Character Never Counted
Elie Mystal wrote an essay after the election that was both angry and truthful. He speaks with disgust at the choice that half our fellow citizens made (or at least the ones who voted) arguing that, in fact, Donald Trump is who these people are. He is sadly correct.
I wrote an analysis about why I think this happened, but Mystal is accurate that Trump’s appeal is also because his ugly, bullying character resonates both psychologically and morally with Trump voters. His character is their character.
Many of his supporters know that Trump clearly has poor character, but rather than admit that they are simpatico with his ethics and bigotry, they will say things like, “I don’t like how he acts, but I like his policies.” This is bullshit. Other than tax cuts for the rich and picking corrupt right-wing judges, he had no other policies in his first term. This time he wants to deport millions of immigrants and plans to implement massive tariffs. I’m sure deportation will bring glee to his angry, bigoted supporters, that is until their trusted maid and gardener get sent back to Mexico. As far as massive tariffs…if you call that a policy, is not something a serious, sane leader would contemplate. But if supporting Trump makes you feel better about your shitty life…well who cares if the crazy leader you voted for creates hyper-inflation and a recession. Trump supporters are angry and aggrieved and they want others to suffer because that will temporarily ameliorate their own psychic wounds. Trump understands that.
In the 2000 Presidential campaign, the Bush campaign focused on Bill Clinton’s extracurricular activities, particularly his affair with Monica Lewinsky promising to restore “honor and dignity” to the White House. “Character counts” was a motto that helped Bush sneak into the White House (of course after cheating in Florida by stopping the recount and throwing out thousands of African-American votes). And the honor and dignity that Bush restored? He ignored warning signs of 9/11, started an illegal war in Iraq, tortured prisoners, botched Katrina, gave huge tax cuts to the rich just when we were balancing the budget, and crashed the economy to where we almost ended up in a Depression. And you want to talk about weaponizing the DOJ, remember when Karl Rove and Bush were using the U.S. Attorneys to go after Democrats?
After the fiasco of the Bush-Cheney Administration, Barack Obama had pretty much a scandal free eight years. The only ‘controversies’ that filled the air were the made up kind like Obama’s birth certificate or the fact that he once wore a tan suit. Obama rescued the economy, but not fast enough to prevent a Republican takeover of Congress.
They then started phony investigations of Hillary Clinton like the completely ridiculous Benghazi ‘scandal’, which wasn’t a scandal at all. And then there were her emails…don’t get me started. It didn’t help that James Comey, a pompous ass if I ever saw one, decided to comment on Clinton’s behavior, and then ‘reopen’ the case just before the election.
This managed to divert enough attention to allow Trump supporters to justify voting for a man with a history of sleazy and criminal (though uncharged) business practices (including cheating vendors and workers), stiffing lenders, promoting a fake university. And of course here’s a person who says that if you’re a star, it’s okay to grab women by the pussy…in addition to the NUMEROUS WOMEN who accused Trump of sexual assault.
(As an aside, an old friend of mine justified voting for Trump against Hillary, despite his history with women, because Bill Clinton put a cigar up Monica’s vagina. I kid you not. The lengths Trump supporters will go to justify voting for this reprobate is mind-boggling, but it almost always involves some sort of ‘both sides do it’…or whataboutisms.)
This is why right-wing media created the myth of the “Biden crime family.” I will acknowledge that Hunter Biden and his uncle acted in a sleazy and unethical manner using their relationship with Joe Biden to get sweetheart deals. But their behavior pales in comparison to the massive grift that happened during the first four years of Trump, a presidency full of corruption from financial self-dealing (the Trump Hotel, trademarks, etc.) Add that to the number of key officials and Cabinet members forced to resign to the incompetence of handling the Covid crisis to January 6, it was arguably the most corrupt Presidency in our history.
And in the four years since? Trump’s been convicted of 34 felonies, prevented from doing business in New York and fined millions, ordered to pay millions for defamation for sexually assaulting a woman, indicted for illegally holding on to Top Secrets, indicted for trying to overthrow the government, etc. And talk about insider deals. Why did the Saudi government let Jared Kushner manage two billion dollars for them…when he had no experience doing this previously?
So, yeah, Hunter and his uncle should have not done what they did…but this is obviously not comparable. But focusing on them…while either completely ignoring (as Fox regularly does) or downplaying Trump’s behavior by claiming that he is being unfairly targeted is a way of giving permission to ignore the massive wrongdoing of Trump himself and of his cronies.
Essentially, there is no crime or action or behavior that is too heinous for MAGA to explain away - and there is no action or behavior that Democrats or liberals engage in that is not to be condemned, no matter how absurd or dishonest the logic is behind the supposed misdeed.
The sad truth is on average, one out of every two people supported an adjudicated rapist and convicted felon because they themselves are so angry and bitter. Trump represents these people because they hope that Trump will harm the people that MAGA thinks looks down on them - when in fact those are the people who want to help them. What they don’t get is that the person who most looks down on them is Trump himself.
And finally, a political science professor, Aaron Hughey wrote this excellent op-ed. The title speaks for itself: Trump's Win Show Us Who We Really Are.
