The Trump Conundrum

Yes, he's sexist, racist, homophobic etc. etc. etc.  And since I'm a straight white male, it's doubly wrong for me to support him, since it's likely that whatever policies he would be able to push through as president would benefit white males at the expense of minorities, women, and gays.

And he also doesn't seem all that bright or well-informed.

So to be clear, I'm not supporting him.

But I'm also a bit sick of supporting any politician at all.  Politicians as a class are self-promoting, power hungry egomaniacs, most of whom couldn't hold down a real job.

I liked Barack Obama (and still do), but in the end, he didn't do much of anything that he promised to do.  As I've said before, the things he did accomplish were all done with the permission and approval of -- and largely for the benefit of -- big corporations, big defense contractors, and big banks.

Given how much Hillary Clinton has made off of her speeches to big banks and big business over the last few years, I don't see her as being exactly what the country needs in 2016.

So I will vote for Bernie Sanders if he is the Democratic candidate.  He seems like an honest person and he has been fighting against corporate control of the political process for a long time.

Donald Trump or Hillary Clinton?  That will be a hard choice for independents like me.

I don't much like Donald Trump as a person.  But actually, I like him more than I like just about any of the other Republican candidates, and what's more, I like him more than I like Hillary.  Is that wrong?  What's to like about anybody in that crowd?  Trump is fun to watch and he is not scared of anybody.  He speaks his mind, so you know exactly what you are getting.  And that's more than you're getting with Hillary Clinton.

Interesting how the press is just piling on against Donald Trump.  Yes, he's a bit cartoonish, but so are ALL the others. Although I'm not exactly a Trump fan, I found the recent article by Jeffrey Tayler in Salon -- criticizing Trump for his statements about religion -- to be a big stretch.  The article's title says it all:  "Donald Trump’s incoherent, megalomaniacal religion: Why his courting of evangelicals reveals the depths of his ignorance."  The article goes on to make the rather obvious point that Donald Trump isn't particularly religious -- which is something that he doesn't particularly deny.  For me, his honesty on this matter is refreshing, as compared (e.g.) to even Barack Obama, who, whenever an election was drawing near, would conveniently and publicly remember that Jesus Christ was his personal savior.  (2011:  http://www.cbn.com/cbnnews/us/2011/February/Obama-Attends-National-Prayer-Breakfast-/; 2008:  http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/01/25/obama-i-believe-in-the-re_n_83208.html; 2004 (in the Senate race): http://www.patheos.com/blogs/thedudeabides/obama-on-faith-the-exclusive-interview/.  The point is, atheists and agnostics will forgive a candidate who says he believes in God, but Christians won't forgive a candidate who says he isn't Christian.  And one needs at least a few Christian voters to win an election in this country.  So step one for a viable political candidacy is to make a statement or two that allow the Christians to think that you're a Christian, and then you move on.

As for the "blood coming out of her eyes/wherever" comment about Megyn Kelly, I could be wrong, but I think he just got lost in a bad metaphor and was looking for a way out.  I.e. everybody who has any sense at all knows that a man simply may NOT attempt to explain a woman's conduct by reference to her menstrual cycle.  Amy Schumer makes that point brilliantly here.

The fact is, Trump went badly wrong by saying that blood was coming from her eyes.  What the heck does that mean?  I've never heard that expression used to describe someone who is angry.  If it's used at all, it's used to describe a victim, not an attacker.  In fact, before Trump made that comment, the metaphor was used on the Daily Show's final episode to show the effect of having to watch too much Fox News:

There's an expression about lasers coming out of one's eyes.  Or maybe daggers.  And maybe smoke or flames coming out of one's ears. But when blood is coming out of one's eyes, it's time to call a doctor.  In fact, if you try to google it, if you manage to eliminate all the references to Trump, you just get references to people or animals who are sick.

Trump's own pathetic explanation -- that when he said "wherever" he was thinking about blood coming out of her nose or ears -- also makes little sense, since those too are things that happen to people who are suffering, not people who are angry.  Perhaps he subconsciously realized that he was trapped in a bad metaphor when he ill-advisedly substituted "wherever" for whatever he was about to say.

So to me, it's certainly more evidence of his stupidity and arrogance, and probably his unfitness to be President -- if he weren't so arrogant, he would have realized that the easiest explanation is that he started off with a bad metaphor and couldn't find his way out.  My guess is that he still does not realize even now that that's what happened, since he is the sort of person who will never admit a mistake, even a little one.  It would be an admission that he is less than perfectly articulate, which might be hard for him to make.

But all of the people who insist that he could only have been talking about Megyn Kelly's period -- which seems to be just about everybody -- are equally stupid (gee, I'm starting to sound like Donald Trump).  It was certainly a hostile question, but it was a planned hostile question and everybody knew that.  Even if attributing it to her period were appropriate on some level, it just wouldn't make any sense.  I'm pretty sure that's not what he trying to do.