Michael Winship is a senior writer for Moyers & Co.
His reaction to the second debate was to recoil in horror at the low, mean, hateful, crude man that Republicans selected as their candidate. Remember when the GOP once called itself the party of “family values”? Ha.
He writes:
If there was the tiniest doubt left in your mind that Donald Trump holds no regard for the principles and ideals of a representative democracy — or that he views this country as anything more than a podium for his grandstanding ego, base dictatorial instincts and gutter mentality — Sunday night’s debate should have shot that shred of doubt straight to hell.
This is what Trump and his gang have turned this election into: a cheap, tawdry burlesque; a circus sideshow of freaks and conspiracy nuts.
It was not enough for Trump that he continue to slime our airwaves and the internet with his offensive rants and tweets or that he responded to the 2005 videotape of his sexist, brutish behavior with a non-apology apology that segued into yet another attack on the Clintons. Which in turn segued into that bizarre, tabloid-style press conference just before Sunday’s debate with four women accusing not only Bill Clinton, but Hillary Clinton as well, of abusive conduct.
Which in turn segued into the debate itself. (The Washington Post reported that the Trump campaign wanted to seat the four accusers in the candidates’ family box so that Bill and Chelsea Clinton would have to confront them but the Commission on Presidential Debates intervened and refused. The women were seated elsewhere in the auditorium.)
This is what Trump and his gang have turned this election into: a cheap, tawdry burlesque; a circus sideshow of freaks and conspiracy nuts that titillates the lowest of the lowest common denominator and has made us the laughingstock of what’s left of the free, thinking world.
This is not to excuse any of Bill Clinton’s past extramarital peccadilloes, or the Clintons’ preservation of the status quo, their bearhug embrace of money and influence. Nor does it let off the hook the members of the press and their corporate higher-ups who egged on this Trump sleaze machine.
But the Republican Party? You brought this on yourselves, boys and girls. For years now you have placed party, power and privilege above patriotism and country, feeding hatred and bigotry to advance your own agenda. Even before that tape came out last Friday, you knew who Trump was and is. You have always known. You just didn’t care as long as it seemed he would lead you to victory.
Read on. When this election is over, we will have to think long and hard about how our society and our culture facilitated the rise of a man utterly lacking in kindness, self-control, compassion, intellect, empathy, knowledge, and basic decency.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
And how do we ever again face fellow Americans who voted for, supported, and praised tRump? They are our neighbors who kept their ugly side hidden, but now tRump has released them from civilized behavior…and they have guns and hatred to foster their belief system.
LikeLike
I used to see the quiet suburbs riddled with Trump/Pence signs here in Ohio. They are mostly gone, now relegated to the rural areas.
LikeLike
Excellent analysis by Michael Winship: “This is worse than a simple embarrassment. Hurricane Donald has devastated America, tearing us from our foundations and moorings, creating havoc and letting loose the wolves of prejudice, hate, fear and greed.”
I wish Bill Moyers were still on PBS but at least he has his web site.
Billionaire Carl Icahn unabashedly and unashamedly supports Trump. Icahn also founded and invested in Carl Icahn Charter School; he’s a big charter school cheerleader. What a surprise (not).
Trump is sinking in the polls; I hope he sinks like the Titanic and good riddance to this monster.
LikeLike
We agree!
And Charles Savage points our what this monster’s BEHAVIOR says about our laws and our CONSTITUTION.”Threat to Jail Clinton Smacks of ‘Tin-Pot Dictators,” http://www.nytimes.com/2016/10/11/us/politics/donald-trump-hillary-clinton-special-prosecutor.html
“As president of the United States, Donald J. Trumpwould wield the power to carry out his vow to have a special prosecutor reopen the investigation into Hillary Clinton’s emails — if not to guarantee his threat to her that “you’d be in jail” if he ran the country.”
