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OpEdNews Op Eds    H3'ed 10/20/16

Donald Trump and the Repubs. Abandoning Ship

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From Greanville Post

Donald Trump
Donald Trump
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As is well-known, since the publication of his gropings, as Trump gropes with ever-less effectiveness towards the Presidency, Repubs. have been fleeing from him like flies flying off a pile of ____ when a loud noise is heard nearby. Even Pretty Boy Ryan, his eyes firmly on the 2020 nomination prize (as are Cruz's, Rubio's and Pence's for sure), as of the time-of-writing was getting ever-closer to completely abandoning ship. By the way, regardless of what happens to the Repubs. in this election, assuming that HRC wins it, what the Repubs. in Congress -- whether or not they have control of the Senate or only the filibuster -- will do to and with Clinton will make the obstructionism towards Obama with began with that planning meeting on January 21, 2009, seem mild by comparison. They simply dis-respected Obama, who was only half-white. They absolutely hate Hillary, white or not.

GOP Senators Serve Their Corporate Masters
GOP Senators Serve Their Corporate Masters
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So why now? Why not after any one of the whole slew of Trump outrages, great and small that have occurred on his march towards the Presidency? Before posting an answer or two to that question, let us review briefly just some of the list of Trump outrages/mis-steps/withholdings/failed businesses/possible associations with criminal activities/and so forth. Many of them on their own would have sunk any other candidate and had Repubs. running for the exits. Why now? Why this one?

And here, not in any particular order, are some of the Trump travesties (and worse):

--He apparently violated the Cuban embargo law, in dealing with a Cuban bank.

--Of course he has failed to reveal his Federal tax returns, which could hide the possibility that he has paid no personal income tax for years (which he actually admitted in passing during the Oct. 9 debate), but also that he has, as suspected, many associations with foreign businessmen who themselves have been accused of criminal activity.

--He has had numerous failed businesses, to say nothing of the bankruptcies.

--The constant lying.

--The racism, which started years ago with incidents like the "Central Park Five" (for whom he is still calling for the death penalty despite that fact the DNA evidence has cleared them), but he trumpeted for years with birtherism. Funny how he claimed that he forced President Obama to reveal his birth certificate, as if that were a good thing. Who has ever asked any other President to produce a birth certificate? But I forgot. Obama is only half-white.

--Islamophobia, writ large and dangerously, both general and specific in the case of the Khans.

--Personally attacking Ms. Machado (the Miss universe winner), Senator John McCain, disabled people.

--Praising President Putin, while likely having either major investments in Russia or having Russian investment in his own enterprises, or both.

--The "punishing women for having an abortion" position.

--Having an open affair while married (just the one that we know about, with Marla Maples).

--Engaging in no personal philanthropy since 2008.

--Possibly bribing (a crime) elected officials (or so it has been charged).

--The Trump "University" affair, which has both civil and criminal elements to it, and the racist attack on the case's judge.

--The generalized misogyny, which has been well-known, like the objectification of women by their body and body-parts shapes and sizes.

--Of course the "Mexicans are rapists and murderers" claim with which he justifies his (totally impractical in any case) Wall (at a time when more Mexicans are going home than coming here, but when have facts ever mattered to Trump?)

--Dealing with an Iranian bank while sanctions were imposed, a potentially criminal activity.

--And so on, and so forth.

Paul Ryan by Gage Skidmore
Paul Ryan by Gage Skidmore
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So why now? Why the uproar among Repubs. who are running for the exits in droves over the Groping Scandal (which caught up in it a Bush family member as well.) Well it cannot be that they are people of principle. If they were, why did virtually no one leave over a much more serious matter, in terms of policy not personal behavior of which this type of misogyny is particularly gross, like the suggestion that U.S. Muslims might have to have special identification (with the yellow crescent patch coming just after that?) Well, first and foremost, as I have written on numerous occasions , on most issues Trump is well within Republican traditions, except that he says them out loud. So what does give?

Well, first he gives the lie to the Repubs. who fancy themselves the Party of Probity. Despite Senator Vitter, the former Governor of South Carolina, now Congressman from that state, Mark Sanford, the former Congressman Mark Foley, to say nothing of the jailed Denny Hastert, and so on and so forth, the Repubs. just love retaining that fiction. Well, the Trump story is just really gross, and he is running for President.

But the real reason had nothing to do with morality and it has nothing to do with the fact that the man knows little about what one has to know about in order to be President of the world's leading capitalist/imperialist power. It has everything to do with the undecided/usually-Republican female vote. Up until now, Trump has had a chance to win. During the time that he and the media were making something out of pretty-much nothing of the Clinton "email scandal" and "Benghazi" was just not working for the outside of their base where it works anyway. Now, with what this one is doing to Trump's numbers with wavering women, unless there is some major "outside" event, like a (false-flag) "terrorist attack" on U.S. soil , he is sure to lose. And that's the principal reason they are abandoning ship.

It has nothing to do with principles or true outrage; it has everything to do with the elections down-ballot, and with the Congressional elections in 2018 and the next Presidential election in 2020. More on the latter, anon.

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Steven Jonas, MD, MPH, MS is a Professor Emeritus of Preventive Medicine at StonyBrookMedicine (NY). As well as having been a regular political columnist on several national websites for over 20 years, he is the author/co-author/editor/co-editor of 37 books Currently, on the columns side, in addition to his position on OpEdNews as a Trusted Author, he is a regular contributor to From The G-Man.  In the past he has been a contributor to, among other publications, The Greanville PostThe Planetary Movement, and Buzzflash.com.  He was also a triathlete for 37 seasons, doing over 250 multi-sport races.  Among his 37 books (from the late 1970s, mainly in the health, sports, and health care organization fields) are, on politics: The 15% Solution: How the Republican Religious Right Took Control of the U.S., 1981-2022; A Futuristic Novel (originally published 1996; the 3rd version was published by Trepper & Katz Impact Books, Punto Press Publishing, 2013, Brewster, NY, sadly beginning to come true, advertised on OpEdNews and available on  (more...)
 

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