Friday, Oct. 21, 2016 | 2 a.m.
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View more of the Sun's opinion section
Donald Trump has effectively announced to the nation that he rejects the very underpinning of our American democracy: the will of the people.
At Wednesday night’s debate at UNLV, he told moderator Chris Wallace of Fox News that he wouldn’t promise to honor the Nov. 8 election results. “I will tell you at the time,” he said. “I will keep you in suspense.”
Sharing the stage, Hillary Clinton was flabbergasted. “That’s horrifying,” she said.
Indeed. Trump wants to be the president of the United States, a position that would have him at his swearing-in put his hand on a Bible and promise to uphold the Constitution. But he already has telegraphed to the world that he doesn’t feel bound to uphold the Constitution by honoring the nation’s vote.
Leave it to Trump to add a whole new dimension to the definition of narcissism: Voters be damned! I am Trump!
Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) said after Trump’s remarks: “I didn’t like the outcome of the 2008 election. But I had a duty to concede, and I did so without reluctance. A concession isn’t just an exercise in graciousness. It is an act of respect for the will of the American people, a respect that is every American leader’s first responsibility. Whatever our differences, we owe each other that respect, which we express by defending the democratic values and practices that protect us all.”
The more foreboding question is if Trump loses and refuses to concede, what, then, would be his intentions? What would he be trying to stir up? Would he be making one of those asides that cause us to pause and ask, “Did he just say what we think he said?”
Like the time he told his faithful at an August rally in Wilimington, N.C., that it would be “a horrible day” if Clinton were elected and got to appoint a tie-breaking Supreme Court justice.
“If she gets to pick her judges, nothing you can do, folks,” Trump said, but then added as if a subtle suggestion: “Although the Second Amendment people — maybe there is, I don’t know.” Many people interpreted that as a not-so-veiled invitation for guns-rights advocates to take matters into their own hands in pre-empting a Clinton-appointed judge.
Trump dug himself deeper into that sinister hole the following month when, yapping at a rally in Miami and attacking Clinton, he suggested that her Secret Service bodyguards disarm themselves to “see what would happen to her” without their protection.
“Take their guns away, OK? It’ll be very dangerous,” he said. Trump spoke these incendiary words when apparently trying to make a point that people are safer when they have weapons, and that Clinton intended to “destroy your Second Amendment” rights — which she does not.
We already know Trump’s penchant for back-alley violence.
Like the time he told supporters in Iowa: “If you see somebody getting ready to throw a tomato, knock the crap out of them, would you? Seriously. OK? Just knock the hell — I promise you, I will pay for the legal fees.” Referring to a protester in a crowd, he also said, “I’d like to punch him in the face, I’ll tell ya.” Another time: “Part of the problem ... is nobody wants to hurt each other anymore.” And, “In the good old days this doesn’t happen because they used to treat them very, very rough.”
So let’s assume Trump is not the people’s choice in this election. What is he insinuating when he says he may not honor the results? Would he call for an insurgency? That would be unthinkable, but remember how he threatened unrest if he missed the Republican nomination by a few hundred delegates. “I think you’d have riots,” he said at the time. “I wouldn’t lead it, but I think bad things would happen.”
And he manufactures reasons to agitate his followers by suggesting the election is “rigged.” That rhetoric is taken directly from the playbook of Vladimir Putin, a strongman who wields such influence over Trump that we’re witnessing the bizarre spectacle of a GOP candidate who carries water for a dictator and accepts the Russian’s view of the world over that of U.S. and Western intelligence agencies.
So it’s sadly consistent that a beyond-the-pale narcissistic Trump would think: “Of course I should win, and if I don’t, that means something went haywire.” The only thing going haywire is Trump, a man so flawed ethically, morally and emotionally that he should have been rejected out of hand by voters a year ago.
He refuses to share his tax returns because he is hiding something. He utters racist remarks. He belittles the handicapped and objectifies women, bragging of grabbing them between the legs and forcing on them open-mouthed kisses — if they are pretty enough to deserve his attention. He raids donors’ money from his own foundation to buy a painting of himself to hang at a golf club he owns. He uses bankruptcy as a tool to avoid paying his contractors and tradesmen. He talks about the U.S. getting raw deals in trade pacts with other countries — the same countries where his own branded products are manufactured. He brags he is smarter than the generals. He may quantifiably be the biggest liar on the political circuit since the start of fact-checking — and couldn’t help himself from uttering the same lies in each of the three debates with Clinton. Economists say his trade policies would backfire and his tax plan would absolutely benefit the wealthiest at the expense of the middle class, and send the country even further into debt. Yet, angry voters cling to him, as if attuned to him like a dog whistle.
Voters should reject Trump. And then he can sulk all he wants — as he did when his TV show didn’t win an Emmy — and retreat to his gilded lifestyle. But if he refuses to respect the peaceful electoral ritual that distinguishes our nation, shame on him, and he will have revealed himself as fool's gold, a phony who came to the end of his run.
