Many of us have known or know self-obsessed people. They can be hard to be around. However, when they are also full of self-pity and letting you and everyone else know about it constantly, it gets old.
Recent utterances broadcasting these traits by Donald Trump makes one wonder if his narcissistic rants of name calling, blatant falsehoods, and rambling incoherence are finally burning through the cult like trance of many of his supporters. It should raise more questions whether the man is fit for the job.
The stepping aside of President Biden from campaigning for another term certainly shook this country as well as the world. But no one seems more shaken by Biden’s action than Trump. His bitter remarks following Biden’s departure from the race even include complaints about how he has wasted so much effort in building his campaign against Biden.
The action by Biden combined with Harris’s soaring poll numbers and huge crowds has definitely put Trump off his game ever more bigly.
Many opposed to Trump are put off by his public unhinged rants and rampant lying. There were some rumblings that the near-death experience he had with the assassination attempt was causing a change in him. A lot of anticipation built up for his forthcoming Republican convention speech.
But Trump could not strike a new tone at the convention of bringing the country together which was hoped for in his acceptance speech. He almost made it seem like it was possible at the beginning of the speech and then went off script and put his self-obsession and self-pitying on full display.
A “new” Trump has certainly not appeared. Consider, for example, that after the completion of possibly the most complex prisoner/hostage exchange in decades by the Biden administration, Trump chose to congratulate Putin (the poisoner/invader) on the deal. This sour grape response to a generally acknowledged good result shows a level of pettiness that does not lead to smart decision making.
Let’s consider smart decision making. It does not seem smart to go to a conference of black journalists and call out your opponent for essentially turning black for political advantage. Trump “smartly” stated: “I didn’t know she was black, until a number of years ago, when she happened to turn black, and now she wants to be known as black.” Of course, the “number of years ago” must be at least over 40 years as she went to historically black Howard University as a teenager. His statement flies in the face of general awareness among most everyone in the world. This kind of “strategic” move will surely help turn out the black vote – against him.
Also, if you wish to win voter support in a needed swing state, it makes little sense to gripe publicly against the popular Republican governor there for not “finding” the votes to overturn Trump’s Georgia loss in 2020. This is the same “strategic“ thinking that led to Georgia ending up with two Democratic Senators in 2020.
And then - let’s get to Trump’s ever important issue of crowd-size. One would think his crowd size fetish will be the last straw for many of his potential supporters.
This fetish has grown such that per Trump the January 6 rally (that warmed up the crowd to attack the Capitol) was bigger than the MLK March on Washington.
It is getting old that Insult King Donald continues to insult the intelligence of every American.
Yet, these examples are a few of the thousands of BS utterances we have heard from Trump over the years.
We heard a lot of concern about the mental fitness of both Biden and Trump when they were the two candidates. Now, only one of those two is in the running.
The change of candidates from the Democrats has definitely shifted the spotlight of mental fitness onto Trump and he is not passing the test. After all the years of Trump in the political sphere, there was some degree of inoculation to his craziness and darkness. The inoculant seems to be wearing out.
Trump now appears unhinged in a fresh way which can be considered at least partly due to the opposition he now faces.
The Democratic candidates are noticeably younger in age and spirit and exhibit a hopeful/positive vision which counters the dark view of Trump and his running mate about this country and the world.
Voters now have a choice that goes beyond mental fitness. We have a clear choice of a ticket that wants to build up the country, make it better, not tear down our institutions, rule of law, and social fabric for the benefit of a single person – particularly one who is not fit for duty.
W Laurence Doxsey, Retired, Former Director of Office of Sustainability for City of San Antonio, former Environmental Officer for US Department of Housing and Urban Development, former Sustainability Officer for City of Austin, resides outside Medina.
