There’s an old saying in bridge: “Get your trump out early.” Apparently, the Republican Party is not populated by bridge players.
In the eight years since I started writing this blog, I’ve tried to find ways to explain the underlying reality or root cause of various issues, often political in nature. In that time, I have been careful never to tell you how I voted or how I thought you should vote.
I’m changing that now. If you’re reading this, you probably know what’s coming, and maybe this is just piling on. Please read it anyway. And then tell your friends. And ask them to tell theirs.
A while back, my brother asked me what I was going to do in this election. Here is my answer:
“I have two choices – to hate myself a lot or to hate myself even more than that. When election day rolls around, I will go to The Container Store, buy a bag of 100 clothespins, put all 100 of them on my nose, and go vote for Hillary Clinton. There’s a lot that I don’t like about her, and I don’t think she’s going to be a great president. But she doesn’t pose a threat to the Republic. Donald Trump does.”
There. I said it.
When this mess is over, I hope there will be some soul searching as to how we got to this ridiculous place. I may have a few comments to offer in a subsequent post or two. And I hope, but don’t expect, that the deepest soul searching will be done by the Republican Party, with which I used to identify, and which once was the noble Party of Lincoln. Today, it’s the Miracle Party. The miracle is that they managed to make Ted Cruz look like a rational option.
Whether the soul searching happens or not (spoiler alert – it won’t), here’s what matters now:
- This New Yorker article on Tony Schwartz, the ghost writer who actually wrote The Art of the Deal, reveals a Donald Trump so riddled with ADHD that he couldn’t sit still for 2 minutes to tell his own story. You no doubt have seen for yourself that he can’t even stay focused long enough to finish his own sentences.
- This short article from the Mayo Clinic lists the symptoms of Narcissistic Personality Disorder. To my eye, Trump exhibits every one of them.
- This short article, also from the Mayo Clinic, lists the symptoms of Anti-Social Personality Disorder (the official name for being a sociopath). To my eye, Trump exhibits at least 50% of them.
- Trumps lack of impulse control is legendary (see “Three Disastrous Debates” and “Awake at 3 AM Tweeting About a Former Beauty Pageant Winner’s Weight”). This short article from the National Institutes of Health explains how impulse control is provided by the frontal cortex of the brain, which normally becomes completely developed around age 25. Trump’s utter lack of such control suggests that this part of his brain either never finished developing or was damaged somewhere along the way.
Add all that up, and here’s what you get:
The Republican Party, in its infinite wisdom, has nominated for President of the United States, an ADHD-addled narcissistic sociopath with a significant brain defect.
I wish I were trying to be funny, but I’m not. The appropriate response to people like that is to pity them and to help them as best we can. It is not to elect them to the most powerful office on the planet.
So let’s not do that, OK?
Carp Diem 
Dan,
Amen brother. I can send you some of my clothespins if you wish.
Keep them coming.
Best Regards,
Alan
Dan, I agree with your perspective on Trump, and that completely justifies your decision not to vote for him. However, why does it justify a vote for Hillary? Isn’t there a strong argument that she will win the election on the basis of her own supporters without any voters who would never vote for her except for Trump? If millions of people vote for her out of distaste for Trump, won’t she then claim she has a mandate, when in fact she wins because she is the best of a spectacularly undeserving choice of alternatives? I am going to vote for you Dan, and everyone reading this should do the same. How could Hilary claim a mandate if there are millions of write in votes?
Cliff, I appreciate your write-in-of-confidence in me, but. . .the mandate thing is overrated. Every president thinks they have one, even if they win with only 43% of the popular vote. And most of them spend their first 2 years in office squandering whatever political capital they do have, while they fumble in the dark and try to figure out how the game is played. Maybe Hillary’s strongest asset here is that she’s been fumbling in the dark for 30 years.
More importantly, when there’s a madman in the race, and there is, I don’t think it’s enough just to not vote for him. That means you are relying on the rest of the electorate to do your job for you. And trusting that they will. My experience in elective politics, though dated, taught me that it would be hard to go broke underestimating the American electorate. It’s our patriotic duty to make absolutely sure the madman doesn’t get elected. My view.
“Clothespin Dan”, great post.
I penned a comment on your blog site that was both brilliant and insightful, but when I tried to post it your system required that I logon to WordPress, which I did with my regular credentials, but it both kicked me out repeatedly and then dumped my brilliant and insightful comments without so much as an advance warning or “bummer for you” notification. Such a regretful thing. The world will simply have to soldier on without my comments. I have expectations that will go well.
Jack
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This election seems to bring out the weirdness of the human mind in many ways.
Here is the ‘very rational’ thinking on the other side from Dilbert Creator Scott Adams who says he is: “here to tell you that if you are afraid that Donald Trump is a racist/sexist clown with a dangerous temperament, you have been brainwashed by the best group of brainwashers in the business right now: Team Clinton. They have cognitive psychologists such as Godzilla (Robert Cialdini) advising them. Allegedly.”
It is just weird to learn that by just watching Donald Trump do his thing without commentary from anyone, you can be brainwashed into thinking that he’s a racist/sexist/ill mannered bully with a dangerous temperament. Wow! Brainwashed by reality. Perhaps Scott’s gone off the deep end. http://blog.dilbert.com/post/152024526021/i-wake-you-up-for-the-presidential-debate
Invest in clothes pin manufacturers…
Sent from my iPhone
Well said Dan. Sadly for us, the fear, hate, and irrationality that this campaign has unleashed will be will us for years.
Dan,
Enjoyable as always. I yearn for the day when the instructions at the top of my ballot don’t read, “Please vote for the least objectionable candidate listed.”
Given the following three facts I have come to a different voting decision from yours for election day. I cannot stomach either Hillary or Donald. I live in a non-competitive state. Not voting is not an option. I will “waste” my vote on a 3rd party candidate.
I am hoping that if enough votes are cast for “none of the above” one of the parties will be smart enough to figure out that there are enough honorable people in the political center, that an honest, hard working candidate who was everything these two Bozos weren’t (my apologies to Bozo), nominated by either party could win and have a mandate to build a unity government that we could all be proud of.
I DEMAND AN END TO CLOTHES PIN VOTING!!!
Welcome to the dark side, Dan. We welcome your support.
I’ve been or record since the day following his “McCain isn’t a war hero” comment that he would win the nomination.
I’m not sure what’s more scary for me:
(a) that this madman could potentially get elected,
(b) that he has managed to persuade millions of people that his skewed sense of reality is, in fact, reality, or
(c) after watching The Circus last night there is potentially a Wikileaks dump in waiting that could make (a) possible.
Too bad more people did not read this last Monday. Best. Doug
Doug Doolittle Palmer Printing, Inc. 739 S Clark Street Chicago, IL 60605 C773-671-5943 W312-238-0295
From: “Carp Diem (Fish of the Day!)” <comment-reply@wordpress.com> Reply-To: “Carp Diem (Fish of the Day!)” <comment+76f7amu500nu6czp-f9yom@comment.wordpress.com> Date: Sunday, October 23, 2016 at 4:40 PM To: Microsoft Office User <ddoolittle@palmer-printing.com> Subject: [New post] Trumped Up!
Dan Wallace posted: “There’s an old saying in bridge: “Get your trump out early.” Apparently, the Republican Party is not populated by bridge players. In the eight years since I started writing this blog, I’ve tried to find ways to explain the underlying reality or root cau”