THE DUOPOLY WATCH | Steven Jonas, MD, MPH
Special to The Greanville Post | Commentary No. 61
So why now? Why not after any one of the whole slew of Trump outrages, great and small that have occurred on his march towards the Presidency? Before posting an answer or two to that question, let us review briefly just some of the list of Trump outrages/mis-steps/withholdings/failed businesses/possible associations with criminal activities/ and so forth. Many of them on their own would have sunk any other candidate and had Repubs. running for the exits. Why now? Why this one?
And here, not in any particular order, are some of the Trump travesties (and worse):
- He apparently violated the Cuban embargo law, in dealing with a Cuban bank.
- Of course he has failed to reveal his Federal tax returns, which could hide the possibility that he has paid no personal income tax for years (which he actually admitted in passing during the Oct. 9 debate), but also that he has, as suspected, many associations with foreign businessmen who themselves have been accused of criminal activity.
- He has had numerous failed businesses, to say nothing of the bankruptcies.
- The constant lying.
- The racism, which started years ago with incidents like the “Central Park Five” (for whom he is still calling the death penalty despite that fact the DNA evidence has cleared them), but he trumpeted for years with birtherism. Funny how he claimed that he forced President Obama to reveal his birth certificate, as if that were a good thing. Who has ever asked any other President to produce a birth certificate? But I forgot. Obama is only half-white.
- Islamophobia, writ large and dangerously, both general and specific in the case of the Khans.
- Personally attacking Ms. Machado (the Miss universe winner), Senator John McCain, disabled people.
- Praising President Putin, while likely having either major investments in Russia or having Russian investment in his own enterprises, or both.
- The “punishing women for having an abortion” position.
- Having an open affair while married (just the one that we know about, with Marla Maples).
- Engaging in no personal philanthropy since 2008.
- Possibly bribing (a crime) elected officials (or so it has been charged).
- The Trump “University” affair, which has both civil and criminal elements to it, and the racist attack on the case’s judge.
- The generalized mysogny, which has been well-known, like the objectification of women by their body and body-parts shapes and sizes.
- Of course the “Mexicans are rapists and murderers” claim with which he justifies his (totally impractical in any case) Wall (at a time when more Mexicans are going home than coming here, but when have facts ever mattered to Trump?)
- Dealing with an Iranian bank while sanctions were imposed, a potentially criminal activity.
- And so on, and so forth.
Paul Ryan—as repulsive and unprincipled in his predatory ideology as Trump, but far more dangerous due to his intelligence. Possibly a shoo-in for the 2020 contest. (If we’re still alive!)
So why now? Why the uproar among Repubs. who are running for the exits in droves over the Groping Scandal (which caught up in it a Bush family member as well.) Well it cannot be that they are people of principle. If they were, why did virtually no one leave over a much more serious matter, in terms of policy not personal behavior of which this type of mysogny is particularly gross, like the suggestion that U.S. Muslims might have to have special identification (with the yellow crescent patch coming just after that?) Well, first and foremost, as I have written on numerous occasions, on moat issues Trump is well within Republican traditions, except that he says them out loud. So what does give?
Well, first he gives the lie to the Repubs. who fancy themselves the Party of Probity. Despite Senator Vitter, the former Governor of South Carolina, now Congressman from that state, Mark Sanford, the former Congressman Mark Foley, to say nothing of the jailed Denny Hastert, and so on an so forth, the Repubs. just love retaining that fiction. Well, the Trump story is just really gross, and he is running for President.
But the real reason had nothing to do with morality and it has nothing to do with the fact that the man knows little about what one has to know about in order to be President of the world’s leading capitalist/imperialist power. It has everything to do with the undecided/usually-Republican female vote. Up until now, Trump has had a chance to win. During the time that he and the media were making something out of the pretty-much nothing of the Clinton “email scandal” and “Benghazi” was just not working for the outside of their base where it works anyway. Now, with what this one is doing to Trump’s numbers with wavering women, unless there is some major “outside” event, like a (false-flag) “terrorist attack” on U.S. soil, he is sure to lose. And that’s the principal reason they are abandoning ship.
It has nothing to do with principles or true outrage; it has everything to do with the elections down-ballot, and with the Congressional elections in 2018 and the next Presidential in 2020. More on the latter, anon.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Senior Editor, Politics, Steven Jonas, MD, MPH is a Professor Emeritus of Preventive Medicine at Stony Brook University (NY) and author/co-author/editor/co-editor of over 30 books. In addition to being Senior Editor, Politics, for The Greanville Post, he is: a Contributor for American Politics to The Planetary Movement; a “Trusted Author” for Op-Ed News.com; a contributor to the “Writing for Godot” section of Reader Supported News; and a contributor to From The G-Man. He is the Editorial Director and a Contributing Author for TPJmagazine.us. Further, he is an occasional Contributor to TheHarderStuff newsletter, BuzzFlash Commentary, and Dandelion Salad. Dr. Jonas’ latest book is Ending the ‘Drug War’; Solving the Drug Problem: The Public Health Approach, Brewster, NY: Punto Press, available on Kindle from Amazon at http://www.amazon.com/Ending-Drug-War-Solving-Problem-ebook/dp/B01EO9RGKO/ref=sr_1_4?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1461783388&sr=1-4&keywords=Ending+the+Drug+War
His most recent book on US politics is The 15% Solution: How the Republican Religious Right Took Control of the U.S., 1981-2022: A Futuristic Novel (Trepper & Katz Impact Books, Punto Press Publishing, 2013, Brewster, NY), and available on Amazon.
