That's a foul wind that's blowing boy.
It’s an old saw. “You never get a second chance to make a first impression”. And never has a single individual epitomized that more succinctly than Donald J Trump. And never to my recollection has a President dragged an entire political party down into the mud with him right from the get go.
His Lowness has had more second chances than nine cats have lives. Every time he fails miserably, the excuse is that he’s new at this, he’s not a career politician. And every time he accidentally screws up and does something right, the trumpets go blaring out that he’s finally beginning to pivot to showing Presidential leadership, only to be countermanded by yet another twitter tantrum or misguided press conference.
Let’s take a quick, but by no means comprehensive stroll down memory lane of a few of Trump’s many “first impressions”. The literal first impression was his campaign kickoff, in all of its glitzy glory, complete with a paid crowd of supporters, to announce that Mexicans are murderers and rapists. The solution? Build a big, bad, beautiful wall. Then there was the exchange with Megyn Kelly in the first debate, gratuitously insulting Rosie O’Donnell, and then following it up claiming that Kelly herself had “blood coming out of her wherever”. The senseless feud with the Khan’s after Mr. Khan’s convention speech. The now infamous Billy Bush Access Hollywood bus tape, and his mulish defense of his comments afterwards. The childish way in which he had to create insulting nicknames for all who opposed him, from Li’l Marco, to Lyin’ Ted, to Crooked Hillary. His dark and gloomy assessment of the country he was now going to lead in his Inauguration speech. That enough? And think, those are just what comes immediately to mind.
Everybody who follows politics even fleetingly knows that it is incredibly image driven. It has to be, considering that the average politician keeps campaign promises at the same basic rate as a four year old fervently promising to “never do it again Mommy”. There was a perfectly valid subliminal political reason why Trump insulted Carly Fiorino’s looks. And there’s a perfectly good political reason why every politician pays a ton of money to PR hacks, and attempts to schedule public appearances so that he or she projects the image that their constituents have come to expect from them. Image is everything.
George Washington is the “Father of our Country” because he was a successful general, and as far as Presidents are concerned, he went first. Lyndon Johnson got us further embedded in Vietnam, causing horrific damage, but he was revered for his passage of the social programs of “The Great Society” and for his relentless civil rights pursuit. Depending on which historian you read, Kennedy’s diplomatic ineptitude created the Cuban missile crisis that he then had to solve, but with his youth, exuberance, and oratorical skills, the word indelibly linked to his name is “Camelot”, the last great salad days for this country. Nixon started the EPA and opened China to detente with the west, but is remembered solely as “Tricky Dick”, and for his forced resignation for his criminal activities. Politicians at that level are indelibly branded by their public appearance, and the perception of them at critical junctures during their tenure.
Forget all of the previous examples of Trump’s boorish behavior I listed earlier. An unprovoked assault by an enemy like North Korea, and a steely eyed and intelligent response from Trump (engineered by the generals of course) could elevate his stature, just as it did for George W Bush after 9/11. A serious, effective, bipartisan infrastructure plan, that put tens of thousands of Americans back to work, and propelled the nation finally into the 21st century could enhance his stature and make him successful. As unlikely as it seems that he could pull it off, a measured and sane response to a national crisis could turn his legacy around, regardless of his previous missteps because memories are short, and the old Hollywood slogan rules politics; “So, what have you done for me lately”. But now now, and not with this President. Because one word irretrievably branded both him and his Presidency.
Charlottesville. In his craven desire to pander to his racist base, in his blatant and totally false equivalency that there were bad people “on many sides, many sides”, tarred him forever in the perception of the American people as a racist. At this point, it doesn’t matter what he accomplishes in a positive direction, the general reaction will be; “So, the racist prick finally got something right”. Everything he does from here on out will be viewed through that prism in public perception.
And he has taken the Republican party down that rathole with him. And he didn’t hold a gun to their heads, they followed him, reluctantly in some cases down into the abyss because of their own craven cowardice about doing the right thing at the possible expense of votes down the road. All through the campaign, they either made excuses for his piggish behavior, or as Paul Ryan did, simply refused to even comment on his actions. Politics is politics, and we have nobody to blame but ourselves for this mess. We, the voters have enabled them to be spineless little toadies by not holding them personally and professionally accountable for their similar responses to past offenses. But the GOP response as a whole to Trump’s outrageous comments in giving aid and comfort to racists and Nazi’s following the Charlottesville violence was pathetic. Even the scattered few souls brave enough to call Trump out on it steadfastly refused to refer to him by name. Somehow or other, referring to the President of the United States as “him”, or disavowing “the comments” without directly disavowing the man who made them was one bridge too far. The proverbial straw that broke the camels back.
Whatever Trump does or doesn’t do from here on out, the Democrats still need to find a central message that resonates with voters to be successful. But Trump and the GOP already provided us with a rallying cry, healthcare. As I wrote in a previous diary, we have become numb as a nation with numbers that have a vapor trail of zeroes behind them, until that number can be reduced to one, namely the person who can be personally affected. Healthcare personalized that for at least 22 million Americans. But many more would not have been affected, so it was only of peripheral interest to them. But one thing affects every one of us. We are all Americans, and we love our country. Finding out in the aftermath of the Charlottesville violence that not only does our President have sympathy for racists and Nazis, but that their own Senators and Congressmen could not muster the courage to stand tall and express their own revulsion, not only for the words, but for the man who made them should be a loud and constant refrain throughout the 2018 election cycle. Enough of this shit is enough.
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