It’s fashionable in pro-Trump circles to claim that while Trump may have said bad things, Hillary’s actions are corrupt. In other words, Trump is rude, but Hillary is a criminal. It’s a comforting thought, I suppose, but it skips over a host of Trump’s own bad acts. Indeed, when it comes to my own reasons for opposing Trump, his petty corruption and crass exploitations are at least as important as his erratic, intemperate, and crude comments.
In judging the magnitude of the latest Trump scandal, it’s important to remember that his words – as bad as they are – aren’t nearly as consequential as his actions. If his so-called “locker room talk” bears any resemblance to the truth, he’s talking about potential sexual battery (not to mention a blunt attempt to seduce a married woman.) In other words, now Trump may be a criminal.
This isn’t a matter of political correctness, hypersensitivity, or “social justice.” This is a matter of basic human decency and simple application of law to asserted facts. Trump’s defenders will try to claim that’s just guys being guys – that men just talk like this. Wrong. And even when men do speak crudely about women, only the worst of the worst brag about groping or attempts at adultery.
Calls for Trump to drop out are utterly futile. The man has proven time and again that he has no shame, and he’s motivated solely and completely by self-interest. There is not an ounce of honor in him. There is one way – and one way only – that he’d drop out; if he perceived that it was better for him than staying in the race until the (very) bitter end.
In the meantime, as this sorry episode plays itself out, it will be useful as a reminder not only of how cheaply some people will sell out their own integrity (think of the parade of fading conservative stars who latched onto Trump as their last hope for professional relevance), but also of how much even good people can convince themselves of the most foolish things. Already I’m seeing good friends wake up as if from a dream – unable to believe they’d walked so far down the path with a man like Trump.
May more people wake up, and may more people repent. To continue to advocate for Trump in the face of all we now know is deplorable. But no one is irredeemable.