Saturday, February 10, 2018

Donald Trump's #MeNeither Moment

What makes Donald Trump tick is not hard to figure: Put "self-" in front of any number of words, and you've got it. Self-promotion, self-protection, self-involved, self-centered. Yeah, and whether you prefer evil in the stupid-or-evil paradigm, you have to admit that with Trump self-deception is in the mix. He really appears, at some point, to believe his own bullshit.


We knew it would come to this. What comes after "I didn't do it" -- in his world -- is #MeNeither. It's in his DNA to deny. Just as lying is the centerpiece of his stagecraft, denial is the centerpiece of his character.

Now, with people in his inner circle getting busted for domestic abuse of their women, Trump goes the equivalent of nuclear. It was one thing to deny his own culpability -- we'd almost expect that -- and it's another to declare, as with Roy Moore, Bill O'Reilly, and Roger Ailles, that "they say they're innocent, so you have to look at that." And it's still another thing to say about staffers, "It's bad for them, I feel sorry for them, careers could be ruined, they say they're innocent, what happened to due process?"

All the while, there's been plenty of due process, but that's beside the point. As with Shaggy's famous "It Wasn't Me" song, declarations of innocence don't have to make sense. With Trump, "I didn't do it, everyone is lying" is declarative enough. He said it, so it must be so.

He has his movement at last. The club is now big enough. It's time for #MeNeither. How fitting. And how disgusting.


Oh please. The truth is you don't give a shit about the lives of women. Your disdain for them has been coming out of your mouth for decades. Now you've got the bully pulpit, and, man, do you channel the bully. And what does your chief of staff say? #MeNeither.

Trump, you may never get your comeuppance, but we can hope that #MeToo wins out over #MeNeither and you and the GOP are run out of office. Women vote, and the word is they're pissed.

 

1 comment: