October 8, 2016, I didn't get a harumph out of you
It seems a recording of Donald "the Donald" Trump has emerged, showing him making "lewd remarks."
Near as I can tell, the only thing more offensive (about what Mr. Trump said eleven years ago) than what he says (or tweets) on a daily basis is that he used "the P word" (I suppose if there were a recording of the Donald using "the N word," that would be even worse). Got it: that's what American life is, these days. Substance is irrelevant. We don't go more than a micron below the surface of anything. The wrong word was used. The fact that a party that has been seeking the support of racists, xenopohobes, misogynists and other assorted troglodytes since the days of Dick Nixon's "southern strategy" has finally put up its omega candidate-- a candidate that David Duke can full-throatedly endorse-- isn't the issue. No, the daily barrage of verbal (and occasionally, at Trump rallies, physical) assaults (be they on Mexicans, Muslims, women, or any dissenters of any kind) wasn't enough to cause the defections of certain polite Republicans... Utah Congressman Jason Chaffetz (who now "withdraws support" from Mr. Trump) ... or from Colorado Congressman Mike Coffman, who says Trump should step aside... or former Utah governor (and Presidential candidate) Jon Huntsman, who says the same... all I can say is... why now?
I mean, to their credit, leading right-wing Evangelical leaders, apparently, are somewhat offended, but will not withdraw their support from Trump, noting, ostensibly, that "it's about the Supreme Court, stupid." For them, it's never been about "principles," but about "ends justify the means." This, boys and girls, is why the Republican party, despite perennially being out-gunned numerically in voter registrations as well as in polling on many issues of importance, remains in charge of most governor-ships, state legislatures and both houses of Congress. The Republicans have their eyes on the prize: even though they currently have a candidate without an ounce of discipline himself, they, as a party, at least, have the discipline to swallow (as it were) whatever it is he puts out there, and support their candidate because of the big picture.
Democrats and alleged progressives, it seems, just don't. And, IMHO, the results are going to be catastrophic this election cycle.
So I'll say it again. Sure, I'm as offended as anyone about the latest Trump revelations; but they are merely of a piece with everything else the man has said and done in his offensive and rapacious 70-year existence (in my "interview" on 1 April, note everything the Donald said). Aside from his use of "the P word"-- and I swear, that's got to be what this is about-- why is this some kind of inflection point? I'll tell you why: because it isn't.
Hillary's strategy of relying 100% on the Donald offending the electorate has resulted in this being a horse-race-- a horse-race that can, and if she doesn't generate affirmative enthusiasm to increase support from her own base, will-- result in the election of, well... not her. She's not a very good candidate, to be sure. That's really not the issue. I'm usually the last one to go there, but, boys and girls, "it's about the Supreme Court, stupid." And about every right-wing wet-dream program piece of legislation that Republicans can dream of-- a President Donald Trump will hardly be a "check and balance" about that-- it will simply be a right-wing feeding frenzy. Hillary can't seem to even get the words out of her mouth: "Mitch McConnell, Paul Ryan and the rest of the Republicans have told us that they would rather have Donald Trump appoint judges than Barack Obama, and we have to stop them."
No, the Donald's use of the P-word won't stop them.
Just sayin':
Update: Aside from effectively taking a whole bunch of Wikileaks released Hillary-related-disclosures out of the public's cognizance, for his own part, The Donald says he will "never withdraw."