If the polls are correct, Republican voters, many of whom spent eight years attacking President Obama — whatever his faults, a highly dignified leader — for conducting himself in a way beneath the dignity of the presidency, are about to cast their ballots in large numbers for a man who stood at the podium and called his chief rival a “p—y.”
This is Donald Trump, who said John McCain wasn’t a war hero because he had been imprisoned by the enemy. Who insulted a journalist for having “blood coming out of her wherever” after she had the audacity to question him toughly. Who mocked a reporter he didn’t like for being physically disabled.
And now, when Sen. Ted Cruz, the very same man who supports carpet-bombing ISIS — meaning attacking them in a way that kills civilians by the thousands, because, well, it sounds tough — said he would waterboard terrorist suspects but would not otherwise torture them, Trump attacked him.
DONALD TRUMP CALLS TED CRUZ ‘P—Y’ AT NEW HAMPSHIRE RALLY
Then a supporter in the crowd called Cruz the p-word, a juvenile way of belittling masculinity that has the double benefit to Trump-types of being misogynistic.
Trump pretended to be offended, even as he repeated the smear: “She said he’s a p—y,” echoing the remarks from the podium, on what he knew was national television. “That’s terrible. Terrible.”
For what sins did right-wing pundits smear Obama for behaving in a manner “beneath the dignity of the office?” For appearing on a web comedy series. For filling out a March Madness bracket.
Once upon a time, the Republican Party pretended to claim to care about the example a President set for the nation, including its children. In 2000, George W. Bush pledged, repeatedly “to restore honor and dignity” to the Oval Office. Voters lapped it up.
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The leader poised to win New Hampshire in a romp would be, as the Manhattan Institute’s Heather Mac Donald put it, the nation’s coarsener in chief.
As she wrote: “Conservatives, of all people, should understand the preciousness and precariousness of manners. Boys in particular need to be civilized. That task will be more difficult with Trump in the White House.”
Here’s Rush Limbaugh: “You talk about beneath the dignity of the office, maybe setting a new low. President Obama with YouTube interviews. It’s an outreach to the youths of America, but, folks, it was so embarrassing.”
If Limbaugh fails now to condemn Trump with every decibel in his voice, he’ll leave no question that the condemnation is sickeningly selective. The only question will be whether the double-standard is partisan, racial or both.
There is no political office like the presidency. He or she sets the nation’s tone. He or she is head of state and head of government. The character of the President is in no small sense an expression of the character of the country.
It is mind-boggling to me, and it should boggle the minds of so-called conservatives that they are treating a man with all the gravitas of an eighth-grade bully as fit to lead the most powerful — and, yes, morally greatest — nation on earth. Shame on him. And if they nominate this man, shame on them.
