Good Morning.
We have a new spectator sport in this country. It's a solo sport and involves the hurling of insults. The target in this sport can be almost anyone but is frequently a woman. The guy who has perfected this sport has hit Rosie O'Donnell, Megyn Kelly, Elizabeth Warren, Sarah Jessica Parker, Bette Midler, Cher, Katy Tur, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Mika Brzezinski, a Miss Universe who gained a little weight, and the wife of Khizer Khan who spoke at the Democratic Convention and who lost a son in Afghanistan. At a recent campaign rally, this guy nailed, with particular bravado, Dr. Christine Blasey Ford, and when asked about his unsportsmanlike conduct by Lesley Stahl on 60 Minutes, he responded that it didn't matter what he said about Dr. Ford because he won the fight about Brett Kavanaugh. He got a touchdown and spiked the ball.
This guy did not take his sport into the Oval Office all by himself although he might beg to differ because it is, after all a solo sport. The guys has fans, lots of them, but for the moment I will separate the people who voted for him in the general election from the people who nominated him during the primary season. These folks are his diehard fans, get all decked out in his hats and shirts, and go to his games. They yell and cheer when he hits another one of his targets. They whoop it up when he publicly degrades a woman who put everything in her life on the line to come forward and state her grievances about a sexual assault that was dismissed as no more significant than a foul ball at a baseball game. They ignored the comments he made on the Access Hollywood tape and continue to make excuses for his crudeness. They don't care about his questionable business dealings and his refusal to release his tax returns. They think it's perfectly okay to pardon a ruthless sheriff in Arizona. They don't even flinch at the fact that he has surrounded himself with men who are now on their way to prison. They don't recoil when he makes statements that let white supremacists off the hook.
These fans didn't have the time of day for Marco Rubio, Jeb Bush, John Kasich or any of the other sixteen people running for the nomination of what used to be thought of as the party of Lincoln. It wasn't about being pro-life because all the other candidates were and are sincerely pro-life while this guy has been all over the field on the issue. It wasn't about gun control because all the other candidates supported and still support the Second Amendment. It wasn't about putting conservative judges on the Supreme Court because the other candidates also would have done that. It was about wanting a bully in the White House, someone who would actually prefer to play in the mud.
The sport requires a lot of skill. Its basic premise is that respectfulness is a sign of weakness and that honesty goes nowhere at all. It involves tapping into a rage against the changing demographics in this country, and in case of dispute, it means siding with the thugs rather than the allies. It has no rules and no boundaries, but could we please have a time out to review the tape?
Best regards,
Elisabeth
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