Donald Trump behaved in the second debate just like I expected him to, as someone who knows that he is losing and needs to do something drastic to halt the slide. He indulged in his usual hyperbole because he is a man who speaks only in superlatives and the subtlety of a comparative seems to be lost on him. He said that the government is totally incompetent in every conceivable way and that they make terrible deals and don’t know how to wage wars. He attacked Obamacare and said the Iran deal was the worst in the history of deal making. The list of US failures went on and on. You wondered if anyone in the government was even able to tie their shoelaces.
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The New York Times today has a long article on the torturing of prisoners by the US at Guantanamo, CIA black sites, and at other facilities around the world where the US government has control. The descriptions and the long-lasting physical and psychological effects on the victims, many of them subsequently released because they were innocent, makes for truly depressing reading as you wonder how people could treat other human beings this way.
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The debate tonight presents Donald Trump with a difficult problem, made much harder by the recent revelations of the way he treats women. Usually the second presidential debate is a less anticipated event with fewer viewers than the first because people have a sense that they no know the candidates. But the Trump revelations have fueled great anticipation about how he will react and we may see a huge audience, even larger than the record breaking first.
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While the news about Donald Trump’s assaults of women were bad enough, what makes it worse (for Trump) is that the release by WikiLeaks of what are allegedly excerpts of speeches by Hillary Clinton to big Wall Street firms also emerged yesterday, but that news was buried by his own scandal, preventing his campaign from taking advantage of them. The excerpts, if true, confirm the view that she was paid huge fees not because she gave them valuable advice but for demonstrating her eagerness for them to see her as their friend, to praise the wealthy banking industry, suggesting that they may be the best at regulating themselves (!), holding some views on trade and immigration that are contrary to those she has adopted during her campaign, and even supporting people who have advocated for cutting Social Security. She also said that she has ‘private’ and public’ positions on issues, the kind of duplicity of politicians that should come as no surprise to anyone.
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The recording of Donald Trump’s comments about women has created a firestorm. First, let’s listen to the recording itself that was caught on a ‘hot mic’, when the people being recorded did not know that their microphones were on, because it has to be heard to be believed. This 2005 recording was obtained by Washington Post reporter David Fahrenthold.
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President Rodrigo Duterte of the Philippines is a foul-mouthed boor who has authorized a campaign of extra-judicial murders of those suspected of drug dealing that has resulted in an estimated 3,000 deaths. The US administration has raised concerns about the violations of human rights in the Philippines.
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The idea that many of our perceptions of other people are shaped by our own biases and expectations is not new. What is quite extraordinary is how extreme this divergence is when it comes to Donald Trump. Where his critics see ignorance, his supporters see a big picture person who leaves the details to others. Where his critics see someone who cheats and stiffs other people and finagles his taxes, his supporters see a brilliant business mind. Where his critics see a petty, narcissistic, insecure person who lacks self-awareness and cannot acknowledge even the smallest mistake or fault, his supporters see a dominant and inerrant man, who is so sure of himself that he never needs to back down. Where his critics see a racist, misogynist, xenophobe, his supporters see someone who is not afraid of being ‘politically incorrect’. Where his critics see arrogance, his supporters see self-confidence. Where his critics see a lack of empathy, his supporters see a hardheaded realist.
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