When he first declared his candidacy, few people seemed to take real estate mogul Donald Trump seriously. As he dispatched one after another of his republican competitors, the many public gaffes that he made seemed not to stick to him and we saw an uptick of the adjective “teflon” to refer to Trump, because nothing seemed to stick.
In the last few days, the number of these gaffes has increased significantly, despite his campaign’s promise that he would become — magically — more presidential once he was the presumptive nominee or the actual nominee of the Republican party.
In just the last couple of days, we have: his attack on the Gold Star Family, the Khans; his “doubling down” on that attack; the attack on the fire marshals in Colorado Springs for enforcing the law on capacity in the auditorium where he held a rally (this from the “law and order candidate”); the suggestion that Russians hack into the Hillary Clinton server (inviting espionage or at the very least foreign interference with American elections); the proposal that we would not necessarily support NATO allies if they were invaded by Russia; the denial of the fact that the Russians are in Ukraine (both in Crimea and in the conflict in Eastern Ukraine); the denial of the fact that his campaign made a single change in the proposed Republican platform, that change having to do with denying support to Ukraine in its conflict with Russia; and the allegation that his campaign manager continues to maintain a financial relationship with Kremlin-based PR efforts in an extraordinary and unprecedented conflict of interest. And this is just what I can remember off the top of my head.
While each of these “gaffes” is appalling and disqualifying in its own sake, the true problem is that each of them is Trump’s own doing. None of these problems came from an attack engineered by the Democratic Party or the Hillary Clinton campaign.
And this leads me to the most important point that the media are neglecting in the context of this pattern:
Trump is unable to think more than one step ahead at a time. Think about a game of chess: the best players see the options that unfold from every move, thinking multiple moves and possibilities ahead. A weak player might take a pawn with a queen, failing to realize that in doing so s/he has put the queen at risk.
We need a president who can think many moves ahead. The Russians do. The Chinese do. ISIS does.
A president who thinks only of the moment fails to see the bigger picture, fails to think ahead strategically to position our country for success not only in the geopolitical sense, but also economically and culturally.
We need to convince our acquaintances, relatives, friends who are used to supporting the Republican Party for one or another reason that this year is different, this election is different. The consequences could be disastrous, not only for our country, but for the species.
The dog in my picture is looking with concern before going through that door. The media should be encouraged to show more concern before we go through a horrifying door of our own.
