In 27 days, the campaign for president of the United States will end, mercifully, for all of us. What has unfolded over the past few days has been shocking, and sad. Expect more to come.
On Nov. 8, voters must make a choice. We trust that our fellow Americans will do what is right, what is best, for our families, our children and our country, now and in the future.
Voters will decide whether the crass debasement of our political system, led by the Republican nominee, Donald Trump, represents who we are, all of us, as citizens of a respectful society.
Voters – particularly men – will decide whether they can believe Trump’s repeated insulting excuse that his vile comments about grabbing women’s genitals, and getting away with it because of his star power, is just “locker room talk.”
Voters will decide whether a candidate who threatens, if elected, to prosecute his opponent, suggests she’s “the devil,” says she has “tremendous hate in her heart” and ought to be “in jail,” is the leader we want to set the standard of behavior for our nation as its president.
Is this what we have become? We cannot accept it.
Sunday night’s “town hall” debate between Trump and his Democratic opponent, former secretary of state Hillary Clinton, covered the required issues: Obamacare, ISIS, Clinton’s emails, Trump’s tax returns, immigration and the racial divide. But it was the dark prelude to the event, and Trump’s glowering, menacing presence in the debate, that will be remembered.
The reality show king made a desperate decision to defend himself by stepping even deeper into the gutter of personal attack. While their nominee stokes the anger of hard-right conservatives, the Republican Party is in a death spiral. High-visibility leaders – including House Speaker Paul Ryan and Sen. John McCain – are abandoning him. Trump, his Nixonian enemies list in hand, promises revenge. He must be stopped.
Over the weekend, we were relentlessly subjected to the now infamous Access Hollywood tape, in which Trump, then a 59-year-old husband and father, egged on by the show’s juvenile host, Billy Bush, bragged about behavior that amounted to sexual assault (Trump later denied it).
At this point, even our Republican U.S. senator, Kelly Ayotte, bailed out on her tortured “support but not endorse” Trump stance. Ayotte, locked in a tough re-election fight with Democrat Maggie Hassan, was already getting heat for a fumbling endorsement of Trump as a role model – which she quickly retracted. Four days later, the Trump tape dished up an easy out. Why change her mind now, when for months Trump has been insulting Muslims, Mexicans, immigrants, a federal judge and Gold Star mothers, and body-shaming beauty queens and any other woman who got in his way?
In a tabloid spectacle just before Sunday’s debate, Trump summoned the television cameras so the nation could see him seated with three women who have accused former president Bill Clinton of past sexual assault or harassment, which he denies. Trump’s point with this sad, bizarre stunt? Bill Clinton (who is not running for president) is worse than me, so it’s okay to vote for me. Hillary Clinton, he tells us, “attacked” her husband’s accusers and “should be ashamed of herself” for criticizing Trump for his comments about women.
The Washington Post reported that debate officials stopped Trump’s plan to have the women confront Bill Clinton as he entered and then take seats in the Trump family box. Instead, the women were seated on their own.
“I am reminded of something my friend Michelle Obama said,” Clinton calmly responded to Trump’s sleaze. “When they go low, you go high.”
We agree. Let Trump, and his tawdry, dangerous campaign of fear self-destruct. Then we can focus on recovery.