Trump and women: You get what you vote for

     In this Nov. 29, 2016 file photo Mika Brzezinski waits for an elevator in the lobby at Trump Tower in New York. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

    In this Nov. 29, 2016 file photo Mika Brzezinski waits for an elevator in the lobby at Trump Tower in New York. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

    Here’s a question for all the Republicans, Trumpkins, and Fox News hosts who seem sincerely shocked that the pig-in-chief would stoop to slime Mika Brzezinski for having a bleeding facelift that in truth she never had:

    What’s there to be shocked about? They’re the ones who saddled us with this sad excuse for a human being.

    They indulged him, defended him, and ultimately voted for him — 53 percent of white women voted for him — despite his repulsive insults about women, from Miss Universe (too fat for him) to Rosie O’Donnell (too fat for him) to Megyn Kelly (blood again) to Heidi Cruz (face again) to Carly Fiorina (face again); despite his repulsive boasts about grabbing women’s genitalia and getting away with it; and despite his assaultive behavior, as documented by 10 female accusers. (Remember when he threatened to sue them all? Whatever happened to that?)

    Trump’s core fans, roughly 35 percent of the citizenry, still insist that we gotta give the guy a chance to govern, but the truth (evident since the day he announced his candidacy) is that the guy is his own worst enemy. He’s supposed to be helping Senate Republicans drag their horrific health care bill across the finish line, but instead, because he can’t control himself, he mocks a woman’s face — at the precise time when the bill’s fate hinges on the votes of three female senators. Some dealmaker he is.

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    A president can’t govern if he alienates even his own toadies. Mike Huckabee, failed right-wing candidate and father of beleaguered White House flack Sarah, told Fox News yesterday that Trump “makes my daughter’s job very difficult with tweets like that.” Fired Fox Newser Bill O’Reilly told radio host Laura Ingraham, “It’s kind of discouraging for Americans who want important things to get done to be sidetracked by something like this.” Ingraham, another toady, tweeted Trump some advice: “MESSAGE DISCIPLINE!” (Despite the fact that he is, and always will be, a prisoner of his indiscipline.)

    And on Fox News, anchor Julie Banderas called out Trump for the Mika tweets: “You don’t need to stoop to the level, obviously. I don’t care who you are. You don’t stoop to the level of that … That’s just not how you run a country … People used to call President Obama stupid, people used to call him a Muslim, people used to call him underqualified, a sellout to America, a hater of Israel. I mean they called him every name in the book — but you didn’t see him lash out!”

    Ah yes, Obama.

    Rest assured that if Obama had ever lashed out personally against a female pundit — say, Laura Ingraham or Michelle Malkin or Ann Coulter — Republicans and members of the conservative media would’ve lined up to assail him as a narcissistic weakling. They would’ve asked: “If Obama can’t take hits from women, if he’s so unhinged by their criticism, how can he possibly be fit to confront our enemies abroad and lead us in a real crisis?”

    And that is indeed the crucial question of this moment.

    America’s standing in the world has plummeted since Trump took the oath. Other nations see him for what he is, and his twisted tweets underscore what they already know. Why should their leaders and their ambassadors trust him (and us)? How can they possibly have faith in his temperament and character if he can’t even abide remarks voiced by a woman in a TV studio? What does it say to our allies that this guy slimes Mika Brzezinski, yet has never uttered an unkind word about Vladimir Putin?

    And what about us, here at home? Imagine what will happen the next time we’re confronted with a serious crisis (a terrorist attack, a cyber-attack, the mind reels at the possibilities). That’s when we typically expect a leader to address us on prime time TV from the Oval Office — to calm us, to rally us, to summon our resolve, to tap our patriotism. But this manifestly soulless character has no credibility to speak to us or for us. It will be a tragic and cringeworthy event.

    But hey, we get what we pay for. As Sarah Huckabee Sanders said yesterday, while trying to defend her boss, “The American people knew what they were getting when they voted for Donald Trump.” She’s right. The evidence of his low character was out there in plain sight, but 63 million people preferred to go blind.

    Let that be a lesson for us. As the new King James Bible warns, “He who sows iniquity will reap sorrow.”

    Follow me on Twitter, @dickpolman1, and on Facebook.

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