Quote:
Originally Posted by Joe the Photog
This seems like a really thin thing to get upset at Trump for. People make gaffes all the time. There's way bigger things that he says or does to get upset up.
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Actually, it's a pretty good reason.
Why? Because if a disaster like this hits, the only decent thing to do is to express sympathy and comfort for those who have suffered. As the president, he's supposed to be the leader of the country in situations such as this one. You know, offering the healing balm of knowledge that the power and might of the United States stands before them to help.
Instead, he decided to score cheap political points. Not only that, but even as the fire was raging, he threatened to yank Federal funds. He forgot that the wildfire occurred on Federal lands, and that he himself cut Federal funding for forest management. Nope. In a time of disaster, the President felt it important to vomit out something stupid.
The thing about it? It was wholly unnecessary. It contributed nothing to remedying the situation. It was just a freaking bomb thrown into what was already a nightmare for those people grappling with a horrific situation.
Hey, I get it. we should look at how we manage forests. But while your neighbor's house is burning down, do you stroll up and say, "Gee, Fred. How come you didn't invest in sprinkler systems? That was stupid on your part." That's precisely the kind of nitwit action our president just performed. And to those who trivialize it by saying it was just a gaffe, do I need to point out that these gaffes occur almost hourly? Hey, we're all human. We all say and do things we didn't mean. But there's an enormous difference between someone who said something boneheaded once and someone who seems to lack an intervening gear between brain and mouth.
The hell of it? If I'm a Republican or a Conservative, I'd be spectacularly ticked off at Trump right now, due to the daily damage he's doing with his unforced errors. Not just the institution of the presidency and their electoral chances in another two years, but at how he's ripping apart even the fabric of society at a time like this, when we should all be acting as one to give our support and compassion to those who lost everything. He has politicized the question of whether or not we should have empathy. He has reduced compassion down to a question of party.
But these fools, these knuckle-dragging zombies who excuse and enable every word that erupts from the man's Twitter feed seem to have a capacity for forgetfulness as bottomless as the man's capacity to say incredibly wrong, false, and inexcusable things. They excuse, they clean up, they offer belabored rationalizations for what he says and does. These people remind me of an abused spouse making alibis for the spouse who hits her if the dinner gets burned, chiefly because she has too much invested in the marriage to get out now.
Here's the thing. Our political leaders aren't choir boys. I wouldn't want one who was. I endured Jimmy Carter and his fecklessness, thanks. But our political leaders should show at least the hint of self-awareness and a scrap of humanity. And the more you defend his endless stream of outrages and lies, the more you yourself become stained by them.
Let's try a simple exercise. Let's forget for a moment that Donald Trump is our president. Pretend for a moment that he's a neighbor down the street or a guy in your office. A guy who lies incessantly and without compunction. A guy who brags nonstop about his business accomplishments, even though everyone knows that he was being carried by his daddy and still managed to have some spectacular failures. A guy who runs his department at work in the most chaotic and Machiavellian way possible, running off all the employees of quality. A guy who is notorious for stiffing his vendors. A guy who cheated on his first wife, divorced her for his mistress, cheated on his second wife, married a third time, and then went out and banged prostitutes while his third wife was still recovering from the birth of his son. A guy who thinks nothing of insulting the handicapped, veterans, and the parents of soldiers killed in combat.
Now, knowing this about that guy, would you let him across your threshold? Would you invite him to sit at your dinner table? If he worked at your company, would you want him working for you? Yet, not only did you vote him into office but defend the steady litany of grotesqueries that come from him every day. That is Donald Trump. And, sadly, that is his misguided base.
What is your breaking point? I would really like to know.
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