Three things rare in life these days.
Steak that's really cooked the way you ordered it.
Anything resembling quality customer service from Comcast.
Me. Defending Donald Trump.
Cue Donna Summer.
Heaven knows.
That said, it's become clear to me over the past few months and, most especially in the last few weeks, even days, that Trump is being accused of this and that which, to my p.o.v., he is not necessarily guilty.
And I only qualify it by saying "not necessarily" because I don't know the man, don't have access to the man and don't honestly know what he has to say behind closed doors.
The most recent accusation flung at him like feces from a disgruntled primate is that he is a racist.
And while we're at it, let's throw in the scarlet lettering of him as a "Nazi sympathizer."
Both batches of tar and feathers there, of course, resulting from his badly bobbled handling of the bully pulpit in response to the rioting, destruction and death that occurred in Charlottesville.
And he certainly didn't do himself any favors by waiting two days to respond, then giving only lip service to a cliche' soaked schpiel clearly written for him by some one else and, then, to the chagrin of his own people and the weary, same shit, different day expectations of his detractors, holding the "press conference" in which he disavowed the cliche' soaked schpiel and got back to business as usual, awkwardly, and ineptly, attempting to weasel his way around condemning the bigots and fascists that made up the Virginia lynch mob while, if only in his own mind, coming off as "Presidential" to those of us who really can't find much in the way of moisture in a glass of bile that Trump seems to want us to see as, at least, half full.
Now, while we're at it, let's throw in some of the oldie but goodie epithets that have been spit balled at the man since he came down out of Trump Tower two years ago and decided that America needed to be made great again and he, and only he, had the savvy to make it happen.
Misogynist.
Chauvinist.
Sexual predator.
Payment delinquent.
Deal welcher.
Narcissist.
Sociopath.
Okay. Now, here's where the third of those really rare things I mentioned at the outset comes into play. And just so we're clear, I have neither the desire or the intention to put any effort whatsoever into being a part of putting Trump into a better light.
And what I'm about to offer here is really more in the neighborhood of clarification than it is validation.
Cause, frankly, my dear, I'm not pro-Trump on anything. Ever. Least of all, Trump.
But, I think it important and, bear with me, even beneficial for you to know why I think he's being mislabeled when he is labeled as a racist and/or a Nazi sympathizer.
I'll grant you that the symptoms of what he seems to be and what I read him, in actuality, to be are very much the same.
But there's a tell, if you will, in his behavior that sometime ago convinced me that he is neither, necessarily, a racist or a Nazi sympathizer or any one of a dozen other mean spirited, even evil, personality flaws that continue to stink up the atmosphere of this country he professes to want made great again.
And the tell...is this.
Follow through. Or, more to the point, lack of follow through.
He wailed and blustered and verbally vomited his disdain for the Latino "infestation" in this country, bluntly "guaranteed" that there would be a wall and Mexico would pay for it.
One year later. No wall. No pesos yet forthcoming to pay for a wall.
And Donald has nothing to say about the matter, except to mention it in his moments of demagogue delight for the fans that just still cant get enough of the Kool Aid . No follow through.
He wailed and bloviated and flag waved his nubby little fingers to the quick with assurances that he had a "30 day plan to defeat ISIS".
One year later, no plan, no defeat, ISIS still alive in whatever form it currently exists and rearing its vile little existence by periodically jumping behind a wheel and cowardly mowing down crowds in outdoor cafes.
And Donald has nothing to say about the plan or ISIS. No follow through.
He minced nary a syllable, let alone a word when he boldly promised that "all Americans would have heath care, great health care at much reduced prices as soon as he could solemnly swear to faithfully execute both the office and the Affordable Care Act.
One year later. Donald has nothing to say about repealing or replacing. He's even stopped blaming McConnell. Although we all know that's merely a reprieve and not a resolution.
No follow through.
And, at this moment, we have Russia still cooking on the back burner, Bannon shown the door, half a dozen Chiefs of Staff, press secretaries and/or communications directors listed on a metaphorical memorial wall.
And approval ratings that make saying "in the crapper" a disservice to even that which actually ends up in the crapper.
Meanwhile, Tuesday 22nd found him getting his knob polished by the adoring masses in Phoenix at the latest assemblage of the Narcissus Praise And Genuflect Society, better known to you and me and the rest of the sane world as Trump's base.
And a speech, if you want to call sixty minutes of vile, venom, vomit and mental masturbation a speech, that came along just in time to validate to a moral, or more correctly, an immoral certainty my assertion that Donald is getting mislabeled when tagged with the racism, neo-Nazi name tag.
More promises he has very little chance of keeping, more savaging of anyone and anything that contradicts, for a single nano second, anything he says, wants, does or purportedly plans and or promises to say, want or do in the future.
And the gathered faithful lapping it up like a herd of crazed kitties coming across an oasis size bowl of cool cream on the stoop of their undivided house.
Well, of course, they lap it up.
Because it doesn't matter a whip or whit that very little of what Trump is saying to them has any basis in truth, fact, honesty, integrity or even potential.
That's not what they're there to hear.
And that's not what he's there to tell them
.
They're there to hear what they want to hear.
And he's there to tell them what they want to hear.
It's called pandering.
Noun: to gratify or indulge (an immoral or distasteful desire, need, or habit or a person with such a desire, etc.).
Pandering. Telling people what they want to hear. So that the teller can get the listener to believe in, or testify to or buy in, lock, stock and/or barrel, to accept, on faith and faith alone, that whatever the teller promises will come to pass.
Regardless of how impractical, impossible, inane or even insane whatever that promise might be might be.
Pandering.
Telling people what they want to hear.
It's how Donald Trump got elected President.
It's what Donald Trump does to insure that those that worship and adore will continue to worship and adore, no matter what, no matter when, no matter where.
It's why he took two days to say anything at all about the bigots and haters and Nazis in Charlottesville, then gave the brief "speech" condemning them and then, the next day, to the collective chagrins of staff and citizenry, took it all back.
Because he is incapable of functioning as an elected official, a spokesperson, hell, maybe even as a person without being loved, adored, worshiped, admired, revered.
And, in the mindset of that personality, the only way to insure the love, adoration, worship, admiration and or reverence of people is to tell them what they want to hear.
To pander.
So, if only on the basis of a benefit of the doubt humanitarianism, let's cut the man this much slack.
That underneath it all, he's not really a racist.
And he's not really a Nazi sympathizer.
He just has to tell the racists and Nazi sympathizers that he's one of them. While at the same time, letting those who would naturally be appalled that he is one of them know that he's not really one of them.
Old expression for that style of "leadership".
It's known as talking out of both sides of your mouth.
Being all things to all people, as if that were even minutely close to possible in this life.
Racist? I honestly don't think so.
Nazi sympathizer? Again, don't see it being actual.
Misogynist.
Chauvinist.
Sexual predator.
Payment delinquent.
Deal welcher.
Narcissist.
Sociopath.
Oh, sure, no problem pegging him all of those.
Oh. And one more for the list.
Panderer.
In fact, move that to the top of the list.
Again, no defense of Trump on my part intended or desired.
I just felt the need to tell you what I just told you.
Even if it's not what you wanted to hear.
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