In August 12, 2008, during the heat of his presidential campaign against Barack Obama, a woman came up to John McCain at a campaign rally and said, “I can’t trust Obama. I have read about him, and he’s not, he’s not — he’s an Arab.” Without hesitation, Cain took the microphone back and said:
“No ma’am,” McCain said. “He’s a decent family man, a citizen that I just happen to have disagreements with on fundamental issues, and that’s what this campaign is all about.”
That was in 2008, or in the words of George Lucas, “A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away….”
Since then, Donald Trump has campaigned for and become President, and here is a tiny sampling of what have we learned about him — or heard from his lips:
| Porn star payoffs from campaign funds (and lies about same), mocking people with physical disabilities, encouraging rally supporters to beat up protesters, paying judgments by robbing a charity, curiously expedited Chinese trademarks for family members, taxpayers’ money going to Trump golf clubs that hired illegals and short-paid them, leveraging foreign officials over foreign aid in “perfect phone calls” to get dirt on opponents, seeking help from Her Majesty’s Government to land the British Open at the Trump Turnberry golf course, multiple convictions of Trump lawyers, campaign officials and other parasites for various crimes, clearing peaceful protestors from public property in violation of their First Amendment rights (and lying about same), making wild, unscientific recommendations about the pandemic, minimizing its consequences, and undercutting real scientists, condemning mail-in voting as fraudulent without any basis, attempting to defund the United States Postal Service to skew the election and impair citizens’ voting rights, even to the point of removing mailboxes in key states,and, most recently, in a smarmy trope reminiscent of the “birther” controversy with President Obama, wondering out loud whether Kamala Harris is really an American citizen. Back to John McCain. We know what he said when someone expressed hateful ignorance about Obama’s citizenship. Is there anything Donald Trump might do or say that would elicit disapproval (never mind condemnation) from our senior senator John Cornyn? Most likely no reporter has been able to catch Cornyn in the hallways for comment on the issue of Senator Harris’s citizenship, but we can guess. Based on past experience, either Senator Cornyn will mischaracterize Trump’s inquiry as legitimate or he will excuse it as unserious. Earlier this year, Cornyn defended Trump’s decision to clear a path through peaceful protesters with tear gas and rubber bullets so he could go hold a Bible upside down and take a photo in front of St. John’s Episcopal Church as “a necessary security measure” because the protesters did not clear the area when they were asked to do so. In other words, even though the order was blatantly illegal, the protestors were at fault. And, when President Trump suggested that the November election might be delayed (which did not happen even during the Civil War or World War II), Senator Cornyn’s reaction was, “I think it’s a joke, I guess, I don’t know how else to interpret it,” he told reporters. “Obviously he doesn’t have the power to do that.” Where was the condemnation? Or the outrage? Yes, 2008 was a long time ago, in a different age. Senator Cornyn, you served in the same Senate with John McCain, but you’re no John McCain. |
LastReasonableMan 