Stand up to intimidation

Although three million more people voted for Hillary Clinton than for Donald Trump, the fact remains that approximately 62 million people voted for a person they would not put on a local school board or invite into their home.

A man who has never held public office, never served in the military, and who would not provide his tax returns because he almost certainly pays no federal income tax. A man with a long history of exploiting and violating the rights of others. A man who took six companies into bankruptcy, and who set up a sham university for the sole purpose of scamming thousands of low income people, to include veterans. All of this meets the very definition of a sociopath.

In this case, a pathological liar who is clearly mentally unwell. Witness Trump’s constant sophomoric tweets with no regard whatsoever for truth and his continual tirade against anyone who disagrees with him. Witness also his tirade against federal judges, most recently the Ninth Circuit Court even before they could render a decision in the Muslim ban case, and his recent tirade against Nordstrom. Several of his flurry of executive orders are unconstitutional, and since he has not relinquished his ownership positions in his businesses, he is guilty of gross conflict of interest violations. Listening to Trump’s own words during the year long campaign, the nature of the man should have been crystal clear to the American voters and to the entire world.

There is simply no precedent for this in U.S. history. Even the man historians universally regard as the worst president in U.S. history, James Buchanan born in 1791, was a veteran, a five time member of the U.S. House of Representatives and a former Secretary of State, who could speak and conduct himself as an adult. So how could 62 million people vote for a man like Donald Trump? The answer is the fact that American voters rank among the most ignorant of any country in the industrialized world. Consequently, millions are easily swayed by fear mongering, which is the Steve Bannon and Donald Trump stock in trade.

We now find ourselves in very dangerous and uncharted waters, with no precedent to guide us. Until the Republicans who put this man in office can no longer tolerate a mentally unwell person in the White House and take action, all we can do as individuals is to stand up and speak out against ignorance, fear mongering and intimidation whenever and wherever we find it, regardless of the consequences. And we can immediately buy stock in Nordstrom and every other company that display similar courage.

Jim Lockwood, Whitefish