By Dick Miller
WE.CONNECT DOTS: Who is to blame for Donald Trump?
How about the other Republican candidates, all of whom hope Trump would now disappear?
Four or five years ago, when Trump “nuked” President Obama, these aspirants for the highest office in America either mildly urged the Donald to lob more bombs at Obama or certainly signaled – through their silence – that they condoned this type of disrespect.
Donald was the last public figure to pound the birthing issue. He continued to claim Obama had been born in Kenya, even after the President produced a Hawaiian birth certificate.
After all, Donald continued to pummel the Democrats. Often he wrote large donation checks to these same guys when they were running for previous elective offices. Donald – showman that he is – is tops at drawing attention to his barbs.
The “wuss” Republicans did not hit Obama below the belt. Donald was doing that job for them. Made them more “stately-like.”
Pat Buchanan believes Trump can still win.
“If his poll numbers hold, Trump will be there six months from now when the “Sweet 16” is cut to the “Final Four,” Buchanan notes.
Trump’s problem with emerging from the GOP convention with the nomination is that as each of the remaining candidates drop they are certain to endorse any other remaining candidate but him.
In the course of hammering Obama 24/7/365, the Republican leadership is also responsible for denigrating the office he holds. Various Presidents have been called worse names, but none – at least in modern times – has had to endure the intense frequency of criticism that has harassed Obama since he took office in January 2009.
Now GOP Majority leader of the Senate Mitch McConnell said in 2010 “My number one goal is to make sure Barack Obama is a one-term president.” No one knows how high his priority was for making the country better because he seldom talked about other concerns.
So now, other GOP Presidential candidates have switched from knocking Obama to hoping to shoot down Trump. They would like to get Trump out of the race as soon as possible to ramp up their attacks on Hillary.
Currently they raise questions about Trump’s fitness, claiming he “cannot be commander and chief.” Who gives that any priority anymore?
Republican President Richard Nixon ordered the Defense Department to eliminate the draft and create an all-volunteer Army in 1973. This was the beginning of our decreasing concern about military actions. No longer could our children be involuntarily put in harm’s way. In this regard, who was (is) our commander in chief matters less to more parents.
In subsequent years, as manpower mandates around the globe threatened our available personnel, Washington was able to give their cronies juicy support contracts. It is not unusual for the number of civilian support personal to exceed the number of soldiers in a battle zone. At one point, the cost to maintain a single soldier in battle zoomed to a million dollars per year.
Lyndon Johnson enacted a special tax to pay for the Vietnam War. George W. Bush taught us – even after 9/11 — that we could increase our national debt. Bush pushed repayment of fighting wars to the next generation while still cutting the taxes of the wealthy.
In just four decades we have advanced warfare to the point where our children cannot be forced to fight, we give the bill to the next generation and more of us can profit from the war.
Who cares who is commander and chief?
George W. Bush, a reservist with questionable meeting attendance, successfully choked back an effort by John Kerry in the 2004 campaign. The “Swift boating” of Kerry, even though he had merely been shot in the rear end, contributed declining importance that our President be a war hero.
Bottom Line: Ironic that Trump would pick on John McCain’s war record recently. McCain belittled the Office of the President more than anyone else and it might have cost him a victory over Obama in 2008. McCain, 72 when he ran against Obama in 2008, had endured three plane crashes, four melanomas and more than five years tortured in an enemy prison.
At that age and health record, McCain selected an airhead Alaskan to be his choice for vice president. If he had his way, Sarah Palin would have been one heartbeat away from the most powerful job on earth with access to nuclear codes.
Now Trump threatens to repeat her as a v-p selection.
1. Kerry’s Purple Hearts were for shrapnel injuries to the arm and leg and an injury to his arm.
2. George W. Bush was a draft dodger with a fake Air National Guard record concocted by Poppy’s friends to make it look like he had honorable service.
3. McCain received special treatment because he was an Admiral’s son. The Vietnamese saved his life; treated his medical injuries and provided him with comfortable quarters in return for his collaboration. The “torture” history is what people like Trump questions and when you see pictures of McCain while a prisoner and being “tortured” and he is smiling and has a rather health body weight it does lead one to wonder.
4.2 of McCain’s plane wrecks were just poor piloting and had he not been and Admiral’s son or had to fly in the modern Navy after the first plane wreck he would have been done and been a desk jockey.
5. Palin may be an airhead but based on what we call qualifications she had more experience leading than Obama ever had.
The problem the GOP has is not that Trump is disrespectful of the President or the other candidates but that the GOP is disrespectful of the American people with the exception of their corporate donors.