CORONAVIRUS (COVID-19) RESOURCE CENTER Read More
Add To Favorites

Opinion/Al Southwick: Draft-dodging Donald Trump has no idea what military service is

Telegram & Gazette - 9/9/2020

The Atlantic article asserting that Donald Trump referred to dead war veterans as "losers and suckers" was a reminder of his general attitude toward those who serve in the military. He denies having said it, but many veterans remember his crude and unflattering treatment of John McCain, a true war hero. His denials are not impressive, to put it mildly.

Mary Trump, in her revealing book about her uncle, Donald, says that he used the exact same terms about his brother, her father, after his death. Freddie Trump was a professional pilot who had served in the National Guard. He had declined to join the Trump real estate organization. That made him a "loser and a sucker" in Donald's eyes.

Donald Trump is a draft dodger who has no understanding of what military service is. He likes to use the services to bolster his ego. But he knows nothing about sacrifice.

Mary Trump's book sold almost a million copies the first day it was on sale. That suggests that the American public is hungry for believable information about their mercurial president. Unlike some tell-all accounts, this one has the ring of truth. It raises issues far beyond the grumbling of an old vet.

Mary Trump is an experienced clinical psychologist who has some expertise in judging human nature and motivations. She has been part of the Trump family and entourage for 50 years and more, during bad times and good. Her judgment of Donald Trump is harsh. She sees him as a rogue president, inept, unscrupulous, a compulsive liar and braggart. She says he is a "deeply psychologically disturbed man" who is going to get worse, not better. He must not be given another term in the White House, she says, because it would be damaging to our constitutional system.

His commutation of Roger Stone's sentence the day before Stone was to start his 40-month prison term showed Trump's disregard of constitutional norms, or even common ethics. Stone was not guilty of shoplifting or some other minor misdemeanor. He was convicted on seven counts of lying to Congress, obstruction of justice and other fraudulent activities. Fox News was quick to point out that Stone, long-time Trump's fixer and schemer, would now be ready to help with the upcoming presidential campaign. If that is the plan, it certainly sounds like the "unprecedented, historic corruption" that Sen. Mitt Romney labeled it. It suggests that the president no longer believes in the rule of law as the guiding philosophy behind our constitutional system.

Mary Trump does not spare Donald Trump's close associates, who have astonished many observers with their lap dog obedience to his whims, no matter how bizarre. She sees them as "enablers."

"The people who have access to him are weaker than Donald is, more craven, but just as desperate"' she writes. "Their futures are directly dependent on his success and favor." And "His pathologies have rendered him so simple-minded that it takes nothing more than repeating to him the things he says about himself dozens of times a day – he's the smartest, the greatest, the best – to get him to do whatever they want, whether it's imprisoning children in concentration camps, betraying allies ... or degrading every institution that's contributed to the United States' rise and the flourishing of liberal democracy."

Those are serious charges, hard to ignore, especially in the light of how he is mishandling the COVID-19 pandemic. A pandemic should have minimal political implications. Yet Trump and his handlers have managed to politicize it and are showing appalling ignorance of the scientific research involved. His contempt for science and the sneaky sabotage of Dr. Anthony Fauci reveals a man so vain that he is willing to endanger the public health to prop up his own shaky reputation. He has damaged the reputation of the Center for Disease Control and caused many to wonder if any vaccine can be trusted. His opposition to increased testing for COVID-19 is puzzling, to put it mildly.

Another point of worry is Trump's approach toward the upcoming presidential election. His tirades against voting by mail seem designed to shake public confidence in the election results – possibly opening them to a legal challenge. This is far more serious than his insults to people in military service.

Mary Trump believes that Trump's blundering, unscientific approach to the pandemic and other problems has already badly injured the country and our constitutional system.

"By the time this book is published", she writes, "hundreds of thousands of American lives will have been sacrificed on the altar of Donald's hubris and willful ignorance. If he is afforded a second term, it would be the end of American democracy."

That may seem to be extreme but, considering the source, it is hard to dismiss. American voters face a dilemma of awesome proportions. The November election will be something more than the usual partisan contest. It may be the most significant one since 1860.

Al Southwick served four years in the Navy during World War II.

___

(c)2020 Telegram & Gazette, Worcester, Mass.

Visit Telegram & Gazette, Worcester, Mass. at www.telegram.com

Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.