“But the move would take American democracy to a dangerous new place, legal specialists across the ideological spectrum said”
“It’s a chilling thought,” said Michael Chertoff, a former federal appeals court judge who also served as the secretary of Homeland Security and head of the Justice Department’s criminal division in the George W. Bush administration. Mr. Chertoff, who has announced that he will vote for Mrs. Clinton, added, “It smacks of what we read about tin-pot dictators in other parts of the world, where when they win an election their first move is to imprison opponents.”
and then there is this “Trumpism After Trump” http://www.nytimes.com/2016/10/12/opinion/trumpism-after-trump.html?em_pos=small&emc=edit_ty_20161011&nl=opinion-today&nl_art=5&nlid=50637717&ref=headline&te=1
“What NEXT? “If the United States escapes a disaster Nov. 8, it will have done so narrowly. Donald Trump, a dictator-in-waiting with a brat’s temper and a prig’s scowl, has won the support of tens of millions! Everyone knows, not least his supporters, but ” they feel the tectonic plates shifting downward,, not only of America’s place in the world, but also of production, employment, livelihoods. Precariousness is the new normal. There is something rotten in the state of the West. Everything is visible, including the immense wealth of the rich. Tossed here and there people revert to nativism, nationalism and ethnocentrism — in a word, to Trumpism.It now behooves America, whatever the outcome next month, to address the anger mixed with fear. His rise is a warning sign. If the warning is not heeded Trump may fail next month but another Trump will arise.”
LikeLike
Years ago, during a presidential election year, when I was working as a paraprofessional, I worked with a student from a country with less than democratic principles. I remember this student’s surprise to discover that the loser in the election wasn’t “eliminated”, as was pretty standard operating procedure in his own country.
LikeLike
There are religious right who think there Global Warming is a hoax.
LikeLike
It’s God’s will man is destroying the planet Earth, as is the usual thought process.
LikeLike
And here is an interest take from a writer for the Wall Street Journal who calls Pence and enabler. (Others say Bill Clinton is the great enabler.)
I think the Trumpsters will not go silently into the night. They are “us” and energized and a win by Clinton will be as troubled as Obama’s.
Trump is intent on discrediting every branch of government, every holder of political office, the entire election process, our judges and our courts, the immigrant population, and so on.
His need to aggrandize himself has no boundaries. He needs to belittle and bully others to sustain his delusion of possessing all-knowing greatness and perfect judgment.
http://www.wsj.com/articles/donald-and-the-enablers-1476142879
LikeLike
The American election system has been on a downward trend for many years. What is happening now is a logical sequence.
The negative campaigning had only one direction: Downward. When I started paying closer attention to elections (when I became a citizen 10 years ago), I kept wondering, “Am I the only person who notices that few candidates speak of what they will do for the people, rather than complain about all the things the other candidate does wrong?
In my are there is a day and night difference between two GOP runners. One has NOTHING to say about himself, but spends his campaign slinging mud at the Democrat running. I happen to know and respect the Democrat, and have written to the Republican to check his facts before he approves a commercial.
The other GOP candidate does not mention his opponent. His ad basically says, “This is what I will do for you…” and lays out his plan. There is absolutely no mention of his opponent.
I worked with a GOP candidate a number of years ago, and suggested that the content of the message should not have anything negative about the opponent. I know the other guy is not doing a good job; after all, it’s a Democrat (TONGUE IN CHEEK!).
As long as no one protests loud enough against negative campaigning, we have lost the right to be upset with what happens currently, from BOTH sides.
LikeLike
The reason negative campaigning is used is because it works. If a candidate has little to offer voters, they try to define their opponent in negative terms. Bread and circuses. The voters do not want to work too hard when picking candidates.
Trump is the manifestation of years of decline in the Republican party as they turned to strategies based on race and fear. Hillary is the slow transformation of Democrats from a labor party to a facade hiding the full sell-out to Wall Street.
LikeLike
The sad part is that so many of his supporters would never tolerate his behaviors were he a Democrat. They support him simply because he is the Republican candidate, end of story. All the intense hatred for Hillary is just what they do to justify supporting that loathesome man. Critical thinking goes out the window when symbolic ideology is at stake.
LikeLike
In fairness, Hillary being the warmonger and corporatist cheerleader she is wouldn’t go over well with Democrats if she were (openly) a Republican. Both sides are stuck in horse-race mentality.
LikeLike
We need to question the judgement of those Republicans who endorsed Trump. Couldn’t the Ryans, McCains, Portmans, and Ayottes of the GOP see this coming? It is not enough to change their minds or endorse-but-disagree. Trump was a movement at first, but now is a train wreck. What took them so long ?
