I’ve always had a bifurcated relationship with Facebook, and one area where I’ve changed my mind from time to time has to do with whether to post political material on Facebook. In a lot of ways, Facebook does not seem to be the right venue for that. It’s more for personal tidbits and food porn, although plenty of people post politically themed cartoons, images and videos. A couple of weeks ago, after it looked like Donald Trump had pulled even with Hillary Clinton after the RNC convention, I thought it was time to pull out all the stops and post on whatever venues were available, which included Facebook.
But last week, I decided to stop, and I wrote this on my Facebook account:
A couple of weeks ago I wrote a post apologizing for my forthcoming political posts, because I thought this election was too important to stay silent about. And now I’m going to stop. Because if after last week you still think the Donald is qualified to be President of the United States, the problem is not with the Donald. The problem is with you.
Let’s just review: first the Donald hinted in a speech (wink, wink, nudge, nudge) that 2nd amendment advocates might want to assassinate Hillary Clinton so that she could not appoint Supreme Court justices who would “repeal” the 2nd amendment. When pushed on this, the Donald claimed he was just referring to the political power of 2nd amendment advocates, notwithstanding that this political power would already have failed if Hillary is elected President. Then yesterday he claimed that President Obama was the “founder” of ISIS, and Hillary Clinton the “Co-Founder.” When given the opportunity to walk that back by a conservative radio host, who suggested that maybe Trump meant to say that Obama’s actions “caused” ISIS to be founded, Trump (as he so often does) doubled down and said that he literally meant that Obama was the founder of ISIS.
Maybe it’s the stress of having to run a national campaign, but it looks like the Donald is becoming unhinged. A candidacy that started as a joke, then became serious for a while, is now becoming a joke again.
And for the voters who still support this man, it may be time for them to take an inventory of their own selves to try to figure out what it is in them that would allow them to continue to support this absolute lunatic.
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Since then, Trump has of course retreated on the notion that Obama is literally the founder of ISIS and proclaimed that he was just being sarcastic. Which is classic Trump. Here is how it works:
- Say something outrageous that gets everyone’s attention.
- If it turns out to resonate – like building a wall on the border with Mexico and getting the Mexicans to pay for it – go with it, no matter how ludicrous it is.
- If it turns out to be over the top – and this can be measured by the extent of the outrage – then claim that you were just kidding (and chide the rest of us for our lack of humor).
This way, Trump never has to be held accountable for anything. Either he was right or he was just kidding. And we let him get away with it.
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About a1skeptic
A disturbed citizen and skeptic. I should stop reading the newspaper. Or watching TV. I should turn off NPR and disconnect from the Internet. We’d all be better off.
As a mere outsider please shoot me down in flames but isn’t the problem the separation of powers? The president has to come from nowhere to get elected, which means the candidates tend to be fruitcakes and wackos …