To the Editor,
Donald Trump fancies himself a strong man. Many people cite his supposed strength as a reason for their support. Trump is largely ignorant of history, and routinely mentions fictional characters like the "late, great Hannibal Lecter," but is clear as to the people he admires and wishes to emulate: dictatorial strong men like Putin, Victor Orban, and Xi Jinping. He has accepted Putin’s lies about Russian interference in the 2016 election, written love letters to Kim Jong Un, the Supreme Leader of North Korea, and expressed a desire to be a dictator himself.
Think of the good people, in particular for the purposes of this comparison, the good men, in your lives. Strong people are respectful and helpful, do not pre-judge and denigrate folks they've never met, assist the weak and disadvantaged, and give more than they take. They're helping their neighbors, coaching at the ball fields on raw Saturday mornings and running church fundraisers, and they deflect credit for their good work.
On the other hand, this particular "strong man," Donald Trump:
•Views every human interaction as a zero-sum, winner-and-loser event, which he must win
•Lies incessantly, in the manner of Hitler and Goebbels, as characterized by Hannah Arendt: “constant lying is not aimed at making the people believe a lie, but at ensuring that no one believes anything anymore”
•Whips up crowds with violent rhetoric against political opponents and the press
•Laces his rhetoric with all kinds of hyper-masculine imagery, chest thumping patriotism, racism, misogyny, and, just last week, bizarre praise for Arnold Palmer’s manhood
•Cheats at golf and anoints himself club champion at Trump-owned golf courses
•Portrays himself as a muscular superhero (much like his role model, Putin, does)
•Punches down; among hundreds of examples are the handicapped reporter, the Sikh American Gold Star family, desperate immigrants, and innumerable women
•Insults people like an 8th grade mean girl, e.g.: “I HATE TAYLOR SWIFT!”
•Dodged the draft in the '60s with a bogus medical deferment
•Thinks that military service and paying taxes are for suckers
•Says that POW/MIA/KIA GIs are "suckers and losers", and refused to attend a memorial at a military cemetery in France because it was raining
•Has stiffed dozens if not hundreds of small business-people, siccing his lawyers on them and saying: “So, sue me”
•And of course, plotted electoral chaos for months leading up to the 2020 election, and attempted to overthrow the results and prevent the peaceful transfer of power.
These bullet points are curtailed by The Cricket’s 600-word limit for letters to the editor, but the picture of the man is clear. Trump is a serial abuser of truth, language, civil discourse, women, our legal system, and our very sense of our country and ourselves. The lawlessness and corruption of his first term were just a warmup for what would be a disastrous rerun were he to win.
Republican, Democrat, or independent, you must vote to keep him out of the White House. Kamala Harris, whatever you think about her policies, will respect the law, will not govern with her hand in the till, and will put country ahead of self. She is not a threat to our national security and constitutional order, as Trump’s own national security people and hundreds of other experts have stated clearly that he would be.
Finally, do you really want to wake up every morning wondering what the hell the President of the United States Tweeted while you slept?
Mike Dyer
Essex
