Trump, the standard bearer.

From time to time certain ideologies spread far enough to produce noticeable results.

“Trump: ….You know, I’m automatically attracted to beautiful — I just start kissing them. It’s like a magnet. Just kiss. I don’t even wait. And when you’re a star, they let you do it. You can do anything.

Bush: Whatever you want.

Trump: Grab ’em by the pussy. You can do anything.”

After the recordings had been ‘miraculously’ unearthed the ‘divide’ has moved considerably.

“Republicans Desert Trump in Droves” but he still enjoys a lot of support:

“Donald Trump can easily convince most objective observers of both parties that what he has said and done in relation to women on a personal level is not as objectionable as what Bill and Hillary Clinton have said and done in relation to women on a personal level.

Although it is true that Trump is not running against Bill but against Hillary, what Bill said and did as president is relevant since Trump is running for the office once occupied by Bill, who set the bar for presidential relationships with women lower than any other president (with possible competition from Franklin D. Roosevelt and John F. Kennedy before the advent of the Internet).”

“Keeping in mind that the Democratic Party has imposed Hillary on the electorate as its choice for the highest office in the land, we must also take note of how Hillary and Donald dealt with their spouse’s respective but disrespectful dalliances. When Trump found out about the alleged infidelity of his second wife, he didn’t maintain the relationship for ulterior motives,  but divorced her. When Hillary found out about the dalliances of her husband, she not only:

• remained with him,
• defended him to an extent, but even
• Is reputed to have led a “war room” (perhaps her only experience for a future role of commander-in-chief?) to harass and intimidate some of the women who came forth to accuse Bill of improprieties;”

Historical facts do suggest that a certain number of ‘powerful figures’ did have an excess of testosterone which manifested itself in a less than an ‘elegant’ manner.

From Julius Caesar (who, according to Suetonius, was described by Curio as “Every woman’s husband and every man’s wife”) to Bill Clinton we have a huge list of ‘powerful’ public figures who couldn’t ‘keep it’ in their pants.

And not all of them have been involved in politics.
Jimmy Saville, Bing Cosby and Jeffrey Epstein are just a few names that came to my mind.

Only there is a small but fundamental difference between all these and “The Donald”.

Their ‘indiscretions’ were perpetrated more or less secretively and no more than a finite number of people – women or men – were abused by each of them.

Meanwhile Trump not only has no qualms when bragging about his habits in an almost public manner – the tape was recorded in the context of a TV show – but he would also extend his ‘greetings’ (“grab ‘hem by the pussy”) to all “beautiful” women that would happen to come close to him!

He actually acts as a standard bearer for what is currently known as “rape culture“!
Effectively offering ‘theoretical background’ for future ‘transgressions’.

In this respect there is no real difference between those who maintain that Trump’s words are not so bad as Bill Clinton’s actions – simply because they want to keep Hillary Clinton from returning to the White House – and Hillary Clinton herself – who supported her husband in order to remain there.

And this is the second connection between Trump’s words and extremist positions.

“All women since Eve, the world’s first sinner, were born in sin and sinners by birth became more or less sinners by practice.” (Luke 7:36-50) but also “Somalia is in the grip of famine and chaos but officials there are inspecting bras”

You see, the first rule of extremism is to ‘herd’ people together according to one obvious characteristic and settle their fate according to that characteristic – without paying any attention to the individual circumstances of any of those involved.

Hence all Muslims must be vetted, all immigrants must be deported, all beautiful women ‘grabbed by their pussies’…

Small wonder that we are now living in a world where ‘gang rape’ has become such a common occurrence…

“Finally, let me say that religious extremism is the other face of political despotism. We cannot get rid of the extremism before we end the despotism.

Democracy is the solution.”   (Alaa Al Aswany, When women are sinners in the eyes of extremists, The Independent, 2009)