LikeLike
“When this election is over, we will have to think long and hard about how our society and our culture facilitated the rise of a man utterly lacking in kindness, self-control, compassion, intellect, empathy, knowledge, and basic decency.”
Reformsters need to think long and hard about why their charter scam position is shared by the Trumpster. Now is a very good time for atonement.
LikeLike
Per Wikileaks, the DNC helped facilitate the rise of Mr. tRump. After reading that Hillary promoted fracking as part of a “bridge” fuel during Sunday night’s fraud of a “Town Hall,” an inevitable air of despair is settling in as we face the horrible choices offered by the duopoly. I truly feel sorry for the future our children will face.
If only Bernie had been the nominee, how much different things would be …..
LikeLike
Rudy Giuliani, in his public defense of Trump, after release of the Billy Bush tape, made the Catholic church look disgusting. If Catholic clergy care about the reputation of their faith, they should challenge its depiction as, “commit reprehensible acts, ask forgiveness, get exonerated, commit crimes, ask for absolution, get the sin expunged, repeat transgressions, repeat forgiveness plea, and just keep on piling up affronts to decency, b/c no behavior change is expected”.
LikeLike
Rudy Giuliani has shredded whatever reputation he had by shilling and apologizing for Trump’s every move. He loved Trump’s jokes about sexually assaulting women.
LikeLike
Agree. Adding, representatives of the Catholic church shouldn’t remain mute about Giuliani’s public depiction of their faith, in defense of Trump.
LikeLike
I met Rudy. Anyone who has gets who he is, a little runt, ugly and stupid.
LikeLike
Regarding “Locker Room Banter” and for those of you who might not know about the etiquette:
I’ve trained and competed in sports since I was a child. I’ve seen more than my share of men’s locker rooms.
Whether it was middle school, high school, or college (more so the first two), there was always a small group of guys who would run off at the mouth about their sexual prowess before and after practice or a game. Usually it was one or two big guys/bullies and a couple of smaller tag alongs.
We all knew who these guys were. We also knew that they either were making up stories to inflate their egos and/or didn’t have the social ability or desire to hold a relationship with a woman together for longer than a week. Or, in “locker room banter” text: we all knew they weren’t really getting any and, if they were, it was because they were snakes who would lie and cheat their way into a woman’s trust and then dump her.
These were the guys who we’d tell our sisters and girl friends to avoid at all costs.
Most of us would just roll our eyes when the “locker room banter” started. Sometimes we’d tell them to shut up if it got real bad. That’s when things could get ugly unless it was the offensive tackle, heavyweight wrestler, or shot putter who said it. Things would get a lot quieter then.
So, yeah, Donald’s right: he was just using “locker room banter” on that bus. It’s just that most of us didn’t talk like that in the locker room. Or anywhere. Only the locker room losers. Big Donald and his li’l sidekicks, Billy, and Rudy, using big bad boy language.
LikeLike
You don’t get it do you?
We all know how some boys talk… this is a 59 year old man.
Moreover, the people who worked with him ANYWHERE, know he has no respect for women. The totality of him says SICK!
This man wants to be president… and he believes he can do anything he wants!!!!!!!!!!!!!
The people who really grasp human behavior know what he is… we all saw him lurking behind Hillary, prowling that stage.
EVERYONE who ever saw a coke mania has weighed in. He is a drug addict.
This is a very sick man… stop making excuses for him, and go watch the Ken Burns tape about FDR, or Kennedy, both of whom who had affairs but was not a sleaze.
Trump is sick and will self-destruct. he cannot get out of his own way. He cannot make decisions to help himself, so how can he run the most powerful nation. Imagine if the president of a nation , made him mad. He would show them!
Can yu speel D-A-N-G-E-R-O-U-S!
Donald Trump is joke, and the GOP is having fits because they know it.
LikeLike
Susan: you don’t understand what I’m saying. I’m not making excuses for him at all. I’m saying he’s a pathetic and disgusting human being. Just like the jerks I used to know as a teenager. The fact that he’d use “locker room banter” as an excuse just highlights his cluelessness. As though all the guys are like that. We’re not all like that. Not back then and certainly not now.
