Yes, Donald Trump has big troubles in regards to the disgusting and despicable remarks he made about women in 2005. But America has even bigger troubles in regards to the reaction to the misogynistic remarks from the religious right. The fact is, there hasn’t been any — and the silence is deafening, thus proving once again that the Bible-thumping wingnuts on the right are neither moral nor a majority. But they are — in spite of their supposed love of “family values” — the biggest bunch of hypocrites to ever bestride the earth.
Anyone with the slightest interest in presidential politics (or who hasn’t been taking up residence under a rock) is by now familiar with the conversation caught on a “hot” microphone, in which Trump — in language that would cause a Las Vegas pimp to blush — bragged about kissing, groping and trying to have sex with women, some married. And remember, he wasn’t a teenager at the time — he was 59 years old when the remarks were recorded.
“When you’re a star, they let you do it. Grab them by the pussy,” Trump says. “You can do anything.”
And the so-called evangelicals — black or white, living in palaces or doublewide trailers, driving a Rolls Royce or a hooptie — have said nothing. Not one damn word. Which proves they only have situational ethics, the kind that kick in only when they want to pontificate about crime associated with inner-city poverty, the supposed lack of morals of undocumented workers seeking a better life in this country, or when they want to trash followers of Islam.
Trump’s time in the spotlight will — thankfully — soon pass, but we’re going to be stuck with these religious charlatans, fakers and frauds, perhaps forever. The world mocks us and we wonder why.
In politics there’s a term called the “October Surprise” — a bombshell accusation that has the potential of upending a political campaign. Political operatives usually hold off on dropping such bombs until late October (when a candidate doesn’t have time to respond). But in Trump’s case there’s probably so much ammunition out there they had to start earlier in the month.
Anyone who thinks this is the last hand grenade that will be lobbed into the demagogue’s lap really doesn’t know anything about media or politics. Someone — some sound technician — has just been sitting on these recently published remarks for years, waiting for the appropriate time to disclose them. And when the candidate is as loudmouthed as Trump you just know there are other tapes out there waiting to surface. You can make book on it.
Trump’s response: “Bill Clinton did it too.” The only problem is, Bill Clinton is not running for office, and, if I recall, Bill Clinton paid a heavy price for his transgressions. Shouldn’t Trump also pay a price for his?
Now that the down ticket Republican candidates are running away from Trump as if they are all hogs and he’s a butcher holding a slaughtering knife, the GOP is starting to realize what a huge mistake the party made here in Cleveland by nominating a bully and braggart. I wrote then that the party of Lincoln was going to turn the “Q” into an elephant graveyard, and by all appearances I was right. I’ve never for one moment wavered in my belief that Trump would lose by a larger margin that Barry Goldwater did in 1964.
And while I’m thoroughly enjoying the thrashing that Trump is receiving, long term, the demise of the Republican Party portends ill for the Republic. The fact is, we not only need two major political parties in this country, we probably would function best if we had three, four or more.
Constitutional scholar Lani Guinier’s 1994 classic work The Tyranny of the Majority spells out in detail how a multi-party system of governance would work, and probably would prevent our beloved country from sliding into the dustbin of history.
The other way to slow that slide is for the American religious right to mend its ways and repent. The truth is, they hold such sway over the Republican nominating process that unless they truly have a real “Come to Jesus” moment, the chances of the GOP surviving long term are slim to none.
But for the most part, the hypocrites are far too busy worshipping a false, golden-haired, women-abusing god to see the error of their ways — not even if it is their only road to salvation.
From Cool Cleveland correspondent Mansfield B. Frazier mansfieldfATgmail.com. Frazier’s From Behind The Wall: Commentary on Crime, Punishment, Race and the Underclass by a Prison Inmate is available again in hardback. Snag your copy and have it signed by the author by visiting http://NeighborhoodSolutionsInc.com
2 Responses to “MANSFIELD: American Hypocrisy”
Jack McGuane
Very well put, Mansfield
Peter Jones
Well done, Mansfield. Funny, but the other day at a panel discussion at Cleveland-Marshall Law School I uttered what I acknowledged, particularly as both the local Democratic and Republican party chiefs were present, was political heresy: all state laws that protect the dominant two parties at the expense of third parties should be repealed. We’ll see if I’m removed from my party’s upcoming holiday gathering mailing list.