by Steve Reinbrecht
The editorial board
at the Reading Eagle needs to have its collected heads examined. It wrote, for
all the world to see, that Berks and Beyond residents have a “tough choice” for president this fall.
What sort of moral
compass do they use?
I’m not going to
defend Hillary Clinton. But by even saying it’s a “tough choice,” by opining that
Trump is a viable candidate, the editorial board is giving a quasi-endorsement to
the anti-POTUS.
The truth is:
Thoughtful people along the entire political spectrum agree on one thing: Trump
is unfit for the job. That our local newspaper would not condemn Trump in its
editorial – especially because of the makeup of our residents -- is
disgraceful. For a long time after the election in November, researchers
will be checking which U.S. counties voted for Trump, and I hope Berks is not
counted among them.
The editorial board
is not using its bully pulpit for the best of the community. The problems
plaguing Berks and similar rust-belt regions will be better addressed by
someone not so apparently a “hater” of Mexicans, immigrants and Muslims.
“Trump has not consistently shown the sort of temperament we
expect in a president,” the newsroom opinion leaders write.
What mush-mouth weasel words are these, coming from an
institution whose tradition demands cutting the bullshit and stating the truth
clearly for the benefit of society?
Where does the editorial board get its information about
Trump’s temperament? Liberal and conservative media have generally agreed on a description
of Trump, more truthful than the Eagle’s: a vicious, cruel, remorseless con-man
who has scammed many Americans into believing he will somehow make life better
for them.
ICYMI, in the midst of his campaign, with all eyes watching,
he has gleefully mocked a person with a physical disability, used facetious
arguments to impugn federal judges, and promised to use torture and kill
innocent people.
The Reading Eagle editorialists say they “still have many
questions about the specifics of his policy proposals.”
Again, what sources do they read? It’s clear to the world
Trump has no policy. The man says
anything to get a headline and cheers or jeers at a rally, and that seems to be
fine with his supporters.
The Eagle has more praise for Trump than criticism: “Despite
skepticism from so-called experts at every turn and attempts to derail his
campaign by GOP leaders, Donald Trump became only the second businessman
without political experience to earn a major party presidential nomination.
“Wendell Willkie, who ran against President Franklin D.
Roosevelt in 1940, was the other.
“It's worth noting that Trump, if elected, would hardly be
the first to gain the presidency without previous political experience. The
most recent was Dwight D. Eisenhower.”
But I don’t really
believe the Eagle thinkers are as deluded as a plurality of the Republican voters
seem to be. There are explanations other than ignorance for why people support
Trump, which may explain the Eagle’s editorial.
Some want to retain
the privilege and deference that white men have enjoyed here for centuries but they
see as slipping away.
Some politicians think
their support for Trump will at least keep their jobs secure, so they are
making deals with the devil, from those at the highest levels of government down
to the local yokels. They are putting their own interests over those of the
people they serve.
The other sort of people
who support Trump, even though they know he would be a terrible president, are
those who are bigots themselves but have been repressed to say the things Trump
spouts, outside of their close circles.
The U.S. – and I
hope Berks County -- will yield to a progressive history, a world in which understanding
and embracing tolerance, inclusion, plurality, globalism, technology, education
and reliable infrastructure will be the only paths to middle-class quality of
life.
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