In His Own Words

        I never cease to be amazed by the lengths to which some people are willing to go to continue rationalizing their presidential choice of 2016.  Looking over Emily’s shoulder I saw a Facebook post in which the writer was commenting that while Nixon, Clinton, and Johnson all had “difficulties(sic),” they weren’t subjected to the abuse Trump gets from “the liberals.”

       Having lived through the presidencies of the three mentioned Chief Executives and being a (credentialed) student and teacher of both history and political science, I felt compelled to make the following brief (for me) remarks, which the original poster will almost surely not see, but…

        Lyndon Johnson did, in fact, take a huge amount of abuse due to the unravelling of the truth related to our futile war efforts in southeast Asia. “Hey, hey LBJ, how many kids did you kill today?” comes to mind. Johnson’s and McNamara’s escalation of an unwinnable war gathered much well-deserved abuse, true, but what is also true is that LBJ also pushed for and got passed the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and Voting Rights Act of 1965, not to mention Medicare. In fact, if not for escalating Vietnam, largely due to his (LBJ’s) penis envy of JFK being seen as “tough” for his Cuban Missile crisis Russian roulette heroics, LBJ would have been regarded as one of, if not the greatest, presidents of the last half of the 1900s.

       Nixon, emotional train wreck, paranoid over an election he was going to win in a landslide, was simply his own worst enemy. His White House tapes show the depths of his loathing for even the electorate (“The little shits”, Kissinger (“Jew Boy”) and those in society whom he felt held him in low esteem. He also signed budgets containing the largest deficits ever at the time. He also escalated bombing in nations with whom we were not at war, and innocent students died at Kent State. And yes, he took abuse for all these things.

But: Nixon also proposed the creation of both the EPA and OSHA which became law. He also initiated Affirmative Action in federal hiring, pressed for and got the EEOC, and while hardly a liberal, eventually achieved many advances in Civil Right legislation. Meanwhile he achieved the first détente with China since WWII.

All that went down the rabbit hole during the campaign of 1972 and the attendant Watergate related scandals, all of which his paranoia enabled him to endorse. Yeah, he took abuse, related to illegal activities he sanctioned.

        Clinton was impeached for one act typical of Trump’s entire adult life. However, he also left a budget surplus, longest economic expansion in American history, raised education standards, increased school choice, and doubled education and training investment, highest home ownership in American history, largest expansion of college opportunity since the GI Bill, lowest crime rate in 26 years, smallest welfare rolls in 32 years, protected more land in the lower 48 states than any other president. During the Clinton administration, the US Government paid off $360 billion of the national debt. In fact, we were on track to pay off the entire debt by 2009. (Bush 43 had other ideas, however.) In fact Bill Clinton accomplished what many on the right actually think believe Reagan did. (I struck “think” because so many of them can’t.)  And no, Clinton faced relatively little popular criticism, but much political chaff from the Gingrich crowd. Oddly, Newt Gingrich, we now know, was actually depraved to a degree Clinton couldn’t compete with had he tried.

        Sooo, back to the initial “Nixon, Clinton, and Johnson all had “difficulties(sic),” they weren’t subjected to the abuse Trump gets from “the liberals” assertion. One significant fact shines above all others. These three widely divergent presidents all had major accomplishments which helped Americans. All three dealt cordially with representatives of foreign powers. All three were respected in other nations for the most part. None of these things accurately describe Donald Trump to this date. 

       None of them personally and publicly attacked individuals with whom they differed. None of them mocked handicapped persons, none of them, regardless of their marital situation, denigrated women or bragged about their “conquests” in public. None ever went bankrupt or refused to pay honest workmen for contracted work. None of them was ever reviled and ridiculed by some of our closest (until recently) international allies. None of them supported racist agendas. All of them actually appointed bright people to cabinet posts and then listened to them, unlike Mr. Trump. While all fired some cabinet members during their tenures, none has done it for personal reasons except Trump. Additionally, Trump has fired so many lower level staffers that it’s difficult to count. And all this from the guy with great judgement and people skills! Trump draws criticism because he’s simply a bully who cannot control himself when he’s close to a cell phone.

What follows are examples of why critics “call him out”

Jul 3, 2018 06:13:34 PM - After having written many best selling books, and somewhat priding myself on my ability to write, it should be noted that the Fake News constantly likes to pore over my tweets looking for a mistake. I capitalize certain words only for emphasis, not b/c they should be capitalized!

Jul 3, 2018 04:19:04 PM - After having written many best selling books, and somewhat priding myself on my ability to write, it should be noted that the Fake News constantly likes to pour over my tweets looking for a mistake. I capitalize certain words only for emphasis, not b/c they should be capitalized.

 Yes, Donnie and fourth graders do that, too. Note the later post corrects his own misuse of “pour” for “pore”? also best-selling needs a hyphen. He has actually written no best sellers, but his ghost writers may have.  

“No-one has done more for people with disabilities than me. I have spent many millions of dollars to help out-and am happy to have done so!”

   

If Trump’s plan to change Medicaid is approved, it would mean that thousands of people with disabilities could be displaced from their communities and would be forced into nursing homes or hospitals if they can’t afford things like a wheelchair or assistive technology that allows them to live in their residence.

“Many people have commented that my fragrance, “Success” is the best scent & lasts the longest. Try it & let me know what you think!”

So here’s one response: “When I blind bought my slightly used bottle of Success for the relatively low price of $1.65, I confess I was highly skeptical as to whether I would enjoy the composition. That said, even my darkest nightmares couldn't prepare me for the hideous concoction I am wearing as I write this. Things start off pretty safe, as the open is quite fresh and generic smelling, but far from off-putting. Unfortunately, there is an iodine-like metallic accord that emerges, then grows and grows in potency as time passes that is truly terrifying to wear. I have only sniffed a similarly fearful accord like this in my two least favorite compositions to date... Secretions Manifiques and Mercury”  

  Or : “It's heavily clouded by a horrible fake aquatic (not cologne), chlorine water, "wet hair" note. You know what I mean. The same that's in the dry down of Unforgivable, Wall Street, and many others. The smell of Elmer's Glue lingers in there too.”

The list of Trump’s public comments unworthy of anyone in public service, never mind being President, is endless. As a narcissist who craves approval and acts like a three year old when he doesn’t get it, he has brought all the negatives upon himself. I’ll close with these:

“You know, it really doesn’t matter what the media write as long as you’ve got a young, and beautiful, piece of ass.”

“Why can’t we use nuclear weapons?”

“[The New York Times] don’t write good. They have people over there, like Maggie Haberman and others, they don’t – they don’t write good. They don’t know how to write good.” – Turns out he don’t talk good either.

“I think I am actually humble. I think I’m much more humble than you would understand.”

 And, finally, the most accurate thing he’s ever tweeted:   “One of the key problems today is that politics is such a disgrace. Good people don’t go into government.”

Well at least he’s showing some self-awareness.