Don't Blame Donald Trump

Don't Blame Donald Trump

When Donald Trump began his campaign for the presidency he rightfully claimed he was not a politician, not a Beltway insider, not someone who would maintain the status quo. On these grounds he was being accurate.

Since ascending to the halls of power, he has proven those claims over and over. Not being a politician means he is not connected or beholden to a constituency to whom he is dedicated and responsive. Not being a Beltway Insider means that he has zero connections to the existing power structure in any of the three Constitutional branches of government.

Being politically tabla raza, he only has the references for correct actions which the Republican Congress and conservatively minded politicos demonstrate in the exercise of their offices. Two of the tenants of that way of thinking are "blame the victims" and "disrespect losers."

The conservative legislative attitudes are similarly manifest in recent Judiciary appointments. The blame the victim approach has become rampant in Republican legislatures and gubernatorial offices. The list is long and varied but here are a few examples.

·         People receiving public assistance are lazy and don't want to work (although many of them do.)

·         Single mothers are irresponsible by becoming pregnant even though it was a man who did the deed.

·         When a 4 year old girl is raped by an adult, she came on to him and was a willing participant.

·         When a woman is raped or molested on the street or in a public accommodation, the clothing she chose to wear caused the crime to be committed on her person.

·         Children whose parents cannot afford to provide adequate meals are takers when they want the school system to provide nutrition as well as education.

·         When a police officer beats a citizen to death or shoots an unarmed person, it was the dead person who was at fault for making the officer fearful for his life.

·         People who live next to a toxic industrial site are to blame for their cancers and other diseases because they did not move away.

·         The battered wife is the cause of her beatings by not being a good wife or by challenging the authority of her husband. Her not leaving him is also her fault.

·         A woman seeking an abortion is promiscuous and responsible for getting pregnant and must be required to carry to full term. See second item above.

·         Being homosexual is just cause for getting beaten, burned, dragged or lynched by an alleged heterosexual. Well, just because.

·         Not being able to obtain a well-paying job is one's own fault for not being skilled enough in a wildly changing labor market.

The Conservative and Republican mentality is heavily oriented on Biblical writings. God made peoples' skin brown to punish them for some ancient sin therefore, today they deserve the distain visited upon them for economic gain by others. It is their own fault for being brown and poor and disenfranchised.

Then there is the disrespect part. Poor people need to have their diets controlled via restrictions of what can be purchased with SNAP Debit Cards. They must be drug tested and pass in order to be worthy of feeding their children. Their benefits must be time limited so they do not become generationally dependent. Not only these limitation must be imposed, conservatives must vocally denounce recipients at every opportunity.

Donald Trump has far too little worldly experience to be responsive to the needs of the people of America and the world for that matter. In his world-view anyone who doesn't have everything they want is a Loser. Anyone who doesn't fit his winning-style is a Loser. He has even gone as far as saying he doesn't like Senator John McCain because he was a Vietnam POW. "I don't like people who were captured." Trump was casting McCain as a Loser.

In Trumps world asking him for something they need is a double insult in his mind. First, in the asking is the implied statement that what he has done was not enough nor was appreciated. Second, it casts the asker as a Loser.  His attack on San Juan Mayor Carmen Yulín Cruz for criticizing the White House on its hurricane Maria relief efforts angered Trump in a trifecta of factors. A Hispanic female dared to say HIS efforts were subpar. In response he besmirches her leadership abilities, the competency of the PR people, and their desire to have everything done for them. Then as though punctuating his distain he made his tweeted comments from his golf club.

Her actions showed how much of a loser she was and the people of PR are in his mind. The fact that they need any supports in indicative of that status. To be fair to the man, he treats everyone that way. Well except for Caucasian Nationalists and all their ilk. They get a pass for being who they are and what they want.

Donald Trump is pulling his actions from the Fascist Dictator playbook. The mere asking for something shows you are not worthy. Pointing out racism runs against the claim there is no racism in America. Showing the world there are people in desperation in Puerto Rico is blasphemous after the dictator has said everything there is being handled in an amazing way. The death toll is a boasting point. He says providing 3,000 meals is great response when there are 3.5 million people who need a meal a day or more.

I suspect Donald Trump really believes what he is saying. He has no idea how far PR is from the mainland when he says it is an island far out and surrounded by the sea. For a man who departs and arrives at airports by jets, he has no idea about actual distances. For a man who points to items on a menu in a private club dining room, he has no idea how difficult it is to feed a family several times a day every day. This is not his fault. No one ever showed him the realities. "It is easy to hurt others when you can't feel pain."

The unfortunate part of the entire scenario is even if he does learn important lessons, they will be too late for the people who are in harm's way and he will not have the opportunity to employ those lessons a next time.