[posted on FB 10/15]
Many thanks, Tim Brophy, for your thoughtful response. I depend on
it.
There was never any chance I would support Trump. So when
the Republican Party walked away from any kind of serious effort to protect
children and women, and nominated a violent fool, the decision was between a
third-party vote or other protest vote, or Hillary Clinton. For months, I was
planning to vote for my wife.
What changed me included: (1) Trump’s continuing slow-motion
train wreck, of course; plus (2) a growing unease about not seeing how to
horse-whip the arrogant bully; plus (3) Nate Silver’s gender gap map (http://fivethirtyeight.com/features/election-update-women-are-defeating-donald-trump/
); plus Father Pavone’s response to sexual assault.
Trump. I have previously tried to list the problems he has,
each one of which I judge to be disqualifying, including approach to:
immigration, Muslims, women, fraud, the military, the world economy,
identifying allies, international commitments, Russia, Crimea, Syria, refugees,
bankruptcies, abusing workers, civil discourse, the Pope, religion in general,
honesty, integrity, taxes, ignorance …
Horse-whip the bully. I understand that sounds like a joke,
but I have been searching in my mind for the modern and culturally appropriate
equivalent, for months. I think that when people’s minds and hearts sink into
the gutter, there a limited number of familiar options. Beauty shocks some
people into wonder and awe, but Trump has surrounded himself with gold mirrors;
shocked by beauty for a moment, he will try to buy it the next. Ditto love and
sex. A desert experience: that’s not
likely either, because he’s not fond of silence; look what he did in Las Vegas.
God is not limited to our familiar categories; who knows what might happen? But
the only familiar category left for rescuing the bully that I can think of is
devastating pain and suffering. I think he would do well to contract cancer and
break some bones, then get nursed back to health by Muslim and Latino doctors
and nurses. Or some such. Can we push him into treatment? For his sake and our
own?
The gender gap. Nate Silver’s map shows a shocking divide in
the nation: if men voted without women, Trump would win decisively (350-188);
if women voted without men, Hillary would win decisively (458-80). Why? There
are numerous factors at play, but surely one of them is that women resent
sexual assault, and men might be more casual about the problem. But why is
that? I don’t mean to sound like a complete dinosaur, but is chivalry really
that dead? Okay, it probably is; but what will take its place? (Or: what has
taken its place?) In large part: more independent women. I should support that.
Do I? Do I?
Also: if men decided the election Trump would win. If
pro-lifers decided the election, it would be Trump versus a handful of unknowns
(sorry); and I think he would win in a landslide. That’s a scandal. That’s
painful to face. Trump has solid support among the disenfranchised downwardly
mobile (who place their trust in a lying & cheating but glib & skillful
fraud), and anti-immigration folks (some racist, some not), and white
supremacists, and pro-lifers. What are we doing in that coalition?
Enter Father Pavone. He’s not alone in saying that
pro-lifers should support the damn-fool-bully, but he claims that he is
speaking for the Church – for pro-life priests. That’s mind-bendingly wacky. But
he did get me thinking. How many pro-life groups support Trump? How many opt
for silence, especially if they have 501(c)(3) status? It’s silly to ask how
many support Clinton: that’s an easy zero. But why? I understand the history of
it, but it isn’t logical. If pro-lifers can support Trump to avoid Hillary,
then they can with greater logic support Hillary to avoid Trump. I am completely
convinced that Trump is far worse than Hillary in many many ways – including
that he would drive abortion UP, not down. Pavone convinced me to face the
binary choice. But I think his choice is inexcusably stupid.
Trump will lose – thanks to women, no thanks to men among
whom chivalry is dead and sex is a game. Trump will lose – no thanks to
pro-lifers. I can’t stand that.
How bad is the rot in the pro-life movement? When I have
tried to explain how Trump will drive abortion up (abusing women, eugenics, and
dismissing refugees), I have mentioned a detail of the global migration crisis:
there are about a million pregnant women on road each year – desperate
refugees. You know how many pro-lifers have sat up and said, “Whoa! To heck
with the men, but I gotta help pregnant women!” In general, pro-lifers are
responding to Trump with greater determination and commitment than they are
responding to a million pregnant refugees.
Sometimes blindness is due to accident or congenital
difficulty. But sometimes it’s just a bad habit.