MAJOR POLITICAL PUBLICATION DECLARES TRUMP UNQUALIFIED AS A NOMINEE

…The Post Editorial Board felt it was their responsibility to, using Trump’s words, “tell it like it is”.

 

Fact Checkers examined 25 of Trump’s acceptance speech claims, and they gave them all two to four “Pinocchio’s”.

 

Major national political publications never take sides in a presidential election.  However, the Washington Post editorial board, not just an opinion writer, but the whole board, has come out and stated the following: “The real estate tycoon [Donald J. Trump]  is uniquely unqualified to serve as US president, in experience and temperament. He is mounting a campaign of snarl and sneer, not substance. To the extent he has views, they are wrong in their diagnosis of America’s problems and dangerous in their proposed solutions.”

 

OK, let’s look at why such a publication as The Post, would for the very first time publish a comment like this.

 

It has been 64 years since the Republican party nominated anyone for president who did not have electoral experience. That experiment turned out to be a good decision.  However, Donald Trump, to put it mildly, is no Dwight David Eisenhower.  Leading the campaign to liberate Europe from the Nazis required outstanding strategic and political skills, and Eisenhower, even though he liked to say he had the common touch, throughout his election, he was shrewd, diligent, humble and thoughtful.

 

But Mr. Donald Trump painted a dark picture of America with his acceptance speech at the Republican National Convention.  (Even Gary Trudeau of Doonesbury comics dedicated a whole color Sunday strip to how negative “The Donald” was in his acceptance speech.)  His doomsday stats from the speech are totally off the wall. The Post's Fact Checker has examined 25 of his key claims and found them all to score from two to four “Pinocchio’s”.

 

Any one of these characteristics would totally disqualifying most candidates as a presidential nominee.  But added together, they make Mr. Trump a serious national concern.

 

The Post has made it clear that as usual, they we will be following the national campaign, offering honest views on all of the candidates. But regarding the Republican nominee, they will not pretend that they would endorse him this fall.  They are declaring today that from the board’s opinion, a Trump presidency would be dangerous for the nation and beyond.

 

The paper has admitted that they would not usually make such a statement about a nominee. In an normal election year, they would acknowledge the latest Republican nominee, move on to the Democratic convention and spend the following months evaluating both of the candidates’ performances in the debates, their stump speeches and their position papers.

 

However, this year they have stated that they will follow the campaign as always, and will offer those honest views.  But I reiterate, The Post will not salute the Republican nominee. They have made it clear that from their point-of-view, a Trump presidency would be a threat to all of America and the world.

 

And why is The Post so sure about this?

 

Per The Post, there is nothing on Mr. Trump’s résumé to suggest he could, or would, function successfully in Washington. He is absorbed today in his family’s business through a career marked by real estate successes.   But he has also had failures and has repeated examples of saving himself while harming other people who have trusted him.  If you add his continuing refusal to release his tax returns, which breaks a long bipartisan tradition, it is reasonable to assume that his records would probably discredit him even more than we already know.

 

Trump’s lack of experience could be overcome, but only if Mr. Trump saw his inexperience as a handicap.  Unfortunately, Trump has no curiosity to overcome anything.  He reads no books, (except his own) and he seems to believe he needs absolutely no advice.

 

Trump’s combination of overall arrogance, plus his desperation for continuous attention, this is what makes Trump so unusual.  But with all this, he has total contempt of other people’s views.

 

He has also shown that he has no respect for facts.

 

Since he began running, he has offered America one lie after another.  One big one was that Muslims in New Jersey celebrated the attacks after 9/11.  Then he falsely said that his tax-cut plan would not worsen the deficit, and that he opposed the Iraq War before it started, which he didn't.  When he is confronted with contrary evidence, he simply repeats the lie.   As the ghostwriter of his “Art of the Deal” book, Tony Schwartz had stated, Trump seems to either think he is telling the truth, or he convinces himself it’s the truth or he just doesn’t care that it’s a lie.

 

It is also difficult to know which trait would be more frightening in a commander in chief, and the Washington Post is going to try and make that point in any way it can.

 

Given Trump’s overall political ignorance, it is not surprising that he offers no real logic when it comes to his policies. In years past, he supported immigration reform, gun control and legal abortion.  But as a Republican candidate, he has become a hard-liner against all three policies.

 

Worse than his flip-flops on banning Muslims is the absence of any substance in his so called agenda.  To Trump, existing trade deals are “stupid,” but  does Mr. Trump say how they could be improved?  No,  nothing!  He says the Islamic State must be destroyed, but he offers no strategy for doing so. According to Trump, eleven million undocumented immigrants must be deported,.  But does Mr. Trump tell us how he would accomplish this legally or practically or how it would be paid for? Absolutely not!

 

What this candidate offers is prejudices and his so called, “gut feelings”, and most of them are mistaken or incorrect. He says, allies are taking advantage of the United States and immigrants are committing crimes and stealing jobs, but offers no actual examples. He claims that most Muslims hate America, but again, no explanations of how he knows about that hate.

 

The truth is that Japan and South Korea are major contributors to an alliance that has preserved a peace of major benefit to all Americans. Today, the stats say that Immigrants commit fewer crimes than native-born Americans and that they take those jobs that most American will not.  Muslims are the primary victims of Islamist terrorism, and Muslim Americans, including thousands who have served in the military, are as patriotic as anyone else.

 

Fareed Zakaria, the accomplished Indian American journalist and author has said that to Trump, “America would be his banana republic.”

 

Mr. Trump only knows how to campaign by insulting his opponents, by denigration and wild accusations.  As examples, saying that Ted Cruz’s father was involved in the assassination of President John F. Kennedy and Hillary Clinton may be guilty of murder.  He has called President Obama a traitor who wants Muslims to attack. Through Trump, the Republican Party has moved the lunatic fringe to center stage.

 

 

In today’s dangerous world, Mr. Trump speaks openly of abandoning NATO, encouraging more nations to obtain nuclear weapons and for cozying up to dictators who in fact only wish the United States harm.

 

For eight years, Republicans have criticized President Obama for “apologizing” for America and for weakening alliances. Now they put forward a candidate who uses the negative propaganda of authoritarian dictators.  He even tells us how terrible the United States is and how unfit it is for the US to lecture others. He has made it clear that he would drop some allies in a nanosecond. The effect of that on our global security could be catastrophic.

 

Most responsible Republican leaders know all this to be true.  That is why Mr. Trump had to use those testimonials from his own relatives and employees at the Republican convention. With the one exception of Former senator Bob Dole, living Republican presidents and presidential nominees of the past three decades all stayed away. 

 

Unfortunately, most current Republican officeholders, even those who declared Mr. Trump to be a poor choice months ago, have now lost the courage and their voice to speak out.

 

The Republican party’s failure of judgment however does leave the nation’s future exactly where it belongs, in the hands of American voters.

 

Many Americans do not like either candidate this year. Publications such as The Post have criticized the presumptive Democratic nominee, Hillary Clinton, in the past and they will do so again when warranted. But no one believes that Hillary or the Libertarian and Green party candidates represents a threat to the Constitution.

 

Mr. Trump, on the other hand,  is a unique and present danger to what has made this country the envy of the world.

 

Both The Post and I are hopeful that the American people will do what needs to be done....  and the alternative is not pretty.

 

Copyright G.Ater  2016