In 2000, Al Gore won the popular vote for president of the United States. The election was decided in a state in which his opponent's brother served as governor. The Supreme Court, in a vote along party lines, ordered the Florida recount (which by many analyses Gore would have won) to be STOPPED, throwing the electoral college to Bush. For the sake of the country, Al Gore accepted his loss and urged his supporters to accept it as well.
In 2008, at campaign events for John McCain, particularly those head-lined by Sarah Palin, racism and xenophobia reared their ugly heads, but at an event in Minnesota, that decent man, John McCain, had had enough, and said to a chorus of boos among his "low-information" attendees, "I have to tell you. Sen. Obama is a decent person and a person you don't have to be scared of as president of the United States." Meaning McCain wanted to be president, but he knew the country would also be fine if he lost the election to Obama. To a woman who said, "He's an Arab," McCain replied, "No, ma'am. He's a decent family man and citizen that I just happen to have disagreements with on fundamental issues and that's what this campaign's all about."
Last week Donald Trump appeared at rallies in Florida, Pennsylvania and Ohio, ostensibly to "help" the campaigns of Republican candidates in those states. But, with Trump, everything becomes about him. His speeches were all about "fake news," "crooked Hillary," the Mueller "witch hunt," rehashing his 2016 win, and the media being the "enemy of the people." They were filled with his unending lies. As usual, the "low-information" supporters attending the rallies lapped it up. I saw footage of the loud, foul-mouthed, ugly mob they became after being egged on to HATE by this president! They became threatening to the reporters covering the event.
We have had 45 presidents in history. Forty-four have realized they are president of ALL the people -- even the people who did not vote for them and those who hated them. But not THIS president. Instead of seeking differing points of view in order to make more informed decisions, he attacks and demeans everyone who criticizes him or who even dares express a contrary opinion. We have seen him at campaign events telling people to "beat up" any protestors there -- that he would pay their bail if they did!! At EVERY rally he deliberately encourages hatred against those who disagree with him and those who report his lies and misdeeds!!
Trump is what he is. It is his rabid supporters who are TRULY scary!! Who believes, in similar circumstances to those cited at the beginning of this article, Trump would do what McCain or Gore did and put TRUTH and the well-being of the country and its people first? More likely he would incite his followers to violence simply to feed his own ego, because to him their willingness to commit violence on his behalf would demonstrate how much they loved him.
As Charles Krauthammer, the late conservative columnist trained as a psychiatrist, wrote, "Trump is beyond narcissism. I used to think Trump was an 11-year-old. An undeveloped school-yard bully. I was off by about 10 years. His needs are more primitive, an infantile hunger for approval and praise, a craving that can never be satisfied. He lives in a cocoon of solipsism where the world outside himself has value -- indeed exists -- only insofar as it sustains and inflates him." His sad, sick need to be adored by his base drives him to the detriment of all.
Any president who takes the word of a murderous dictator over that of the men he appointed to head our intelligence agencies, degrades those who work in our Justice Department, encourages Americans to hate each other and who incites violence by his words and tweets is not fit for the office of president and should be removed!! Even some Republicans are saying that now. IF ONLY our Republican Congress had the spine to put country before party and to do what is in the best interests of the nation and its people, invoke Article 25 and remove this "National disgrace and... international pariah... he appeals to the worst angels of the GOP nature." General Colin Powell -- Secretary of State under Bush.
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