He’s not getting what he wants. Frustration becomes anger — a red face and loud, unfiltered howls that embarrass those around him. Onlookers, even friends, do what they can to avoid him and his outbursts entirely. Others shamelessly enable him. But attention is what he wants, and letting him get his way only encourages the bad behavior.
A child throwing a tantrum in a grocery store? Sadly, no. It’s the Republican nominee for President. Take it from me; as the mother of a toddler and the head of the largest Democratic research super PAC, I’m intimately familiar with both. My son has better manners than Trump, and while maddening at times, his mischievous behavior is completely innocent. Trump’s willful selfishness, hatemongering, and lies, on the other hand, are very much intentional. Still, I just can’t shake the similarities.
{mosads}Take Donald Trump’s lack of a filter, for example. Kids say the darnedest things, and so does Donald Trump. My two-year-old son will someday know better; Trump only seems to get worse. Pointing out that an aging family member is balding has nothing on mocking a disabled reporter or viciously attacking Khizr and Ghazala Khan — Gold Star parents whose only offense was denouncing Trump’s anti-Muslim policies and rhetoric — but the two are rooted in the same place: a lack of maturity.
Need more proof? Consider Trump’s seemingly permanent disconnect with the truth. Trump has lied about the strength of the U.S. economy, inflated crime statistics, and maliciously questioned the president’s birthplace, and that’s just the beginning. It’s not the same as fibbing to get an extra cookie, but the results are identical: a challenge and failure to get what he wants, followed by a tantrum and, particularly in Trump’s case, more lies, followed by lies about those lies, and so on.
And then there’s Donald Trump’s me-first attitude. From Trump University to his failing Atlantic City casinos, Trump has exploited others with fraudulent get-rich-quick schemes; and hurt small business owners by running ventures into the ground and skipping out on bills, even as he himself made millions.
My toddler is in the process of learning the importance of being considerate and respectful of others, and I hope to teach him the value of altruism. Donald Trump’s a grown man without a conscience; a selfish fraud who shows no interest in self-improvement. Mr. Khan said it best last weekend, after days of being publicly harassed by the Republican nominee: Donald Trump “is a black soul, and this is totally unfit for the leadership of this country.”
Donald Trump doesn’t have the temperament to be commander in chief — there’s no credible argument otherwise. Look at Trump’s doom-and-gloom convention speech replete with demagogic fear-mongering and lies; or his erratic press conference the next day where he re-upped the baseless conspiracy theory that Ted Cruz’s father was involved in the JFK assassination. Consider Trump’s recent pledges to expand his Muslim ban.
And yet, despite all of that, senators, representatives, governors, and candidates up and down the Republican ticket continue to enable Trump and engage in the same cynical politics of resentment that created their small-minded-bully-of-a-candidate in the first place. Donald Trump is 70 years old, yet somehow less qualified to be president than is my two year old — and Trump’s showing less improvement to boot.
More temper tantrums are inevitable in the months to come — there’ll be yelling and screaming, maybe even crying — but Republicans need to stand up to Trump.
So, here’s a message to Speaker Paul Ryan, Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, and Republicans up and down the ballot: It’s time to disown Donald Trump, the misogynistic, anti-immigrant demagogue you’ve enabled for over a year now. It’s not just the fate of your crumbling party that’s at stake — rather, the very future of our country as an inclusive and accepting beacon of opportunity for all depends on it.
Jessica Mackler is the president of American Bridge 21st Century, a Democratic super PAC.
The views expressed by Contributors are their own and are not the views of The Hill.