I had made it through more than a decade without once watching “The Apprentice.” I was living a healthy Trump-free life. Then he decided to run for president.
It was kinda of fun for a while. I have certainly got some good columns out of him. Like the one about his inability to make money in the casino business – a business where the house always wins. And the one where I used his own ridiculous quotes about women, business and other Trumpish topics.
Then I joined the chorus of people calling him out for not releasing his income tax returns. But I never thought that this race-baiting, nationalist strongman would actually get the nomination of the GOP, the party of Lincoln.
But here we are. The Republican National Convention was fueled by dread. The law-and-order candidate and his spokespeople threw gasoline on the very real fears of people who have been left behind by the economy and who feel like they don’t have a place in 21st century America.
His slogan, Make America Great Again, is calculated to appeal to white, non-college-educated adults who are struggling in a country that is becoming more diverse every day.
And who is actually making it in the 21st century economy? Well, the biggest winners are Trump’s friends. It’s ironic that many of his voters are the biggest losers.
He has insulted his Republican opponents, dismissed journalists and hijacked the Republican Party to feed his ambition.
And hijacking the nomination was surprisingly easy. He is running at a time when party memberships are at historic lows. While 29 percent of voters identify as Democrats and 26 percent as Republicans, 42 percent of voters identify as independents and that number has been over 40 percent over the last five years.
A recent Pew Research Center poll shows that trust in the federal government is at an all-time low. Only 20 percent of Americans expect the government to do what is right “most of the time” (16 percent), or “just about always” (3 percent).
Facebook and Twitter are the watercoolers of the 21st century. Both breaking news and post-game analysis happen in real time. Everybody is a pundit, everybody is an analyst and “facts” are available for any opinion you might want to hold.
So Hillary partisans (myself included) rail against Trump and Trumpsters trash-talk Clinton.
Hillary Clinton certainly is not perfect. The personal email server was a giant error of judgment. Her Wall Street speeches show a certain tone-deafness at a time of widening inequality.
But she doesn’t stiff people who have worked for her, or race-bait and immigrant-bash, or use bankruptcy as an integral part of her financial planning. She know that pregnancy is not an inconvenience and she doesn’t mock disabled people. She doesn’t urge people to punch demonstrators in the face or repeatedly try to delegitimize the nation’s first African-American president.
The first woman running for president has a higher bar than her opponent, just as the first African-American candidate did. We are not used to seeing a woman as the leader of our country. And we are late to this milestone in comparison to many other countries in the world.
When John Kerry ran against George W. Bush there was the “beer test” – which candidate would you rather have a beer with? Bush won the beer test and the Supreme Court gave him the presidency. Well, I don’t drink beer but I can imagine that it might be perversely entertaining to have a beer – or 10 – with Trump. He is ridiculous sober – can you imagine him drunk!
But that doesn’t mean we should hand him the keys to the country.
I didn’t support Clinton in 2008. Obama was the right person to repair the incredible damage that was caused by the Bush presidency. Despite massive Republican congressional opposition, he brought us back from the brink of a second Great Depression.
Now I’m not just opposed to Trump, I am absolutely with her. Clinton can and will reach out to those left behind. She can and will take on the challenge of climate change. She has read the Constitution.
She is respected around the world. She has worked with progressives and Republicans in the Congress; she will be able to do that again.
And she knows that, in the words of the Rev. Dr. William Barber II, “some issues are not left versus right or liberal versus conservative. They are right versus wrong.”
Clare Higgins of Northampton, the city’s former mayor, is executive director of the nonprofit Community Action! of the Franklin, Hampshire and North Quabbin Regions. She writes a monthly column and can be reached at opinion@gazettenet.com.