Krauthammer: Trump and the fitness threshold

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/donald-trump-and-the-fitness-threshold/2016/08/04/b06bae34-5a69-11e6-831d-0324760ca856_story.html

Excerpts:

...Donald Trump, the man who defied every political rule and prevailed to win his party’s nomination, last week took on perhaps the most sacred political rule of all: Never attack a Gold Star family. Not just because it alienates a vital constituency but because it reveals a shocking absence of elementary decency and of natural empathy for the most profound of human sorrows — parental grief.

Why did Trump do it? It wasn’t a mistake. It was a revelation. It’s that he can’t help himself...

...In 1980, Reagan had to do just one thing: pass the threshold test for acceptability. He won that election because he did, especially in the debate with Jimmy Carter in which Reagan showed himself to be genial, self-assured and, above all, nonthreatening. You may not like all his policies, but you could safely entrust the nation to him.

Trump badly needs to pass that threshold. If character is destiny, he won’t...

I never agree with Dr. Charles Krauthammer...a prognosticator that Lame Dork poster Markle likes to cite from time-to-time in his propaganda pieces posted here. However in this instance, Krauthammer and the Lame Dork are at opposite polls on the Khan family issue. Krauthammer says Trump made a grave mistake attacking a Gold Star family because they appeared and testified before the DNC the final night, when Hillary Clinton accepted the Democratic nomination for president. The Lame Dork tried to take a cheap shot at Mr. Kahn using a Brietbart article that was laced with false equivalencies, trying to tie the grieving father to known terrorists. Brietbart is one of many extreme right-wing tabloid-quality media outlets. Krauthammer, on the other hand--who works for the Washington Post--says that Trump's unfiltered comments and lack of decency and empathy for a family which gave up a son for this nation makes him unfit for the presidency.

He is unfit.  However, I am seeing growing support for this unfit person.  Angry fearful old people would rather blow us up than accept equality, diversity, and the fact that the life has passed them by.......six couples last night.....my wife and I were the only ones voting for Clinton.  However, not one person said they would vote for Trump if they had anybody other than Hillary to vote for.   They openly admitted that he is nutzso.  He really could start shooting people and they are going to vote for him.......liberals are in this mob are thinking that they have cornered Frankenstein.......the problem is there confusing pitch forks for signs which say......white nationalist party make America great again.

If they know he's nuts why are they voting for him?

Vikingwoman wrote:If they know he's nuts why are they voting for him?

Because he's the only candidate they can identify with.

Because he's the only candidate they can identify with.


Bingo

People want to go back to Mayberry. I remember the 60s when folks were upset with long hair when a generation went to war, had short hair, and cookie cutter subdivisions.......the last eight years babyboomers saw a black man as president and when they were children some felt the President could not use the bathroom with them, and now a woman where it is less than a hundred years since they got the vote, but still faced restrictions in local ordinances where a sorority house could not exist at Allegeny College because two or more unrelated females in a house were considered a brothel, or after my father died who owned a restaurant and bar in 1962 a woman could not by law bartend, with a statutory exception called the miss Kitty exception from gunsmoke where an owner of the same could.........yep this diverse and equal society which is evolving is foreign and scary to an entire generation......and the beauty of this transition period is that America will be stronger and better as the most pampered and selfish generation simply fades away.

I don't see anything Mayberry-like whatsoever in the hateful behavior of the Trump crowds. They're a far cry from Opie and the sheriff.

RealLindaL wrote:I don't see anything Mayberry-like whatsoever in the hateful behavior of the Trump crowds. They're a far cry from Opie and the sheriff.

I often wondered why so few black people turned up on Mayberry, other than extras in the background at least until season 7 when a black man returned to coach a football team. Maybe sheriff Taylor was a lot more like those sheriff's from Philadelphia Mississippi during the rest of the week when it wasn't on TV. I'm surprised Mayberry survived two guest shots by Jack Nicholson.

I don't see anything Mayberry-like whatsoever in the hateful behavior of the Trump crowds. They're a far cry from Opie and the sheriff.


