Last night’s State of the Union address occurred much past my deadline. So, let’s assess what we’ve seen in the President Trump’s first year. (Stay with me now; there’s a big finish.)
- Adulterer? Michael Wolff thinks it is happening right now. If all of the women he calls liars about his sexual misbehavior are lying, then those encounters were consensual and adulterous.
- Brazenness? Replacing “E Pluribus Unum” on the Presidential Challenge Coin given to military service members with “Make America Great Again?” Nuf said.
- Corrupt? He uses the White House to shill for his daughter’s business and directs untold travel expense money to his various golf resorts.
- Duplicitous? “He would apparently lie when the truth would serve him better.”
- Evasiveness? What policies he misarticulates he changes as soon as someone else gets his ear.
- Fatuous? “The man is so full of himself that there is room only for his construct of reality.”
- Guilty? Violating the emoluments clause, obviously. Obstruction of justice or treason look like real possibilities.
- Hubris? “The original sin for the Greeks of overweening pride.” (Don’t let your own biases stop you now.)
- Irresponsible? Unless he was elected to provide Twitter commentary on the world he is not
- engaged in – from bed, he acknowledged over the weekend.
- Jerk? And not just for jerking around the people in his own administration.
- Kinky? “This is a family newspaper.”
- Liar? “See duplicitous.”
- Misogynist? “…the man shows no respect for any of the women in his life.”
- Naughty? Stormy Daniels might tell us – if not for her $130,000 silencing fee.
- Obstructionist of justice? Every day in multiple ways.
- Pathological? “The sickness seems so ingrained as to be the nugget of identity at the heart of his sick soul.” (The reveal will seal the deal.)
- Ruthless? Lashes out viciously at the slightest slight.
- Sex addict? “Psycho-babble to deflect responsibility….”
- Tyrant? “He obviously sees himself as above the laws of the land,” and the world leaders he praises most and most often are virtual dictators.
- Unfaithful? Untrustworthy? “Take about any virtue and negate it.”
- Victim? “Only in his view of the world.”
- Womanizer? And brags about it.
- X-rated? “The (Presidential) Library, no doubt.”
Each of the above questions first surfaced in a column I wrote about 20 years ago for the Borger News-Herald in which I called for the impeachment and conviction of President Bill Clinton. The answers in quotations were the same answers I posted back then.
Republicans cry out – often – that President Trump’s despicable behavior is no worse than that of President Clinton, whom Democrats gave a pass while they railed against him.
My question now for God’s Own Party is where are you now? Where’s the outrage? Why the silence? I thought we shared solid moral principles that transcended party differences.
Franklin Graham and many public Christians have forfeited any claim to moral authority. Republicans throughout the ranks are in the same sinking ark.
(Gary Edmondson is Stephens County Democratic Party Chair.)