By Andrew C. McCarthy
Thursday, January 28, 2016
Is Donald Trump the sharia of American politics? I’m
having trouble finding much daylight between Islamic law’s repressive blasphemy
standards and the mogul’s thin-skinned sense of privilege.
None of us wants to be insulted or smeared. But sharia
forbids not only ridicule or slander against Islam; it bans any examination
that casts Islam in an unflattering light. Worse, truth is not a defense: Even
if one’s questions are based on undeniable past actions or verbatim quotes from
scripture, tough questioning is considered blasphemous. Retribution, moreover,
is often completely out of proportion to the scale of the perceived “offense.”
How is Trump different?
They say politics ain’t beanbag: People in and around it
eventually get slammed by opponents and other critics. But to Trump, the
mildest criticisms are “vicious” attacks.
Let’s take the exchange last summer with Megyn Kelly that
prompted Trump to whine that he was unfairly treated and to heap abuse on Ms.
Kelly in the aftermath. (Before I go on, note that I support Mr. Trump’s rival
Ted Cruz, and that I am on friendly terms with Megyn Kelly, on whose program I
periodically appear.)
Given the limited time, the slew of candidates to engage,
and the grave problems faced by the country, could Kelly have made a better
choice than to grill Trump on his derogatory remarks about women? As they say
in the debate biz, that’s debatable. But the questions she asked were hardly
irrelevant.
Presidential temperament is often a decisive electoral
consideration. Furthermore, the “war on women” meme is a bread-and-butter
Democratic attack: regrettably effective against Republicans in the last
presidential election and certain to be reprised if Hillary Clinton is the
Dems’ nominee. How do we gauge Trump as a prospective nominee if we don’t get a
sense of what ammo can be fired at him and how he is apt to handle it?
So, yes, it was a bracing line of inquiry, but certainly
not an unfair one. Kelly quoted Trump’s own words about various women:“fat
pigs, dogs, slobs, and disgusting animals.” When Trump tried to slough it off
as directed at “Only Rosie O’Donnell,” Kelly accurately countered that it had
been directed at more women than that, and Trump backed down, conceding, “I’m
sure it was.”
For what it’s worth, I thought Trump then proceeded to
handle this line of questioning fairly well. He pounced on the opportunity to
slam political correctness as a big problem in public discourse, much to the
delight of the audience. He further suggested that some of the things Kelly
quoted had been said in jest, that she was distorting what these seeming slurs
indicated about his temperament and character — a claim Kelly did not attempt
to shake.
If that had been the end of it, who would care? A series
of tough questions on a theme the eventual GOP nominee will have to deal with,
and responses that demonstrated Trump’s ability to handle it. That would be the
end of the matter in any normal debate give-and-take, with any other candidate.
But Trump couldn’t let it go. Consistent with his
obsession, he made it personal:
And honestly Megyn, if you don’t like it [i.e., nasty remarks about
women that Trump said were usually just “kidding”], I’m sorry. I’ve been very
nice to you, although I could probably maybe not be, based on the way you have
treated me. But I wouldn’t do that.
How she treated
him? She’s a journalist asking him about statements he does not deny
making. That’s what journalists do. And what of the claim that he “wouldn’t do
that” — i.e., wouldn’t desist in being “very nice to” Kelly? As soon as the
debate ended, he was ripping her demeanor in what sure sounded like “that time
of the month” mockery. He panned her as unprofessional. He later suggested that
a previously scheduled late-summer vacation she soon took with her family (like
many top anchors take that time of year) was really a ploy to hide her
purported embarrassment.
In sum, there was no offense but, rather, a proper line
of questioning that was unflattering to Trump because it accurately reported
obnoxious public statements he’d made — the same sort of thing every politician
should expect to be called on and that every Republican politician is
guaranteed to be called on. Trump parried it capably, perhaps even turning it
to his advantage. That should have been the end of it, yet Trump could not help
but flash the unsavory parts of his personality. He is so self-absorbed that he
had to turn the exchange into a personal battle with the journalist; and he is
on such a hair-trigger that he went DEFCON 5 over what, essentially, was no
offense at all, much less a vicious attack.
Mix in his signature instability: He would never stop
treating Kelly nicely, until — turning on a dime — he did . . . just like Carly
Fiorina was unattractive until she was “beautiful” . . . and Jeb Bush was a
great guy until he was a loser . . . and Ted Cruz was a friend until he was a
“nasty” guy that no one would have for a friend . . . and ISIS was Putin’s problem
until we needed to obliterate them . . . and he was going to roll over all the
“stupid” people on Capitol Hill who’ve screwed everything up until he was going
to make deals with his old friends Pelosi, Reid, and Schumer . . . and he was
going to round up and kick out 12 million illegal aliens but then bring most of
them right back into the country.
How can Trump fans think, based on what he’s saying at
the moment, that they know what a President Trump would do a year from now? The
truth is: No one knows whether what he just said is what he’ll be saying five
minutes from now.
And that is because Trump is a calculating showman. What
he says in the moment is based on expedience, not rooted ideas. That’s why, if
you stick around long enough, he will get around to saying everything: advocating abortion on demand and, eventually, the
sanctity of life; professing admiration for Bill de Blasio and, eventually,
Clarence Thomas; gushing praise for Megyn Kelly and, eventually, savaging Megyn
Kelly.
Irrational, mercurial, draconian, solipsist — all wrapped
up in a neat little persecution complex. I wouldn’t put him in the Oval Office,
but he has the makings of a fine Saudi sheikh.
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