I kind of got focused on the Donald again while I was supposed to be doing something else. CNN has been playing bleeped versions of several speeches the Donald has been making. Speeches that contain language that is not suitable for all viewers. CNN even showed the reaction of a focus group that was tasked to watch the Donald’s speeches and then give their opinions about what he said.

As I understand it, the focus group were already Trump supporters, they were just placed in an environment that removed the mob mentality from the equation. It was very telling to see the folks wince when the Donald spouted out that someone he was opposed to could go “F” themselves. The sound bites have provided a lot of fodder for folks saying his speech wasn’t “Presidential”. The Donald has responded in kind by saying that he would clean up his act if elected President. It’s kind of chilling to watch the Donald explain to the reporters that what he was doing now was pandering to a crowd, but when he became President he’d act like a civilized person. Does a leopard change his spots? 

If you are a candidate who is willing to say anything to stir up a crowd, what does that say? If you promise to build a wall between Mexico and the U.S., and use Mexican money to do it, what happens when you can’t deliver on your promise? How do you appease the people who voted for you and the wall, and then were disappointed? How do you backtrack on your promise to deport 12 million aliens? Forget the part that the voter should be smart enough to know that the promise was a physical impossibility. What happened to the ethical standards that most candidates impose on themselves to tell the truth about themselves and their capabilities?

Salesmen and hucksters prey on the uninformed and the “wishful thinkers” every day. That’s why there was a Consumer Protection Agency formed. Seems like we’re in desperate need of  a Voter’s Protection Agency. It’s not like The Donald is masking his lies in obscure language. He’s speaking his mind right up front of everybody, and unfortunately, the feedback he’s getting is only fueling his egomania. His statement, “I could stand in the middle of 5th Avenue and shoot somebody and I wouldn’t lose voters”, speaks to The Donald’s mental state. He believes he is infallible. That’s not a good quality for a leader of 330 million people that are as diverse as we are in America.

The world has a very bad history with infallible leaders. Normally I would do a separated at birth caption for this, but maybe this is more an argument for reincarnation.

Would Mussolini have been drug through the streets if he had had the Donald’s hair? Hard to know. Let’s hope we don’t get that close to history repeating itself to make a comparison.