Michael De Dora suggests a thought experiment: imagine the policy positions of the two candidates for president were flipped. Trump had all the Clinton policy positions and Clinton had all the Trump ones.
Yeah. I didn’t have to read on to know the answer. Never. Not in a million years.
I wouldn’t vote for Clinton either in that scenario, of course, but I sure as hell would not vote for the evil lying cheating pussy-grabbing bully.
In this world, I would not vote for Hillary Clinton. But, I would also not vote for Donald Trump.
To be clear, in this election I do support (the real) Clinton, and do not support (the real) Trump. Their policy positions are a significant reason. But what about factors beyond policy positions? Is this election really only about some differences of political opinions?
For me, the answer is clearly “no.”
For me too. It’s those other factors that have grabbed my attention and my horror. He’s the most unrelievedly horrible living person I know of. I don’t know of anyone who actually liked Hitler other than Goering and Unity Mitford, but the Führer is long gone. Among people who are around now, Trump takes the prize.
Up through middle and even early high school, I was bullied. Despite the fact that I was physically larger than some of my bullies, they had a psychological edge. They would engage in endless personal attacks. They would pick on every little characteristic you had, and make you feel horrible about yourself for being the way you are.They would demean and dehumanize you. They would often threaten and encourage physical violence, and sometimes even carry through on their promises.
In hindsight, I know what these bullies sought: power, and perhaps respect (or fear?) from other bullies. They wanted to be king for the sake of being king, for the privileges that came with having power. They were willing to do anything to feel that power, including harming anyone who stood in their way. And they wielded their power recklessly, without mercy.
They had no interest in anything other than themselves and their own standing in the world.
I think back now and imagine that one of these school bullies has decided to run for president of the school government. He presents his fellow students with a lengthy list of policy positions. I read it over and find that I agree on most of his positions, and disagree with most of the positions of his opponent.
Yet, how could I possibly support this person? I agree with his policy positions, sure, but what about him as a person? And I find that the reason I couldn’t support him is the same reason I couldn’t support even a liberal Trump — my respect for basic human decency.
It’s shaming that we have someone like that in the position he’s in. Shaming. Shame on us.
Comments
13 responses to “One of these school bullies”
I’m not sure we can so completely distinguish the person from the policies. Policy is just expression of intention to act. Trump’s behaviour towards others gives us another means to judge likely future acts. The traits he has expressed will almost certainly affect his governing style and decisions, just like his policies reflect what his governing style and decisions will be like. We can take observation of the personal traits Trump has expressed so far as a kind of implicit policy statement, that supplements his explicit policy statements.
WILL? WILL? What do you mean WILL?
*faints dead away*
Smelling salts STAT!!
Not to mention the sorts of minions, cronies and enablers who would crawl out of their lairs to serve him if he were to win.
Sorry! Can you use “will” in a conditional sense? I meant it like “If I win, then I will . . .” or “If Trump wins, then he will . . .” My understanding of grammar is intuitive rather than technical, unfortunately.
One can use “will” in the conditional sense, but you didn’t say “if” in the original. You were saying that Trump will win.
Ah. I had the conditional in mind, but didn’t write it. Fwiw, I don’t think Trump is going to win! Which is great.
@Emily #1:
Agreed. Is Trump’s promise to jail his political opponents part of his public policy, or a personal trait? What about his idea to torture terrorists, even if they don’t know anything and it doesn’t work, becuase they probably deserve it? What about his idea to take out their civilian families? What about his idea to open up the libel laws to go after journalists who say things about him that he doesn’t like?
One of the problems with Trump is that most of his “policies” seem to be just an extension of his personality.
If it makes anyone feel any better we’ll probably have a good idea if he can win the race by around 5 PM PST.
“I don’t know of anyone who actually liked Hitler other than Goering and Unity Mitford…”
Lord Rothermere, grandfather of the current owner of the Daily
FascistMail. Big mates. Also, a certain monarch of the UK was said to have expressed a degree of admiration…And many of the Hitler youth idolized him, much like the Trumpistas do today with Trump. I don’t know if idolized and liked are really the same; idolized is more like adored.
Perhaps there are some people you can’t like. You can only love – or hate – them. They stir very strong passions.
Emily: If you want the conditional without ‘if’, use ‘would’ in place of ‘will’. *May possibly be a bit of an amateur grammar nerd.*
An alternative grammar, taking the view that Trump has ‘governed’ his companies (though that is debatable), or that one can have a ‘governing style’ before (or independently of) the actual act of governing, would be to say ‘…will have affected his governing style.’ But that’s getting a bit tense-cestuous. ;) *actual amateur grammar nerd*