Trump, Conway, Protesters: Opportunity Lost

Kellyanne Conway was the lead spokesperson for the Donald Trump campaign and is now the lead spokesperson for Donald Trump as he inexorably transitions toward the White House.

It has not been an easy job.

She has had to lie to clean up his Twitter messes. She has had to lie to clean up his egregious verbal gaffes. She has had to lie. And lie. And lie.

In the process, she has become more than adept at affecting a voice so phony as to make even a sorority girl blush---the kind of phony voice one needs while trying to convince millions of people that black is white and white is black. The Grifter, she would say, had it right and millions of the rest of us had simply misheard or misunderstood what he said. Or, of course, it was wrongly reported by "the failing New York Times."

More laughable, she would deflect difficult questions by ignoring them and asking reporters why they weren't trying to "lock up" Hillary Clinton for her "crooked, criminal" past. Just to be fair, it seems important to note that, while The Grifter has a famously crooked past, Hillary Clinton has no crooked past (and no criminal past, either)---he has been a principal in over 4,000 litigations while she has been a principal in none (excluding those in which she served as counsel).

"Why," the lovely Kellyanne would ask, "are you going after a man who has the trust of the people instead of a woman who is disliked and not trusted by a huge majority of Americans?" To be fair, reporters weren't "going after" Donald Trump when they asked those difficult questions. They were doing their job. And, to be fair, Donald Trump, as polls indicated, most certainly did not have the trust of "a huge majority of Americans." Indeed, to be fair, until the last 10 days of the election cycle, Hillary Clinton was not only more popular than Donald Trump but was much more trusted than Donald Trump. It does not escape notice that she received more than 2,000,000 more votes than The Grifter.

Kellyanne, of course, would never answer or speak to the original question, which had been about her boss. A question, perhaps, about his statement that, because he had been "a television star," women didn't mind if he walked up and just "grabbed their," uh, lower genitalia. Or a question, perhaps, about his statement that he was going to ban all Muslim immigrants and force those already in the country to be recorded in a "Muslim registry"---she denied that he had made such a statement though it was, at the time of this writing, still on his campaign website.

Upon hearing that she had signed on with Trump, my first thought was that Kellyanne was in way over her head. That perception has not changed. And, now that Trump has actually, unimaginably been elected, Kellyanne increasingly takes on the look of a woman with concrete blocks tied around her ankles as the water around her in the storm drain rises.

She is drowning. In a sewer.

The best and most recent example of this involves her comments per the primarily young protesters who have taken to the streets around the country in order to exercise their First Amendment rights to freely assemble and freely express themselves---even if it is in opposition to a politician preparing to assume the mantle of Leader of the Free World. {Though, in the opinion of many, that mantle, when Barack Obama leaves office, will be placed not upon the head of Donald Trump but upon the head of Angela Merkel of Germany.]

Kellyanne chose to respond, on behalf of the Trump Administration, to the hundreds of thousands of primarily young people---millenials---whose rights to do and say what they are doing and saying are guaranteed and protected by the Constitution by calling them names, denigrating their protests and lying about their motivations. And her response has done the predictable; enraging the protesters, confirming their distrust/mistrust of Donald Trump and his sycophants and reinforcing what they believe to be the righteousness of their cause.

Seeking to denigrate them by calling them names, Kellyanne the Castrator---I always kind of thought she might have a predilection to castration---affected her phony smile and her phony voice and termed the protesters "precious snowflakes" who needed to be "toughened up" by strong police measures.

A big mistake by a woman who is supposed to mold a public image of Donald Trump that doesn't look like the real Donald Trump.

Though I don't believe a word of it and am amazed that some people are so naive as to think that Donald Trump seriously wants to "unite the country," he still claims that to be one of his goals.

But calling protesters "precious snowflakes" who were "paid to protest" [there is no evidence whatsoever that any of them were paid, though there is clear evidence that a busload of paid Trump "supporters" were bussed into Portland, Oregon to try and create havoc in what was a peaceful protest] is not unitive.

It is, instead, the opposite. Kellyanne Conway took out her surgical tools and tried to neuter the protesters by questioning their masculinity/toughness---"precious snowflakes." She then was dismissive not only of their issues but of their commitment to those issues when she claimed that they had been "paid" to protest---again, a lie derived from "fake news" on the internet.

