Does a man who does not pay his fair share of federal taxes deserve to be president? Does he even deserve to be running for president? Can a man who looks down on those who pay their taxes as suckers and losers represent the country fairly or will he do what he can to enhance his own wealth and assets. Can he connect with ordinary citizens? His history suggests selfishness, self-involvement, narcissism, and behavior bordering on the edge of illegality. He has used the tax codes and the bankruptcy laws to major advantage, often disdainful of his investors, contractors, and small businessmen, whom he forced to take losses when he declared bankruptcy to keep himself afloat.
His “success” as a businessman started with money given to him by his father who subsequently had to bail him out when his ventures went awry. (Who would bail him out if he became president and got into trouble?) Trump’s great business ventures that he has been touting include Trump Airlines that failed, Trump University that scammed money from poor people and failed, the Trump Institute that did the same thing and failed, and the five Trump bankruptcies in his casino business that failed. And he lost nearly a billion dollars in one year. Is this really the great business guru who is capable of righting the American ship of state, or is he more likely to sink it.
Trump is also “a know it all,” unwilling to take advice from consultants or people who are really knowledgeable in different fields. After all, he has had no political experience and should be willing to listen to those who are experts. Yet, he failed to prepare for his first debate with Hillary though his advisors told him it was important and necessary. He believed he could manage the debate “off the cuff” as he has done with so many of his rallies. Thus, the polls and political scientists have shown that Trump lost the first debate, though it is unclear whether that was the result of his lack of preparation. (Trump has told all his associates to say that he won the debate as he does not want his supporters to believe that he lost.)
There is also his secret plan for defeating ISIS which he doesn’t want to reveal for fear of alerting them. He has said that he knows more about how to knock out ISIS than America’s generals, though he has no military experience at all. (He was able to dodge the draft during the Vietnam War, so maybe that gives him some knowledge of military strategy?) Would he listen to the generals if he was elected president, or would he just tell them what to do? He has suggested that torture of terrorist suspects would be fine as would killing their families. These actions would fall into the category of war crimes, though that would not appear to deter him. Perhaps the generals and other officers would not obey him if he ordered war crimes or crimes against humanity.
Would he agree to no first use of nuclear weapons? It’s not clear from what he has said so far, though he did wonder why we had them in the first place if we didn’t intend to use them. (Obviously, he never heard of MAD- Mutual Assured Deterrence.) His admiration for Putin and other dictators who violated human rights gives Americans a clue as to what type of president Trump would be. And his ideas of deporting 12 million undocumented immigrants is a fantasy, as the economy would tank and it would cost the nation hundreds of billions, if not trillions, of dollars to do. His wall at the border that Mexico would pay for is another absurd concept of his that will never come to pass.
One would think that his comments against the disabled, fat shaming of women, racist remarks, and denigration of Hispanics would be enough to lose him the votes of all of these groups. And though it is true Hillary has a majority of these sectors, there are still significant numbers of people in these groups who intend to vote for him. The race is much too close, even though Hillary is far from the ideal candidate. At least she is rational, qualified, and generally in control of herself, unlike “The Donald.” It should have been Hillary by a landslide, but it appears that many Americans have been seduced by Trump’s cons, populist and nationalist slogans. Hopefully, they’ll come to their senses by Election Day.
Resurrecting Democracy
www.robertlevinebooks.com
Political junkie, Vietnam vet, neurologist- three books on aging and dementia. Book on health care reform in 2009- Shock Therapy for the American Health Care System. Book on the need for a centrist third party- Resurrecting Democracy- A Citizen’s Call for a Centrist Third Party published in 2011. Aging Wisely, published in August 2014 by Rowman and Littlefield. Latest book- The Uninformed Voter published May 2020