Egad!
Trump insults our nation. Almost every time he tweets or opens his mouth.
A list of the insults, aimed at individuals and groups, would be far to long to repeat here. But the accumulated impact is a massive insult to the nation.
One seeking the presidency of the United States should, above all else, be serious. By words and actions, the candidate must demonstrate he/she understands the enormity of the position they seek.
Clearly, Trump does not.
With the verbal eloquence of a recalcitrant child, demeanor of either a bully or horrible Las Vegas lounge comic, and social media persona of an immature teenager, he has most assuredly made a mockery of the office.
Histrionic to the extreme, his utterances, tweets, and boasts demonstrate absolute unsuitability for the presidency. One example makes the point.
Stipulating that the DNC unquestionably chose to have Mr. Khan speak as a provocateur, Trump's scurrilous response was unacceptable.
A response was not in fact required.
If compelled to respond, Trump could have simply said, "Like all Americans, I honor all Gold Star families." But he did not. He chose to insult the Khans multiple times.
Again, a extremely long list of other examples could fill volumes.
Bottom line: Mr. Trump insults the nation and its people and is unworthy of their votes.
Footnote: To be completely clear on the matter, Ms. Clinton is equally unworthy of our votes.
Five months to go until the 2016 elections. It hardly seems possible the political choices could be any more dismal.
For differing and similar reasons, the presumptive major party candidates for the office of the presidency are simply unworthy of the position they seek.
This leaves our nation facing a quandary for which no clear palatable, reasonable, or (dare it be said) sane alternative presents itself.
Legions of woefully uninformed, ignorant, greedy, and/or inept voters will certainly cast their ballots for one of these two. Unless some cataclysmic event arises, one of them will be elected to serve as the next President of the United States of America.
At this point, one could start forecasting all the doom and gloom that will befall our nation. It matters not which individual is elected, because the strident supporters from the other side can provide long lists of reasonable and unreasonable predictions. Perhaps some of the gloom and doom, regardless of who is elected, will come to pass. But it isn't reason to flee the country.
A singular strength of our nation is its ability to survive. It has survived the Civil War, multiple world wars, political scandals, slavery, economic recessions, the Great Depression, housing booms and busts, civil unrest, riots, 9/11, reconstruction, impeachments, Vietnam, high unemployment, the Dust Bowl, assassinations, Watergate, and countless other challenges. It has survived its previous exceptionally poor choices for president.
It has survived.
We cannot accurately predict what form survival will take in response to this new challenge, but survive the country will.
There may be pain involved, but at the other end, our country will be better for its survival.
We will endure the next months of hyperbole, insults, shrill voices, unfounded claims, stilted polls, expenditure of outrageous sums of money, ridiculous pronouncements, outright lies, clever misrepresentations, and perhaps even legal upheaval. Then the election will be done.
Take a deep breath, exhale slowly, and remember that our country has survived worse and will survive this.