She was, in effect, saying to the low-information, visceral voters of TrumpWorld, "Pay no attention to these protesters. They are a bunch of non-working crybabies who needed money and readily accepted whatever few dollars they could make by being part of these protests. Pay no attention to the issues they raise. They're just parroting what 'the elites' told them to say. They don't really care about any of it. And, if you feel like organizing a counter-protest, you may well feel as I do---that they need to be, uh, 'toughened up.' If you get what I mean."

Call this Kellyanne's FUBAR. Or, better, call this the Trump Administration's "Opportunity Lost."

The Grifter had a real opportunity in this instance to score some points with a demographic that looms over the horizon and will arrive in force come 2020. And, quite honestly, he had the opportunity to lower the temperature of his opposition---those of us who can find no kinder feeling than hostility toward a man whom we find to be a repellent, repulsive fraud.

Having heard how she responded when asked about the protests, a real president-in-waiting with actual presidential character and presidential instincts would have, first, fired Kellyanne Conway. Publicly. On the spot.

Not Donald Trump. Not the man who, at the behest of the White Supremacist who is his principal advisor, Steve Bannon, hired her in the first place.

A legitimate president-in-waiting possessed of legitimate presidential character and presidential instincts would have then disavowed---totally repudiated---her remarks. Not on his Twitter account. Not by issuing a written position piece. But by finding the press pool, losing the affected scowl that permanently permeates his face, looking straight into the cameras and making the following statement (written for him, of course, by me):

"I understand the concerns and the frustration and the anger and the fear that is driving thousands of Americans---especially young Americans---into the streets to protest.

"And, while it may be difficult for them to accept this as being reflective of how I really view their actions, the fact of the matter is that I applaud them for peacefully and productively using the tools of democracy, the protections and guarantees of our Constitution, to freely assemble and freely express their feelings and their thoughts about those issues of primary importance to them.

"While many would criticize them or dismiss them out-of-hand, we actually owe them a debt of gratitude. They bear witness to the entire world---to peoples who are free and, more importantly, to peoples who bear the weight of government oppression---that the United States is still a robust democracy that is secure enough and strong enough to allow the unfettered voice of dissent to be heard from the Atlantic to the Pacific, from our northern border to our southern border.

"I want those thousands of young people to know that I am listening.

"I want them to know that my staff is listening.

"I want them to know that we are already taking seriously the concerns about which they feel and speak so strongly and courageously.

"We may or may not come to a conclusion that is satisfactory to all or that pleases everyone, but it will not be because we didn't hear them out, it will not be because we didn't understand their concerns and it will not be because we didn't take their issues seriously.

"While I urge them to remain peaceful and urge them to continue to be respectful of the person and property of others, I also urge others to be of good will when they find themselves near these demonstrations or when they read or hear of them through the media.

"These demonstrations, these protests, do not diminish us as a country. Indeed, our country was born out of very similar protests, born out of everyday Americans speaking truth to power and demanding only that they be heard and that their issues be taken seriously.

"These young people and those who march with them are exemplifying, if you will, some of the best of the American spirit. And those who are citizens of other nations would do well to watch how we respond. We have the opportunity to bear witness to the world that we still honor the freedoms guaranteed by our founding document and that our greatness as a country is and will continue to be based on the honoring of those freedoms."

But Donald Trump chose not to take advantage of the opportunity in front of him. Instead of a statement of understanding which might have begun the process of establishing a sense of unity and relationship with these young people, he simply doubled-down on the lie that they were "paid" and did what he could to delegitimize both the protesters and their issues---delegitimizing being something with which Trump and his minions are more than familiar: Can you say "birthers?"

Kellyanne Conway's remarks, together with those of Donald Trump and other such freedom-loving luminaries as Ted Cruz, confirmed the feeling of the protesters and millions of us that Donald Trump is going to be president not of all Americans but of all those Americans who agree with him.

The Trump campaign was built on the premise that only a brutally divided America would elect someone like Donald Trump. Hence, a brutally divisive campaign unparalleled in modern American history.

The Trump presidency is being built on the premise that only a brutally divided America will let The Grifter and his buddies do what they want to do. Hence, the Trump administration will be as divisive as was his campaign.

They won't be calling to offer me a position. Which is good, because I wouldn't take it. I'm far too patriotic to work for a Trump administration. My vision of America at its best simply doesn't have room for its kind of anger, vengeance, grievance, hostility, hate, racism, nativism, xenophobia and divisiveness.

MEMO TO REPUBLICANS: Given the dark, ugly forces that drive Trump and his troops, whatever happened to Ronald Reagan’s “shining city on a hill?”