The Trump Tape

Trump has come in for regular condemnation from me, on this page, on this exact point. I don't know that I believe he is really guilty of sexual assault, although the Epstein stories make that more plausible. I suspect that he is mostly guilty the exaggerated bragging that is common for him, and that he has a low enough character that he thought of this kind of bragging as the sort of thing that would impress other men in a positive way. That it might strike us as a pathetic lie instead probably never occurred to him; or perhaps his companion was also of such low character as to have actually been impressed.

It would appear that we are going to have one of these two disasters as President. What a tragedy for the nation.

15 comments:

Dale Day said...

DEEDS are always more powerful than words. Compare Trump's words to the actions of Bill and Hillary Clinton. Book after book has been written about Hillary's treatment of state troopers and secret service agents.

And, if you are upset by Trump's word, do a Google Search for Bill Clinton and Vernon Jordan. They absolutely brag about the filth they speak in public and on the golf course.

As usual, it's okay for Democrats to be pigs but let a Republican burp and the media goes nuts.

Grim said...

Yes, I know all this. Nevertheless:

"There is a very real sense in which the Christian is worse than the heathen, the Spaniard worse than the Red Indian, or even the Roman potentially worse than the Carthaginian. But there is only one sense in which he is worse; and that is not in being positively worse. The Christian is only worse because it is his business to be better."

-G. K. Chesterton

Grim said...

Also, the effect of words in this case is to make more plausible the suggestion of evil deeds. It would be easy to believe that the claims about Trump being guilty of sexual assault were just lies being spread to darken his name at the end of a hotly contested campaign. But how shall I believe that as readily, given that he has bragged about similar things?

Ymar Sakar said...

Trum is a 70 yo NY Democrat, which is why his behavior was never constrained, even if he wasn't in politics. Democrats are not bound by a double standard, they are bound by no standards, except evil.

Trum has also resisted until almost the last moment, before attacking the Clintons on rape and other issues. Almost as if he thought he had a cease fire and protection deal with Clinton.

As Ted Kennedy said to Bork after Borking him, "it's just politics".

douglas said...

But Grim, in this case the supposed 'Defenders of Women's Rights" is the Democrats- they've been bashing the GOP as troglodytes and misogynists forever, and holding themselves up as the champions of women. Given that, shouldn't the press be harder on them for this sort of thing? But of course we know how it really works. It's tribalism plain and simple.

Ymar Sakar said...

Given that, shouldn't the press be harder on them for this sort of thing?

Expecting the enemy to shoot their own allies is rather unrealistic.

But of course we know how it really works. It's tribalism plain and simple.

Which is why when people react to tribalism with more tribalism, they're just falling for the trap. Even if they win, they'll have become so close to their enemies that it won't make a lick of difference who actually won.

Spain won over Muslims, and then kept all the slave trafficking from their former overlords, due to profit and greed. Christian Spain was probably better than Islam before they won, and arguably better afterwards. Islam is still here, though, and Spain won't easily wipe away their slave sins. They may feel so guilty about themselves that they self destruct.

In the long term, winning a war by becoming the enemy is a losing proposition. Although to people who expect rewards now, what the State of Israel is doing by being merciful to the Palestinian terrorists is suicidal.

Anonymous said...

Grim,

Have you forgotten what both of Bill Clinton's electoral campaigns were like?

Here's a reminder, this time from Hillary's. Watch the whole thing.

Project Veritas: Hillary Campaign Locker Room Talk, with a side of

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-NTq1tlBwqI&feature=youtu.be

Valerie

Grim said...

Why would you think I had forgotten that? It may be unfair that Trump is being held to a higher standard than Clinton, but that doesn't mean the standard should be lowered to meet him.

Elise said...

I had been trying to talk myself into voting for Trump, simply because Clinton II would clearly be a catastrophe for the country. The recent Trump tape stopped that effort in its tracks. It is not that the Trump tape revealed anything not already knowable - it's that the tape made it impossible for me to lie to myself about what kind of person he is. The information was out there - previous comments, ongoing ugly behavior, lawsuits alleging sexual assaults - but fear of Hillary Clinton nearly made me willing to ignore the evidence. It is an interesting window into how the Left uses fear of a horrible outcome (or outcomes) to convince women to support Democrats and progressives despite the fact that those groups always expect women to subordinate their own concerns and their own welfare in order to support other issues and other "disadvantaged" peoples.

Neither Trump nor Clinton is fit to be President and I will not vote for the lesser evil when doing so means voting for someone who should not be President.

And, as Luma Simms points out at The Federalist, the ongoing attempts to explain why women should still vote for Trump (Thomas Sowell is a particular disappointment to me here), mean that Republicans will have a tough row to hoe when they attempt to claim that they, unlike Democrats and Progressives, are "the compassionate ones fighting for the good of women, and children."

Grim said...

I doubt the Republican party will survive the tensions revealed here, nor that it ought to do. Nor that the nation should -- and I must question whether it ought to do.

But the matter of opposition to Clinton and her corruption and wickedness will move to other fields. Perhaps to the states, and an Article V convention to reconsider the Union; perhaps to other things. A Clinton-appointed SCOTUS will be the end of the American project one way or another, unless we are able to command deep and sweeping reforms through some such process.

Anonymous said...

I am greatly unimpressed by the vapors over that tape. Donald Trump tells a story where he attempts, and fails, to prevail on the virtue of a married woman. So, an American businessman knows how to tell a dirty joke in private, and make it interesting.

Meanwhile, he is opposed by a candidate who has been looting the State Department for personal gain, taking money in exchange for State Department action, and who has very deliberately tried to change the subject of this election (successfully, to, in part) from policy to sex, who has a history of enabling more than one actual rapist. Nah, I'll hold my nose and stand with this lady.

https://pjmedia.com/blog/a-conservative-womans-defense-of-the-brave-men-who-support-trump/

I've assumed since Trump was selected as the nominee that the best I could hope for is a little pruning of the luxuriant growth of our crony capitalist would-be oligarchy. Watching those leaks has been a bigger revelation than I had anticipated.

Valerie

Elise said...

If Clinton wins and the Republicans hold the Senate, it will be interesting to see if the Republicans keep Clinton's Supreme Court appointments from going off the deep end.

douglas said...

We've cultivated a manure culture and are surprised that this is what we end up with? I'm not. Trump is as repulsive to me as can be- I don't really have terms to define it adequately. That said, there's no keeping ones hands clean in this business of politics (and voting) anymore. We're hip deep in the muck and the ballots are at our feet. How do you keep your hands clean? Like adults, we're just going to have to admit to ourselves that we will have to take up our share of the dirty business at hand to get to a point where we might have a chance to clean off a bit. The myth that it could be clean work has been stripped away. Is Trump worse than LBJ? JFK? Bill? It used to be that the filth was swept under the rug and we got to pretend we could vote and have clean hands. Well, now we're just seeing how the sausage gets made, and perhaps the good thing that comes from that is that if it isn't hidden, they'll actually have to feel they might be held accountable for their actions in some fashion. In some perverse way, perhaps it's a good thing... One can only hope. I've got little else to hold onto anymore.

Anonymous said...

It seems a little late to add this to the discussion, so I may post it further up, as well.

It turns out that there was audio and video of the "hot mic" incident, and somebody bothered to watch it, and analyze the transactions, including filling in the part of the discussion that was deleted.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ok1Gd0CQsiM

This incident was not as described in my local paper.

Valerie

Ymar Sakar said...

People pay so much attention to the Left's propaganda arm, and then criticize them for having too much influence... don't people connect the dots there?