Whenever Donald Trump has a bad few days, or must avoid answering difficult questions, he falls back to attacks on Bill Clinton, with two goals in mind: change the subject and sully Hillary Clinton with her husband's indiscretions.
This week, the issues were his tax returns, the backlash for calling Oakland and Ferguson the most dangerous places in the world, and news reports of his history with women. So, in an interview with Sean Hannity, following a negative New York Times article in which past women in his life were interviewed, Trump was led by Hannity into a most likely pre-arranged discussion of a 17-year old rape allegation against Bill Clinton -- let's get that subject changed, by all means.
At one point during the interview with Hannity, Trump brought up a 1999 allegation of rape by Juanita Broaddrick, an allegation that actually went nowhere at the time, probably because Broaddrick changed her story twice, and, when the charge was made, the alleged incident was already 21 years old. Two sisters, friends of Broaddrick, and also angry with Clinton because he had commuted the sentence of the man who had murdered their father, claimed that Broaddrick had told them about the rape, but they had not come forward at the time either.
But the point, of course, is moot. None of this is relevant to the Clinton campaign or to her qualifications to be President. On the other hand, Trump is running for President, and his attitude and past behavior towards women is relevant. Let's stick to the subject, Donald.
Duck and Dodge and Reverse
In other campaign news this week, Trump insisted that Clinton is not qualified to be President because of her poor judgement in supporting the Iraq War and her role in the regime change in Libya. In fact, he told Morning Joe Scarborough, during an interview on May 20 that he would never have invaded Iraq nor gone into Libya. Funny thing how words come back to haunt. The Donald is on video having supported both of those when they occurred. None of this will probably matter to his diehard supporters, however, who seem to be willing to forgive far worse than this.
Other reversals have included a walking back of his initial statement that the minimum wage was too high, now stating that it must be raised, and a reversal of his original tax plan which gave even more breaks to the rich.
Perhaps more important was his insistence that he was so rich he did not need any outside funding for his campaign. This position alone endeared him to a large base of white blue-collar males who have been left out of the recovery and who believe that the big monied interests have no concern for them. Now, however, according to The Winnipeg Free Press , he has asked hedge-fund manager Steven Mnuchin to begin a national fund-raising operation to raise $1 billion. This will mean that monied contributors will certainly be offered perks for writing those checks. And a Trump super-pac has also been formed. What will his supporters think now, or will they even bother to listen? It seems that Trump is making friends in new places, and those places do not include the downtrodden Americans he promises to save.
Save From What?
Trump may seem like a "different" politician to all of the low-information voters who support him. He is not "establishment;" he is going to bring all of their jobs back; and he is going to rid us of all those things we fear-- Mexican rapists, Syrian refugees, abortion, transgenders, all Muslims, and ISIS, who is quietly invading our great nation and hiding out in Mosques. He is no different from the Republicans in Congress, playing on the fears of a Black, foreign-born socialist, fascist President whose agenda is to take their guns and force them to pee with members of the opposite sex. And while we're at it, we can fear Hillary Clinton because her husband was a womanizer. There is much to fear, but it is not any of those things -- it is Donald Trump as President.
Will the Real Donald Please Stand Up?
It's impossible to know where Donald Trump stands on any policy, really, and that's a dangerous thing.
But the fans who are so adamantly supporting him would do well to reach into his past and have a good long hard look at his behavior. This will provide a much clearer understanding of the type of President he will be. If they do this honestly, they will not like what they see. All of the positions that these supporters so love now have never been his positions. They are being duped once again.
And when Donald is called on his hypocrisy, he can always just bring up Bill Clinton's womanizing again. So far, it has worked.
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