Hypocrisy runs amok in reaction to Trump tape (Viewpoint)
By
October 10, 2016
Let me get this straight. This time, Donald Trump has gone too far.
A lewd tape with graphic sexual descriptionsis more than we can bear. Republicans are fleeing their standard bearer and the media is aghast.
Give me a freakin' break. Some of these jerks remind me of the Captain Renault character (played by Claude Rains) in "Casablanca" where the officer declares he is "shocked – shocked!" that gambling is going on at Rick's Cafe.
A moment later, someone hands the captain his winnings. Renault was a man of honor compared to the Republicans who now call for Trump to pull out, all the while knowing he won't.
We are in the last leg of a marathon campaign. Trump has been Trump from the starter's whistle, yet the outrage from the tape makes it sound as if we just discovered this guy wasn't a paragon of virtue after all.
If you support Trump, you are supporting an absolute pig. You are endorsing a narcissist, a bad businessman who launched his career with daddy's money and has had multiple bankruptcies, all the while screwing honest vendors who never got paid.
A leaked video from 2005 that was published by the Washington Post on Friday shows Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump making lewd comments about women.
You are OK with a man who is absolutely clueless about world politics and equates diplomacy, not to mention human decency, with weakness. You're all in with a guy who has insulted American prisoners of war, veterans in general, mothers of deceased veterans, Americans who don't look like him, women, the Pope and other groups too numerous to name.
You are doing that because you hate Hillary Clinton, liberals, Democrats, Muslims, the system, a media that tells you not to vote for Trump or other groups too numerous to name. Trump is your answer to all that, and it's a choice, though it's not my choice.
But don't tell me you are abandoning Trump because he's gone too far this time. The most insulting people on this score are not the rank-and-file who will say OK to anything if it means voting against Clinton, but the Republicans who pretend to be leaders but have pandered to Trump this long.
Trump knew one thing all along. He knew his fellow party members had no spine and no moral courage, regardless of how the Republican Party portrays itself as keeper of America's moral flame.
Trump said he would "have no problem" having sex with 24-year-olds, that he "couldn't care less" if he satisfies the women he sleeps with, that "it's checkout time" once women reach the age of 35 and that he had engaged in three-way sex.
The reason so many GOP operatives are abandoning Trump now is not because he's an insult to America, and the main reason our great nation is humiliating itself while the world watches in amazement. It's because he may lose and cowards run when the outcome looks bad.
John McCain has been rummaging for his misplaced values for months. As of Monday, Paul Ryan and Mitch McConnell have wanted it both ways by roasting Trump without de-endorsing him. The list of pathetic hacks goes on and on and includes most of those who ran against him in the primaries.
In this election, the Republican Party had a golden opportunity to stand for something and maybe, just maybe, establish relevance for the future. If you preach values, you don't have to defend Clinton but you don't have to wrap your arms around Trump, either.
Mitt Romney, that rare politician who actually has a moral compass, saw that a long time ago. So did Massachusetts Governor Charlie Baker, but precious few others did.
If the others think their moral rediscovery carries any substance, they should think again. The observers who think Trump won Sunday's debate include several who consider themselves non-partisan, and a large segment of the public will swallow anything Trump says, does or has done because their hatred for Clinton is blinding them to the cliff Trump's election would bring us.
In other words, he might still win. The tape tells us nothing about him that wasn't obvious before the tape.
Yet hypocrisy rules. NBC first said it would not suspend Billy Bush from "Today," for his role in the tape, then changed its mind – not because punishment was the obviously correct thing to do, but because rising protests and worries about advertisers and ratings forced them.
Say this for Trump: he's been consistent. He's been a bully and a pig from the start. To some people, that does not remove him from representing the United States of America on the world stage.
But don't sell me the drivel that what happens in October of 2016 is a breaking point. Don't convince me the Trump tape represents the crossing of some line that distinguishes an acceptable candidate from an unacceptable one.
If that line wasn't crossed a year ago, it doesn't exist. To some people, it doesn't. That includes all these GOP hacks and cowards who want to bail out on a man they can't stand, but haven't had the backbone to say so until they thought he might lose.
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