Trump in exile, by Sam Harris.
While Trump’s attitude toward women should be disqualifying, it is among his least frightening traits when it comes to assuming the responsibilities of the presidency.
His fondness for Vladimir Putin, the whimsy with which he has entertained the first use of nuclear weapons, his disregard for our NATO alliances, his promise to use federal regulators to harass his critics, his belief that climate change is a hoax, his recommendation that we kill the families of terrorists, his suggestion that America might want to default on its debt—any one of these sentiments should have ended Trump’s bid for public office within the hour.
In fact, Donald Trump is so unfit for the presidency that he has done great harm to our society by merely campaigning for it.
The harm he could do from the White House can scarcely be imagined.
But hatred for both Clintons is now so blinding as to render Trump’s far more dangerous flaws imperceptible to millions of Americans.
This is deeply disconcerting.
Ask yourself, How would Trump appear if he were a malicious bully?
The answer: Exactly as he does now.
The man lies about everything, and yet he can’t even pretend to be a good person for five minutes at a stretch.
How would Trump sound if he knew nothing about world affairs?
One need only hear him speak to know.
The truth is that Trump couldn’t have displayed his flaws more clearly during this campaign had his goal been to humiliate himself.
And yet this hasn’t mattered to nearly half the electorate.
As many others have noted, there was a point in the second presidential debate when Trump’s campaign ceased to be a depressing farce and became the terrifying, national disgrace we now see before us.
The crucial moment wasn’t when Trump threatened to imprison Clinton if he wins in November—it was the shriek of joy this threat produced in half the audience.
That was the sound of our democracy unraveling.
And there was Trump, the crazed man-child tearing at the threads.
If there is a silver lining here, it is that many of us now see how vulnerable our political system is to charlatanism, conspiracy theories, and populist unreason on both the Right and the Left.
The role that the media has played, rendering us all moths to the Trumpian flame, will be scrutinized for years to come.
The truth about us is sobering: We have been playing with our smartphones while hurtling toward the abyss…
The primary system enabled this, as it enabled Bernie Sanders' near takeover of the Democratic Party by a man who has hated it, hated the party system, and hated capitalism all his life.
But people want to make the selection process more vulnerable to outsiders and demagogues, not less.
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