There are plenty of words to describe Donald Trump’s comments over the weekend. Appalling. Hurtful. Tasteless.
But there is one thing they were not: surprising.
By maligning the parents of a soldier killed in Iraq, and belittling their sacrifice, Trump reached a new low. But not by much.
After all, this is a man who mocked a disabled reporter, questioned a judge’s impartiality based on his ethnicity, and said of Sen. John McCain, who spent five years as a prisoner of war, “I like people who weren’t captured.”
And those are just a few of his ever-expanding collection of vulgar, false and narrow-minded diatribes, with each new one enough to show that he has neither the disposition for the presidency nor a grasp of the office’s incredible weight and responsibility.
Trump is scheduled to make his second appearance in Maine on Thursday, a sign that the state’s electoral votes may be up for grabs, particularly in the 2nd District. Mainers must say no to his hatefully divisive campaign of egomania, casual bigotry, and willful ignorance.
That applies especially to Rep. Bruce Poliquin and Sen. Susan Collins, both of whom continue to offer nothing of substance on the presidential candidate of their own party.
Poliquin has implied that he will vote for Trump – saying that “only one candidate now has been a major job creator” – yet he refuses to even say his name. As the freshman congressman prepares his opinion on who should be the leader of the free world, he should ask himself if Trump’s (questionable) job-creation skills are enough to elect a president who regularly disparages whole sections of the population.
Sen. Susan Collins, who is holding back her endorsement until Trump begins “acting more presidential,” has to ask herself if supporting the party is worth electing someone who thinks nothing of disparaging allies and emboldening rivals.
And surely at this point, a change in Trump’s act should not satisfy Collins. Three months of a slightly lesser Trump wouldn’t change anything.
No, the excuses for Trump are getting thinner by the moment. His dangerous conduct and factious slurs can no longer be dismissed as the performance of a TV star or the missteps of a political newcomer. They are part of his character. They are who he is.
And his personality flaws cannot be brushed off as inconsequential. As a candidate, he has proven himself to be astonishingly shallow, dangerously divisive and utterly incurious. As a president, when dealing in the volatile and complex world of diplomacy, or when trying to calm or heal the country in times of crisis, that erratic and unseemly behavior would be disastrous.
We have questions about Hillary Clinton, and understand voters’ suspicions about her honesty and judgment. But she is objectively qualified to be president, and there is no doubt she respects the office, and understands its magnitude.
By almost any measure Trump is unfit for the presidency. He is, in the worst way possible, unlike any one other modern presidential candidate. It is stunning that his candidacy has come this far, and it should go no further.
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