I seldom say that you have to drop what you’re doing and look at a clip, but this is one of those times. Morning Joe did a supercut of losing presidential candidates being complete gentlemen and in Hillary Clinton’s case, a complete gentlewoman. The dignity, maturity and class that the losers in numerous presidential contests showed when they conceded defeat, congratulated the winner, and wished the new president all the best of luck in uniting the country and being a president for everybody, will make you proud to be an American.
And interposed amongst these stirring speeches, these shining moments in our history, moments that reaffirm our identity as a nation and how special democracy is, is the game show host from Queens spewing his childish drivel and outrageous lies. The clip runs over seven minutes, worth every second. Watch.
Joe Scarborough concluded, “You know, we’re reminded of what a dark chapter of American history Donald Trump is taking us through still, and we’re reminded of that because we see such extraordinary grace, goodness, decency, patriotism, love of country from all those other candidates.”
Watching Hillary and every man up there on the screen, I felt proud to be an American. I remember all of these speeches, in real time, and I didn’t realize when they were happening, that we would ever reach such a dark place in our politics as the one that Donald Trump has sunken us to.
Martin Luther King, Jr., said, “Never let a man bring you so low that you hate him.” Trump has brought us lower than I could have ever imagined, personally. He is not presidential material. Whatever we might have thought of the other candidates in this video at the time of their respective elections, they were all basically cut from the same bolt of cloth. They knew what the office of president was, what a constitutional democracy was, and they had respect for our norms and our traditions.
Trump respects nobody and nothing — not even himself.
Excellent article and that video is superb. Thank you Urusla, too bad that this country has come to this. A thrice indicted and twice impeached moron again running to ruin this country.
There is as it turns out one way in which Trump has won. I can’t fully honor Dr. King, or John Lewis (and other notables) and forgive, or let go of my hate. I know with every fiber of my being that until my last breath I will be filled which pure HATE. Of Donald Trump. And of anyone who helped him rise to the point where he could take over the GOP, become President and have a chance to become his Party’s nominee again. The kind of damage he’s done can NEVER be undone. Just stopping the bleeding from the wounds he and anyone who supported him have inflicted on our country will take at least a generation. I can’t say how many generations it might take to get us back to the point where we were before his entry into politics.
I can however state without hesitation that my hatred burns deep. It brings me to rage at times. People who have come to know me via this and another blog wouldn’t recognize the person I was before Trump. For decades I’d been referred to by countless people as a “gentle giant,” or a “big teddy bear.” Easygoing. Tough if and when I had to be but easily recognized as being sick inside in those thankfully rare instances where it was necessary.
I realized some years back that man is gone. Gone forever. Parts of him are in there and manifest from time to time. But due to Trump HATE, hatred of him and what he and those who have (and continue to) enabled him is the biggest part of me now.
As for you conservatives that come here, even if you aren’t full-blown MAGAs and compromised yourselves because you wanted your goddamned tax cuts or your judges or wanted regulations cut and other conservative stuff I say this. F**K YOU TOO! It was obvious from the start how toxic Trump was. You knew it from the start. You KNEW it. And you voted for him anyway. Maybe even twice. So F**K YOU!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I can’t express how much I still believed in heaven and hell because Trump and everyone who has supported him should suffer the worst it could dish out for an infinite number of eternities!
I’m with you. I hate his f**king guts as well and will until I breathe my last breath, for what he’s done to my country. I can understand people being duped in 2016 to a certain extent — but only to a certain extent. The people who were duped thought they were voting for some traditional Republican agenda and didn’t understand that the GOP had in fact died — and had been in the process of dying for some forty years.
But anybody who voted for him TWICE was asking for the end of democracy and the onset of autocracy. And as you say, they can get f**ked, too.
I don’t think I have seen two broadcasters more openly disgusted and angry on air. And they should be. What an utter abomination trump is.
Many of our safeguards have been based on the candidate that will follow “the norms.” A person who has enough grace to admit defeat and still wish the winner good will. Someone who would welcome the new administration during the transition period and provide all that is needed to continue the government without a hitch. Trump was never such a person. We have to turn these “norms” into laws!
I see your point, but we don’t have laws about politeness or civility. People who don’t understand those aren’t going to obey some law. Civil, considerate behavior is (unfortunately/fortunately?) proscribed by social acceptance, not legal sanctions.
The real trick is only to accept people who follow social norms for office. That’s what Trump’s appeal to some people was, he is a natural transgressor.