Donald Trump and latrine politics

This is not normal.  Not by any circumstances.

But the fact that national newscasters are quoting President Trump’s comments that describe the nation of Haiti and African nations, and quoting him as saying they are “shithole nations” – ugh.

Let’s make this clear.  We should not be at the point where I have to hear Chris Cuomo or Rachel Maddow use the word “shithole” in quoting the President’s words.

The fact that our President has referred to other sovereign lands – some of whom are our allies in the United Nations – as “shithole nations” – it blows my mind.

No it doesn’t.  This is par for the course for our micro-handed tweeter-in-chief.

This is what happens when a man practices, for lack of a better term, “latrine politics” – the idea that you can say the worst thing about anyone, anything, anywhere – and there are people who will still support you.  In other words, not only are Donald Trump’s comments reprehensible and disgusting – but os too are the idea that even after all this, there are elected officials of the Grand Old Party that will still support anything Trump does.  That there are still blowhards like Stephen Miller, Sarah Huckabee Sanders and Kellyanne Conway and the Times Union’s Donna McMullen, who will trumpet the President’s actions as if they were the second coming of Christ.

This from a man who built his entire political campaign on racism and bigotry and divisiveness and hatred.

Take, for example, the Central Park Five.  Five men who were accused – and later jailed – because of an attack upon a female jogger in Central Park.  The case was later thrown out when a convicted murderer confessed to the crime and DNA evidence backed up the claim.  But even today, Donald Trump still considers the Central Park Five guilty, despite the evidence to the contrary.

This from the same man who questioned President Barack Obama’s legitimacy to the Presidency, by suggesting that Obama was actually born in Kenya – which would make him ineligible to hold Presidential office.  It got to the point where Obama actually produced a birth certificate that proved he was born in Hawai’i.  This is how virulent Trump was, in speaking on the Today show, about his belief that the President of the United States was foreign-born.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Blckpwk1voQ

Donald Trump’s Presidential campaign began, not surprisingly, with his hostile comments about another sovereign nation – our ally and trade partner to the South.  Yep, this is when he started calling the citizens of Mexico drug dealers, rapists and thieves.

This continues.  I could find dozens of YouTube clips if I wanted to – comments about everything this goon has said.   His slow and middling help to the citizens of Puerto Rico – who are American citizens, by the way – in the aftermath of Hurricane Maria.  His comments suggesting that Haitians “all have AIDS” and that Nigerians who visited the United States “would never go back to their huts.”

Then again, this is a man who supports the domestic violence of those who would operate in the name of racism and hatred and bigotry and prejudice.  One word.  Charlottesville.

This is latrine politics.  This is a President who uses his power as a bully pulpit to threaten and extort.  And his views are clear.   You know  who he supports.

And make no mistake.  Other presidents have used profanity and vulgarity in their private moments – Lyndon Johnson, Richard Nixon, Bill Clinton, all of them have used words and phrases that would make George Carlin blush.

But certainly not to the level of what Donald Trump has done.  To call these countries “shithole nations” is beyond the pale.  And his supporters can say, “Well, that’s Donald being Donald, he’s speaking his mind.”

Yeah.  I guess so.  I guess you’d expect “shithole nation” comments from a shithead.