Happens When You Ask Donald Trump Real Questions?
Donald Trump has proved that a presidential candidate does not need many of the attributes conventionally thought necessary to lead the pack in the Republican race for the White House, blithely offending Latinos, women and his fellow candidates, all the while rising in the polls. Now he has proved he considers foreign policy knowledge largely optional, too…
(gratuitous swearing)