Donald Trump called John McCain a “loser”, said he was “not a war hero”, and mocked him for being a POW. (“I like people who weren’t captured”).
And then he got mean …
Meghan McCain asked him to stop mocking her dad, and Trump promised her he would—and kept his word exactly as you would expect. Trump went to CPAC the next day and blasted her cancer-stricken father even more.
Hillary Clinton, on the other hand, has always treated John McCain with dignity and respect. She’s not a bully. Yet Meghan explained on The View that she follows Trump’s lead on his pathetic attacks on Hillary.
Even more telling is what she calls Trump.
You can bet if someone mocked a dying family member, I’d have slightly more ire towards them than a respectful political adversary. But upon hearing Meghan, I noticed a thread.
Think Ted Cruz.
Here’s a man who allowed Trump to smear his wife’s looks, as well as shame her for suffering severe mental depression. (That was the “spill the beans” reference.)
This was after he accused Ted’s father of working with Lee Harvey Oswald in the assassination of JFK.
And yet, with no apology, Ted Cruz humiliatingly submitted to Trump. Twitter had a field day after he wrote one of the most gushingly fawning tributes ever to have appeared in TIME magazine.
Trump “tortured” Sean Spicer and Reince Priebus, and took glee in humiliating them daily. (He once ordered Reince Priebus to catch a fly in the Oval office, which he did). Spicy’s humiliations were legendary. Both men are ruined, and yet here they are, spending their limited funds to promote Trump hotels.
Trump bragged on twitter how he dumped “sloppy” Steve Bannon “like a dog” and said he cried and begged for his job. Bannon responded by quite literally and publicly grovelling to Trump.
And don’t get me started on Paul Ryan, Mitch McConnell, and Mike Pence. Suffice it to say, the list goes on and on...
Trump himself is very much cowed by Vladimir Putin, which he demonstrated to the world last week, because he sees him as the stronger man. (For comparison, see any photo of Obama and Putin.)
This should be appalling to everyone, but it’s not. In fact, submission is a trait common amongst conservatives, who hold the projection of strength above all else. This is likely due to their Ayn-Randian philosophy of survival of the fittest. The ones they perceive as strong are to be revered and feared. They are more rich, more powerful, and therefore better—it’s okay to submit to them.
To liberals, who always stand up to power, this is bizarre and sickening behavior. We can’t comprehend why they constantly humiliate and degrade themselves, but the core of our being is the opposite—we live to fight oppression. That’s why you’ll see a grassroots movement taking on Wall Street, or a bunch of young kids taking on the NRA, or unarmed protesters standing tall against water hoses and tear gas at places like Standing Rock, Ferguson, and Trump rallies.
When have you ever heard of a conservative standing up to power?
This is why there is such a disconnect. We liberals can’t fathom conservative submissive behavior—especially to charismatic authoritarians that so easily dominate their flock. It’s not just their ideology that’s bad, it’s their entire mindset. Unfortunately, this mindset is also a big reason for their political success: it’s ingrained within conservatives to fall in line. We always decry how GOP legislators always come together and vote the way their masters tell them—even if it goes against their stated principles or their own interests. It’s just what they do.
It can be maddening to see our party disorganized, but I’ll take that over the submissive mindset any day of the week. I can’t ever be as submissive as is required to be a conservative. That’s something we all can and should take pride in.
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