Not surprisingly, Trump denies doing what he plainly did, as anyone can see in the video. Flailing his arms and hooking his hand into a claw, Trump appeared to be doing an impression of Serge Kovaleski’s uncontrollable arm movements, which are caused by a congenital joint condition.
Trump’s display was reminiscent of Rush Limbaugh’s similar mockery of Michael J. Fox’s Parkinson’s disease. Like Limbaugh, who accused the actor of exaggerating his symptoms for effect (yeah, playing Parkinson’s is tons of fun), Trump has argued that Kovaleski, who writes for The New York Times, is using his affliction to grandstand.
What swell guys.
Though their critics may revile them in private, few are willing to call either of them out for their callousness — for the same reasons. Both el Trumpo and el Rushbo have legions of fans who, if you’re a political candidate, must not be offended.
It is hard for many, including yours truly, to fathom Trump’s success as a presidential candidate. What sort of people abide — even applaud — a man with such a gargantuan ego whose sole accomplishment is having made a bundle of money with lots of help from strategic bankruptcies and a rather lavish loan from his father?
At first it was a show — a bad show, but better than an “Apprentice” rerun. Most non-fans assumed he’d either fizzle or eventually get bored. A cynic might even have wondered if Trump wasn’t trying to get himself fired by blurting ever-more-outrageous statements. But the worse he got, the more some people liked him, even when he insulted them to their faces.
When I wrote recently that a cursing, meandering Trump had veered into a ditch after he more or less insinuated to an Iowa audience that Iowans are stupid, his fan club got in touch. Oh, yeah? Apparently, any negative media commentary is a gift to Trump followers, who'd rather ignore, or, in some cases, cheer the taunting of a disabled reporter than recognize what would otherwise be repugnant.
Consumer-itis seems to become more acute with each passing year, infecting even our relationships. We quantify other people as we would any commodity, making them into things, not quite human. She’s not this enough; he’s not all that. Indulging and gratifying ourselves, instantly and without reserve, we’re no longer subject to the traditional inoculations of conscience — shame, embarrassment and fear. We never judge because this would be to suggest objective standards in a subjective world of relativity.
Alas, even our national feast day is a contrivance of mindless gorging, a mere appetizer to the galloping consumption to follow thanks to the greatest marketing scam on Earth.
This is the table we’ve set and to which we’ve invited Trump, an extreme businessman who speaks in extreme language about extreme solutions for an angry world endangered by extremists. If you spot a pattern of dots here, they might be worth connecting.
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