LikeLike
Glad to hear that. But he is so much more than clueless. he is a belligerent, ignorant, narcissist, a genuine psychopath, and he is without a doubt, a coke user. This is so much more than clueless. many people I meet are clueless, but they only screw up their own lives and that of their children, and that is sad. This man is a certifiable madman, and I am thrilled that the GOP is having fits. THE tea-party created the extreme mendacity that allowed Trump to use the media to seduce the nativists and bigots.
Agggh! I am going to the gym to work out and forget this election.
LikeLike
I’m assuming that you have the necessary training to offer the diagnoses? And the evidence that he is indeed using illegal drugs?
It’s bad enough being the nominee, and he gives all enough ammo for one and all to make decissions. But calling him names and accusing him of using illegal drugs is going a bit far.
I can argue my dislike for this man, and for “that” woman without the name calling.
LikeLike
The signs are there, but, yes; I agree with Rudy on this one. He might have a nasal condition and I’m not a psychologist that can make any accurate diagnoses.
My point about the locker room talk is that he’s a grown up version of an extremely annoying, bully of a person that most of us who were involved in HS sports had to deal with at one time or another in our lives. The inference that we all talked like that in the good ol’ locker room is garbage. Most of us didn’t and still don’t. He’s in the minority. And his extreme wealth/celebrity status makes him much, much, much more annoying and unpredictable. The sense of entitlement is unsettling. He’s a bully and could very well have been one since childhood.
As bad as his attitude towards women is, my overriding concern is his “law and order” platform. Much of what he says is so reminiscent of Hitler in pre-Nazi Germany. Putting the power of the presidency into his hands would put the future of our nation and the world into serious jeopardy, imo.
LikeLike
Again, the Frontline piece, The Choice, really explains a lot about the making of this man: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/frontline/film/the-choice-2016/
LikeLike
Rudy, across the nation, everyone who has observed th behavior of coke addled people, and watched his manic behavior, beyond the sniffing, have said… YUP… he was on it. I am just saying… and by the way, if that performance was his ‘normal’ self, then it is a warning to us of what he will be as a representative or our nation on the world stage… ignorant, arrogant, and psychotic. One does not have to have a degree in psychology or medicine to recognize this.
LikeLike
Actually, one does need a degree to conclude that.
And one can make assumptions all day long.
You can conclude what that does, right?
LikeLike
Rudy,
You don’t need a degree to have an opinion. You need one to make a clinical diagnosis, which no one here has done.
I have never seen a cocaine addict. Yet, as I watched the second debate, I thought that Trump was sniffing like a coke addict. Maybe he isn’t. I don’t know. But he should explain why he sniffed loudly again and again and again, for 90 minutes.
LikeLike
Rudy,
It is hard to smile when you are in the spotlight and millions are watching. I have been criticized for not smiling, though no one would say that about a man.
Something about that sniffing… not right.
LikeLike
Her smiling has been explained as anger suppression during debates. She does not want people to see her being flustered or angry.
LikeLike
Rudy,
I can understand that reaction. She is an intelligent, well-experienced woman on stage with a raving lunatic who wants her in jail. How would you react? Trump is so far off the deep end that it’s hard to hear anything but the ravings of a deranged fascist.
LikeLike
…and ladies must always be polite. Perhaps I am stereotyping but I have to admire the ability of Southern women who I have observed. They can skewer a body quite effectively while smiling all the while. They neither concede defeat or declare victory with overt signs especially in a public arena. Hillary learned those lessons during her years in Arkansas. It makes her one tough cookie. My apologies ahead of time if I have offended anyone.
LikeLike
Yes, among southern women, white and black, manners matter.
Trump just declared that he wants Hillary to take a drug test.
How low can he go?
Maybe he will suggest a vaginal probe to find out if she is hiding a pregnancy?
LikeLike
Here’s my theory. Trump always looks like he is sucking lemons. Well, when you think about it, that sucking with your mouth closed creates suction in your sinus cavities. He is sucking the snot out of himself and thus has to constantly sniff. Now you see why people are assuming he likes coke. It is so much more entertaining to think he indulges in coke to calm his nerves.
LikeLike