Out-of-Control Election

I am fed up! This is a rant with no excuses for it. We have hit the lowest in "political" rhetoric that I have seen in my over 50 years of being a political junkie.

For me it is summed up in a word.

 Predator:
A person who ruthlessly exploits others. 
(Oxford Dictionaries)

It came into usage as an analogy to predatory behavior in animals.

Synonyms:

• Stalker
• Tracker
• Pursuer
• Lurker

 From Psychology Today:

Among their most dangerous features are a callous disregard for the rights of others and a propensity for violating norms. They can charm and manipulate others for their own gain, conning with no regard for anyone's feelings.

They look for opportunities—taking a security job that positions them to meet potential victims, for example—and they have no qualms, when the time is right, about exploiting them. We want to spot them, but they usually spot us first.

As predators get away with their acts, they learn the best ways to deflect others from discovering their secrets, and they enjoy the lack of accountability. They devise different sets of values for different life frames, so that they can speak convincingly about socially-approved venues of right and wrong, yet have no qualms about their socially-condemned behavior. -Link

I started writing this earlier this week after the ongoing conflict with Donald Trump's behavior. I would sit and watch him and his responses to the issue and would feel "creeped out." My radar kept saying, "This guy is creepy. He is a classic predator." I watched the way he walked, the demeanor, the sneering look, the "no one can challenge me and get away with it" attitude. It all rang out.This guy is a dangerous predator.

But then I decided not to post it. Maybe I was feeling overwhelmed by the whole election fiasco. Maybe I just wanted it to go away. Then Michele Obama spoke yesterday. She spoke of the way this has shaken her to her "very core." I agree. I have to say this.

For a public person like Donald Trump to do what he has been doing since almost the beginning and now this? What in the world is wrong with us? What is the world is happening that we as a nation continue to believe he is a suitable candidate for president? Because he got so many votes? No. He is a con man that knows how to play the emotions of many who feel disenfranchised. He knows how to touch the base emotions of our lives and play on them. His language that has gotten him into the most trouble is this so-called "locker room" language.

It is the language of sexual assault. It is the language of rape. Even if he didn't actually do what he claimed to do (locker room boasting), he is setting it out as appropriate behavior. And then one of his supporting male surrogates (Rush Limbaugh) in excusing the language, went so far as to say that we give too much power to the idea of consent. Men know when "no" means "yes" he implied.

WTF?

Where have we gone as America?

Yes, there are those who say that at least no one died like at Benghazi. Well, that ignores a great deal of information on what led up to Benghazi and what the Secretary of State could have done about it.

It also ignores the many women who HAVE died as the result of the type of actions that Trump and his surrogates are now trying to excuse. Assault, forcibly pushing oneself onto another person, rape. People die from it every day. As long as we want to excuse it, overlook it, do a "Tsk! Tsk!" finger wagging at boys will be boys, we are allowing the whole culture of rape and assault to go unchallenged.

We are being assaulted as a nation by Donald Trump. We are being emotionally raped by a political predator. He is getting away with standing in the middle of 5th Avenue shooting people. He just isn't using guns. He talks about jailing his opponent as if it is something he as president could do. He talks about suing the New York Times because it published accusations against him. He banned the Washington Post for a while when they criticized him. He has denigrated women, Latinos, Muslims while upholding dictator/oligarch Putin as a great leader. It hasn't been overt, yet, but watch- he will come after the Jews next.

And the press is only just beginning to realize their own mistake in not standing up to it earlier and aren't sure what to do about it.

What will happen if he is elected? How long will it take the nation to see we have been assaulted politically without him firing a shot? He will find ways to use the executive order power to undermine who we are as a democracy in ways no president has ever done. And there is a lot more to undermine than the 2nd Amendment.

What will happen if he is defeated? That is potentially more frightening in the short run. He has implied that if he loses it will only be because it was stolen from him. He couldn't possibly lose fair and square. That is predatory behavior and thinking.

For today, though, I had to say these things. Watch him. Not as a presidential candidate, not as a politician, but as a predator. Watch the way he moves and speaks. These were some of the things that people commented on about Bill Clinton in the 90s. Clinton may have learned his lesson.

Donald Trump hasn't.

God help us all.