Norm Coleman won’t vote for the Donald
And it’s all Barack Obama’s fault!
Former Sen. Norman Coleman penned an op-ed in the Strib about why he would never — no, not ever — vote for Donald Trump. He summoned an impressive amount of invective for one usually so feckless (he ordinarily lets the anonymous Minnesota Action Network speak for him).
You would almost think that Norm and the rest of his sniveling wanker pals hadn’t been cultivating the proto-fascist Trump followers for years.
Gosh, where did these people come from, anyway? says Norm. It must be Barack Obama’s fault:
. . . He’s [the Donald] not a uniter. Donald Trump isn’t the leader America needs after eight years of a president who deliberately divided us and fanned the flames of racial and socioeconomic strife — and, by doing so, diminished America’s standing in the world.
You all know what projection is, right?
The cabal to subvert Obama’s presidency and cast him as illegitimate — well, far worse than that, actually — began the day he took office. Republicans called him every name in a very old book.
In truth, and to my annoyance, President Obama coddled these jerks until well into his second term.
On Monday, March 7th, Republicans Larry Diamond and our very own Vin Weber will present a clueless two-man circle jerk at the Humphrey Institute on the viability of a third-party candidate for president.
This is funny on multiple levels. First, it’s doomed to fail. Second, the Democrats are unlikely to need any help to keep Trump out of the White House, anyway.
And third — and very best of all — even a successful exorcism of Donald Trump won’t cure the GOP. The Donald is not a disease in the party; he’s merely a symptom of the disease.
My Dutch Calvinist grandmother had an aphorism — I can’t render it in Dutch — When you burn your butt, you have to sit on the blisters.
These blisters may take a generation to heal.
Update 3/6: In an editorial entitled GOP must still offer a real alternative to Trump, the Strib makes the same error that Norm and Vin do: thinking that just replacing Donald Trump will make it all better.
The editorial ruefully acknowledges that trotting out Mitt Romney as Trump’s foil didn’t work out all that well. Mitt gratefully accepted Trump’s endorsement in 2012, and the Donald just takes in Mitt’s remarks now, and replies “Loser!” and moves on.
The probability that the geniuses at the GOP can figure out how to stop Trump at this point are not great. Worse than not great.
Personally, I’d rather have the oafish clown Trump than the Christian Dominionist Ted Cruz.
How, people, do you suppose Donald Trump got where he is? He’s not been a stealth candidate. He’s an accurate reflection of the views of a lot of Republicans.
But I do have a new campaign song for the Republicans.
A further update: William Saletan at Slate also observes the fundamental absurdity of blaming Trump on Obama. Trump, says Saletan, is not Obama’s fault; he is the fault of Republicans who made the decision to try to negate Obama in every way, every day.
And yet another update: Norm won’t vote for the Donald, but John Kline will, according to a link from reader Mac.
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