By Joey Kennedy
Alabama Political Reporter
Oh, how I’d like to focus this column on the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia. How Democrats, despite the Bernie Bros and others, came together pretty quickly.
I’d like to write about how marvelous First Lady Michelle Obama’s speech was on Monday night. Absolutely fantastic. And not plagiarized.
It’d be nice to talk about the home run Bill Clinton hit on Tuesday night, telling delegates about Democratic Presidential nominee Hillary Clinton, his wife. His only wife, by the way. Yeah, they’ve had their troubles. So have Veronica and I. But the Clintons have remained married, as have we.
The problem: Republican Presidential nominee Donald Trump keeps opening his mouth.
No question the Democrats are putting on a much better convention than the Republicans. I’ve covered these things multiple times. The Democrats have superstar speakers; not Scott Baio or an ultimate fighting dude. Every speech on Monday and Tuesday nights in Philadelphia were winners. You might not like the speakers, because you don’t like Democrats, and that’s OK.
But they were good-to-excellent speeches and helped to build much more unity in the Democratic Party than anything at that Republican thing last week in Cleveland. Yeah, some of Bernie’s supporters aren’t mollified; that happened in 2008, too, when Barack Obama beat Hillary Clinton, and some Clinton supporters weren’t mollified.
They got over it.
Yet, how can we get over Trump? Just Wednesday in Virginia, Trump threatened to not pay the hotel where he gave a “Crooked Hillary” speech because the air-conditioners weren’t working at top form to his specifications. Then we hear again that Trump very often doesn’t pay his bills for services provided.
Hell, if I didn’t pay my bills, I’d be a billionaire. OK, a thousandaire, anyway.
Most disturbing, though, is Trump calling on the Russians to hack Hillary Clinton’s email accounts. The Russians are suspected of hacking the Democratic National Committee servers for those emails released by WikiLeaks.
So here is Trump, the Republican Party nominee for president of the United States, asking another country – and a not-so-friendly country, at that – to hack into U.S. servers on his behalf.
Treason?
How much are Republicans going to put up with? How much should Americans put up with?
Donald Trump has shown time and again he is unfit to lead this nation. He’s a bigot, a misogynist and a bully. You may not like Hillary Clinton (judged by fact-checkers as much more truthful than Trump) and may never vote for her, and that’s certainly your right.
I’ve said this before: If you support Donald Trump, you have to own your own bigotry. Would you tolerate in this day and age, somebody using the N-word around you? Well, I guess some of you would.
But if you do, you have to own your racism.
Would you tolerate in this day and age, somebody putting down women because they’re women? Calling them terrible names? Saying they should be quiet, pregnant and barefoot? Well, I guess some of you would.
But if you do, you have to own your misogyny.
Would you tolerate in this day and age, somebody telling you that Latino immigrants are rapists and criminals? That they add no value to our nation? That they should all be deported? Well, I guess some of you would.
But if you do, you have to own your xenophobia.
You cannot support Donald Trump and get around his racist, misogynistic, xenophobic, unstable temperament. He puts down disabled people and has scammed no telling how many Americans. He celebrates Russia over America.
Trump won’t release his tax returns because he has something (probably, a lot) to hide. Columnist George Will – a Republican brave enough to speak out against Trump – says it’s because Trump is up to his forehead in rubles.
How can anybody support Trump? How can anybody believe he’s the best we have to lead the United States. Don’t vote for Hillary if you don’t like her. But don’t vote for Trump unless you’re like him.
Surely, Trump only caters to those who look like him: Angry White Men. With Bad Hair.
I would have loved to have written about the positive message coming from the Democratic National Convention this week. And about some of the bumps in the Democratic road. But Trump can’t keep his foot off his lip.
This isn’t a reality show.
This. Is. Reality.
Trump is scary, and that Republicans nominated him for president says much about who they are today. This is what they’ve become. Oligarchs.
And if you support Donald Trump, and vote for him, well, you are him. Without the money.
Live with that.
Joey Kennedy, a Pulitzer Prize winner, writes a column every week for Alabama Political Reporter. Email: [email protected].
