Look, at this point, Donald Trump has said so many horrible things, not just as a “politician” but as a human being, that it’s almost impossible to even speak about it rationally. Even worse is that, somehow, a core 40%-45% of the country is – if the polls are to be believed – considering a vote for this monster for President of the United States.
Let’s not mince words here: at this point, anyone thinking about voting for this utterly unqualified sociopath, bigot, sadist and corrupt scumbag has to be considered as approving of said sociopathic, bigoted, sadistic, corrupt, etc. behavior. And no, even if you absolutely HATE Hillary Clinton, for whatever reason (and to be clear, I see no reason for anyone to hate Hillary Clinton – disagree with her on policy, fine, but hate her? why???), there is absolutely ZERO excuse for supporting, or for failing to utterly condemn, Donald Trump.
The latest case in point? Check out the above video of Trump being asked by George Stephanopolous about the powerful, moving, emotional speech at the Democratic National Convention by Khizr Khan, father of Army Captain Humayun Khan, killed in the line of duty in Iraq. Honestly, I’m at a loss for words to even describe how disgusting Trump’s comments are. So, let me start with a “hat tip” to Ken “teacherken” Bernstein and his post about this on Daily Kos, “A conservative’s reaction to Trump on Khizr Khan.” As teacherken notes, “Matt Mackowiak is a very conservative Republican.” Here is what GOP strategist Mackowiak had to say on his Twitter feed (bolding added by me for emphasis)
This should be unnecessary to say, but in public life, any criticism from gold star families is legitimate and deserves to be heard. The religion of the gold star family is irrelevant. Their gave the last full measure of patriotism to us. A debt that can’t be repaid.
Whether the mother spoke at the DNC Convention is irrelevant. Maybe she was nervous. Maybe the husband spoke for both of them. Who cares. There is only one response for Trump to the criticism: “As an American, I deeply appreciate the patriotic sacrifice of the Khan family.”
The urge to “hit back” at every critic must stop somewhere. If not Gold Star families, then where? Orphans? Priests? Lepers? The urge to spew an anti-Muslim dog whistle at the Khan family is vile. Subhuman. Evil. It was meant to invalidate the criticism. What if the wife spoke & not the husband? Would that have mattered to Trump? It doesn’t matter which parent spoke. It was from the family.
Trump must win every interaction & have last word. Incapable of being generous, magnanimous, humble. Explains why he’s on 3rd marriage. This latest crisis is an existential threat to Trump. Is staff going to stand by him? Why would he make Khan story bigger? It’s insane. Trump is proving that Hillary’s criticism of his temperament has merit. He can’t even pretend when lashing out was predicted. Took bait.
I agree with every word written by Mackowiak. Trump is a truly vile, evil, and every other bad word you can think of. The fact that the Republican Party nominated him for ANY office, let alone the highest in the land, should in and of itself be disqualifying for Republicans up and down the ballot, unless they clearly and loudly denounce Trump, state that they will not under any circumstances vote for him, and stop playing evasive, weaselly games like Barbara Comstock does when it comes to this sociopath.
I’d also refer you what Ezra Klein writes at Vox and what James Fallows writes at The Atlantic about Trump’s latest, and perhaps worst, outrage — attacking this courageous, heroic “gold star family” and basically mocking their sacrifice by claiming that he, too, has “sacrificed” by…wait for it…donating to charity and creating jobs. WTF???????????
Klein: “Trump also wanted the Khans to know that, like them, he had sacrificed for this country…I honestly do not understand how a human being can respond to a family that lost their son for this country by saying that he has sacrificed too, he’s worked really hard, he’s built “great structures,” he’s had “tremendous success.” This is not a question that needs to be asked in most elections, but it needs to be asked in this one: what kind of person is Donald Trump? What kind of person says these things? And is that really the kind of person we want to be president?
Fallows: “I am not imagining that even an episode as heartless as this will necessarily change any committed Trump supporters’ minds. Although the accumulation of Trump’s offenses should increasingly shame the ‘respectable’ Republicans standing up for him. Paul Ryan and Mitch McConnell, this starts with you…But it is important to document the starkness of the two conceptions of America that are on clear view, 100 days before this man could become president. The America of the Khan family, and that of Donald Trump…Until this moment, I think I never really gauged his cruelty.”
With that, I’ll leave you with video of the speech by Khizr Khan, one that should be watched over and over again by every American voter from now through November…and beyond. That man, Khizr Khan, sums up everything it means to be a patriotic American, a courageous and principled human being, and a the polar opposite of Donald Trump.
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