Carolyn Grant
Ladies and gentlemen, the end is upon us — the end of Trump, that is. Or, as one political website (dailykos.com) likes to call it, Trumpageddon. Yes, we have passed Trumpocalypse and have now reached Trumpageddon.
So much has happened in the last week — all of it bad for Trump, despite weak claims by the far right that he actually won the second debate — that it’s hard to know where to start.
But we might as well get right to the big one — the tape. It broke last Friday afternoon and has pretty much consumed North American political news since that moment. An audio tape of Trump yucking it up with frat boy/entertainment news host Billy Bush (yes, it’s that Bush family) about how his celebrity and wealth allow him to grope women if he pleases.
Trump actually had to issue the first apology of his presidential run, though the Trumpology was vague and he looked somewhat like someone was just off camera threatening him to do it or else, as many observed. And over the weekend, Trump’s position evolved. He was going to brush it off as ‘locker-room talk’. Just something the guys do when they get together, nudge, nudge. Let’s move on. It is not surprising he took this tack because he has been able to use it on every other horrific, awful thing he has said over the course of the campaign. He just brushes off the awfulness and moves on. It worked. Until the tape.
Because for whatever reason, aggressive sexist comments are the final straw apparently. Republican Party members, who backed him through xenophobia, anti-Muslim rhetoric, racism, the wall of idiocy and more, have drawn the line at this. They are deserting him like the rats they are. It’s a Trumpede to the exits.
Let us turn our attention to the gutless wonder and chief rat Paul Ryan, the Republican Speaker of the House, a man who has been so desperately trying to have it both ways he is very likely to end up having nothing.
The media love the fresh faced lad from Wisconsin — the cheese state — but I am lactose intolerant. His current position is that he hopes Trump is president but he won’t campaign with him because his comments are deplorable and someone might take a picture of him with Trump. He deplores his comments about women who should be ‘championed and revered’, Ryan says, but wants Trump to win so he can make sure that women have no power to control their reproductive rights. Because they are to be championed and revered, but not allowed to think for themselves. That’s Trumpocrisy at its finest.
Republicans are caught betwixt and between right now. Recent polling by the Global Strategy Group shows that a Republican candidate loses five points if he sticks with Trump. But, he or she also loses five points if he abandons Trump at this late date after supporting him through everything else. The old gutless wonder effect.
Trump has responded of course by turning his considerable ire on the Republicans, the party he is representing. He tweeted all week about the awful turncoat Republicans, calling Ryan ‘weak and ineffectual’. Sen. John McCain abandoned him and Trump again brought up his record as POW, saying he wouldn’t want to be in a foxhole with McCain. Of course, given that Trump was given draft deferments because his feet hurt, when would he ever have been in a foxhole with anyone?
Trump has also been running his mouth at his rallies this week, telling his hungry base that if he doesn’t win, the election is rigged, and encouraging ‘observers’ to be at the polls to make sure there’s no monkey business. He also told a rally in Florida this week that Hillary Clinton was violating his personal space during the debate. Did you see the debate? Did you observe Mrs. Clinton facing the audience, answering a question while Trump lurked right behind her glaring at her? She invaded his space?!!!?
Oy. This is the inevitable conclusion to the Trump candidacy, a descent into lunacy unmatched in history. We all knew some kind of meltdown would happen, but this? It’s a political spectacle the likes of which we have never seen. It’s a Trumpectacle! I can’t take my eyes off of it.
