Mitragyna Speciosa

Remember those Road Runner cartoons, where no matter what dirty tricks Wile E. Coyote used to catch the Road Runner, he would always end up frustrated while the Road Runner went “beep beep” and flew off? Recently, we’ve seen Donald Trump acting like the Coyote and going after Hillary Clinton with everything he could find in the Acme Corporation catalog, including the gender card.

 

Gender is always at play in politics and has always been. Abigail Adams, the wife of the 2nd president and mother of the 3rd President of the United States, had to remind her husband, “Remember the Ladies,” as he left for Independence Hall.

 

One of my closest allies in politics is a professor of women’s and gender studies at a major public institution. After listening to the GOP’s presumptive nominee Donald Trump, she sent an urgent message.  Perhaps her message was intended for Democrats, but every American women would do well to heed her, no matter their partisan affiliation.

 

I’ve edited her remarks for brevity, but the following are her words:  “Are Dems missing the nontraditional dynamics of this race? What matters more than anything is if Trump successfully degrades the reputation of Clinton at this moment…

 

“Demean, degrade. This is how bullying succeeds. It is how harassment succeeds. It turns good people into bystanders — not upstanders. Folks are missing the social psychology of the Trump rhetoric. It works. Ignore it at [women’s’] risk.

 

“People identify with the bully and the bully’s power. Even all the Republican men have come onboard. No integrity, no respect…

 

The media [fosters] Trump’s surge because they only report on his personal attacks. Clinton and Sanders’ policies are mostly invisible except in sound bites.  And only when they attack each other.”

 

This woman is right.  Respect for women’s equality was as much a part of the American Revolution as the Declaration of Independence.  But, Trump, in the guise of fighting ‘political correctness,’ is attempting to win by debasing women’s dignity in general, and Hillary Clinton’s specifically.

 

That’s what trump does with opponents. He doesn’t attack policies, ever. He’s apparently incapable of arguing issues or sound policy.

 

Instead, Trump insults opponent’s bodies, their character, their intelligence.  He belittled Marco Rubio for his height, who at 5’ 10” is three inches taller than Trump’s personal hero, Vladimir Putin, who stands 5’7”.  Trump mocked Senator Rubio as “Little Marco.”

 

He attacked Carly Fiorina’s looks as being unfit to vote for.  He mocked a handicapped reporter, failing his arms in crude imitation of the man’s affliction.

 

Every human is entitled to respect.  But, Trump refuses to give respect because insults about his opponent’s bodies and brains get votes.

 

Recently, he said, “If Hillary Clinton were a man, I don’t think she’d get five percent of the vote.”  What Trump wouldn’t man up to and plainly say, is:  ‘Clinton gets votes not by her skills, or smarts, or sweat, but only because she’s female.’  Let’s look at that.

 

If Hillary Clinton were a man, would New Yorkers have elected her U.S. Senator by only five percent, instead of twelve percent — a landslide?  Would New Yorkers have re-elected her a second time by a 34 percent margin?  What were they thinking!

 

If Hillary Clinton were a man, would Barack Obama have done better in the 2008 Democratic primaries? Obama won over Hillary in 2008 with just 42,622 votes out of 18 million popular votes cast.

 

Did the Senate confirm Clinton 94 to 2 only because she’s a woman?  Did the National Law Journal twice vote her one of “the most influential 100 lawyers in America” because Hillary’s a woman?

 

I suppose the New York University Annual Survey of American Law would not have dedicated its 52nd volume to Clinton if she were a man with the same accomplishments.

 

Neither would Newsweek have rated Clinton as the “13th most powerful person on the planet, and the most powerful American woman” in 2009.

 

Go and Google “List of Hillary Clinton Awards,” in Wikipedia and you’ll find pages filled with sixty-six awards for Hillary’s public service, beginning with her years as Arkansas’ First Lady, to the last four as a private citizen.

 

Next, Google, “List of Donald Trump Awards” in Wikipedia to discover the thirteen awards listed.  Among them: The “1990 Golden Raspberry Award for Worst Supporting Actor for his role in Ghosts Can’t Do It,” a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, a key to the city of Doral Florida, and a nomination “by an ‘anonymous politician,’ (wonder who?) for the Nobel Peace Prize.

 

Trump also was awarded an Honorary Doctorate of Business Administration in 2010 by Robert Gordon University which, alas, they revoked last December.

 

You know what?  If Hillary gets elected, I’ll bet Trump will say it was only because she’s a woman.  I have his history on my side.

 

So Trump uses gender for himself, but then calls out Hillary for saying her experience as a woman is value added to her presidential credentials (which of course I think it is).

 

What I love about Hillary’s response is that she’s embracing it — “Deal me in.”  She used that line earlier, but it has taken on a whole new meaning.  It’s not whiny, it’s not saying he’s a sexist.  She’s saying these issues matter and she’s the one who is going to make them a priority.  Deal with it.

 

Finally, should I mention Clinton’s current delegate lead triples if she were running under the Republican’s primary rules?  “If the Democrats used Republican [rules], Clinton would have wrapped up the nomination long, long ago,” says the 538 Blog.

 

As the Looney Tunes’™  Road Runner would say, “Beep. Beep.”