*’The electoral system is rigged,’ said the white man with blond hair, a billion-dollar real estate portfolio and a bank account to match. I must admit I’ve heard this conspiracy theory before, yet never from someone with Donald Trump’s pedigree and prestige. If I could ask Trump one question (before getting thrown out of his pep rally as he has been known to do) I would ask “If the system is rigged, in whose favor would it be rigged if not for someone like you?”
Trump’s numbers are falling behind Hillary Clinton’s in presidential polls. To hear him tell it, it’s because the system is rigged – not because he bad-mouthed the family of a dead military hero or displayed bi-polar tendencies when he told the mother of a crying infant in one breath that ‘I love babies,’ and in the next breath told her to ‘get that baby out of here!’ Saturday Night Live doesn’t have to create Trump skits. They can just replay the real thing. It would be hilarious if it wasn’t America’s sad reality. This dude could be the next president of the United States. Yikes!
I can see it now in my nightmare: Trump would enact a real purge – by a different name, of course. Yet with the same objective. Anybody who disagrees with his rational, doesn’t fall in line behind his directives or dares to question Trump’s logic would face his wrath. Wrath, here I come!
When it comes to sexual harassment in the workplace, Trump said women should quit! Start a new career somewhere else, he said. His son, Eric, said confident women – such as his sister, Ivanka – wouldn’t allow themselves to be subjected to sexual harassment in the workplace. I suspect that Ivanka, who has lived with the benefits of the Trump name all her life and working in the cocoon of her family’s business, has never had to contemplate a career change due to sexual harassment. The rest of us working women can’t afford to quit a job just because of inappropriate and unwanted attention at work.
And for all the two men said on the subject of sexual harassment, neither of them mentioned anything about the perpetrator’s responsibility. According to The Donald, it’s up to the woman to fix the situation. He probably thinks birth control is only the woman’s responsibility too. That phone you hear ringing is the dark ages calling Trump for its point of view back.
At this point in pre-election planning most candidates are prepared to answer questions about possible cabinet members if elected POTUS. But not Trump. When asked about his short-list of qualified women who might serve in his cabinet, Trump name his daughter as a ‘terrific’ selection. Nobody else. Just Ivanka.
For a man who wants to be the leader of the free world, Trump has an unhealthy aversion to contrasting points of view. I bet he never asked himself what went wrong with his first marriage before he moved onto his second and now his third. Nothing about him leads me to believe Trump is introspective. Deflective maybe. But I digress.
For most of his 69 years Trump has had the luxury of answering to no one; not the media or voters. Now, even his answers are being questioned. This man of many words has said little to nothing.
Steffanie is a freelance journalist living in the Dallas, Texas metroplex. Email her at [email protected] for questions, comments and speaking inquiries.