These are confusing times in politics, with polarization, propaganda, and preaching on all sides. Ideologies are fine but often get lost in the cacophony, at least in terms of what they are meant to be. Nearly any philosophy can sound good when put a certain way, just look at all the talk about jobs in the Rust Belt during the lead-up to the 2016 presidential election that worked wonders for the Trump-Pence campaign while George W. Bush still seemed like the worst possible president before perspective set in. Even in the aftermath of everything that has already happened over the last eight years, including January 6th and Trump’s pathological refusal to accept that he lost, there is one thing that stands out among the rest and should be remembered above all else:
Donald J. Trump is a clear and present danger to women.
This is not hyperbole, propaganda, or an attempt to smear a political opponent. I subscribe to an empirical approach to the world, drawing conclusions based on evidence as opposed to holding on to particular established ideologies. The evidence is there, speaking to a pattern of behavior that both personally and politically should be horrifying to anyone who truly understands it.
A master manipulator who can make a win out of almost everything, Trump managed to not only survive but laugh off his “grab them by the p*ssy” comment as “locker-room talk.” Setting aside the fact that such talk has no place on the public stage, his comments speak to a sense of blithe entitlement commonly seen in both silver-spoon rich kids and rapists, the two often overlapping, especially when one looks at frat culture. Also often overlooked is what he said next about “when you're famous”, speaking to both an abuse of power and abusive power that should be far more disturbing than it seems to be in a public figure.
Beyond the world of idle talk, “locker room” or not, Trump also has a shady history when it comes to consent. There is of course the “hush money” paid to Stormy Daniels, adding charges of white-collar crime to what sounds an awful lot like sexual coercion, using that money and power again to get what he wanted, even against the will of another. Even more straightforward is the case of E. Jean Carroll, who the former president was convicted of assaulting in 1996 adding sexual battery to his list of crimes against women.
It is a theme and attitude that has continued into his political life. He not only supports Roy Moore, a man with multiple allegations of sexual assault against children surrounding him, but Trump has also instituted some of the most damaging policies in decades, managing to overturn Roe V. Wade by intentionally stacking the Supreme Court with radical Christian fundamentalists for whom science is blasphemy and truth is a matter of opinion, leaving damage and causing pain long after he was legally voted out of office in 2020, like a deep bruise on the face of the nation.
Kamala Harris has a lot going for her. A former D.A. and Vice President who knows the law and has actual experience in public office, she also has the influence of her father who follows the thoroughly logical and ethical third way of neo-Keynesianism on economic matters. More than any of this, however, she is not a danger to anyone but criminals, which should be more than enough to get her a landslide victory in November. The women of America, and the men who love them, are hopefully not willing to take the risk of putting the world’s oldest frat boy back in the White House.
Photo Credit: Victor J. Blue | The Washington Post/Bloomberg | Getty Images.
Comments