What diversity was there in Mayberry? America is diverse and wonderful. Yet, those folks who are so hateful are fearful and threatened by diversity.....we have seen posters here who do not even try to hide their fears and derision of diversity. The Trump crowds are from Mayberry and they have no use for Mexicans, Blacks, Muslims, and to a lesser extent women being equals.......they are angry and piszed. They are fascist. The white nationalist Party is not unique in history, or the world today......the issues are universal, and the way to defeat hate and prejudice are clear. My neighbor flies his confederate flag.....a total F up who went into the military during Viet Nam, became a drunk, never married, I give him rides to different bars in town when he comes over and asks, wears these inappropriate tight shorts with a tank top with a huge beer gut, no education, thinks he still is a ladies man at 70, after working thirty years cutting the grass at a golf course, and he looks down to my black neighbor across the street and flies his flag to send a message, and he will have a Trump sign up because he is a Trump voter.....I will buy him a drink at our local bar and there are 10 guys just like him sitting around talking about Nascar and the N word, and Mexicans, which is really funny because among this group is a Mexican who is as americanized and grew up with this group......they do not see him as a Mexican.....they see him as the kid in third grade who went to school with them.......time, diversity, and being real are the answers, but in the mean time, every day I have to see a fricking confederate flag of hate, and see a toothless beer bellied bigot wave and love my wife and I, but gets all fired up on hating Muslims and Mexicans......humans are just so f'ing complex, and have unlimited potential to be good......but sometimes it is just easier to be bad.

2seaoat wrote:He is unfit.  However, I am seeing growing support for this unfit person.  Angry fearful old people would rather blow us up than accept equality, diversity, and the fact that the life has passed them by.......six couples last night.....my wife and I were the only ones voting for Clinton.  However, not one person said they would vote for Trump if they had anybody other than Hillary to vote for.   They openly admitted that he is nutzso.  He really could start shooting people and they are going to vote for him.......liberals are in this mob are thinking that they have cornered Frankenstein.......the problem is there confusing pitch forks for signs which say......white nationalist party make America great again.

It's not just old people, Seaoat. There are plenty of younger ones whose idea of a political rally is similar to a pre-game bonfire or a pep rally gone wild. And these "kids" are being programmed not only by their parents, but by Fox 'News'. ..et al.

2seaoat wrote:I don't see anything Mayberry-like whatsoever in the hateful behavior of the Trump crowds. They're a far cry from Opie and the sheriff.


What diversity was there in Mayberry? America is diverse and wonderful. Yet, those folks who are so hateful are fearful and threatened by diversity.....we have seen posters here who do not even try to hide their fears and derision of diversity. The Trump crowds are from Mayberry and they have no use for Mexicans, Blacks, Muslims, and to a lesser extent women being equals.......they are angry and piszed. They are fascist. The white nationalist Party is not unique in history, or the world today......the issues are universal, and the way to defeat hate and prejudice are clear. My neighbor flies his confederate flag.....a total F up who went into the military during Viet Nam, became a drunk, never married, I give him rides to different bars in town when he comes over and asks, wears these inappropriate tight shorts with a tank top with a huge beer gut, no education, thinks he still is a ladies man at 70, after working thirty years cutting the grass at a golf course, and he looks down to my black neighbor across the street and flies his flag to send a message, and he will have a Trump sign up because he is a Trump voter.....I will buy him a drink at our local bar and there are 10 guys just like him sitting around talking about Nascar and the N word, and Mexicans, which is really funny because among this group is a Mexican who is as americanized and grew up with this group......they do not see him as a Mexican.....they see him as the kid in third grade who went to school with them.......time, diversity, and being real are the answers, but in the mean time, every day I have to see a fricking confederate flag of hate, and see a toothless beer bellied bigot wave and love my wife and I, but gets all fired up on hating Muslims and Mexicans......humans are just so f'ing complex, and have unlimited potential to be good......but sometimes it is just easier to be bad.

I think it's pretty clear that Ernest T Bass and the Darling family are Trump supporters. Otis will vote for anyone that offers him a drink.