A child younger than about 15 caught doing and/or saying something he/she knows he/she should not do/say may be expected to try to defend himself/herself by claiming “other kids do it — or do worse things — too.”
However, a child older than about 15 won’t try to use that kind of “defense” because he/she knows that the bad actions/statements of others do not excuse or defend one’s own bad actions/statements. No thief who is caught stealing someone else’s stereo equipment tries to defend himself by saying “Bobby stole a stereo from the Smith’s house.”
Donald Trump, now age 70, has been trying to use the ” ‘He did it too, and he said/did worse things than I did/said’ defense argument” since Friday. The same is true of many of Trump’s supporters.
Since last Friday, Trump described what he said in 2005 as ‘locker room talk.’ He was not in a locker room in 2005 — he was in an Access Hollywood video production van, en route to tape an appearance on a daytime drama. And he was 59 or 60 years old in 2005.
The actions of others do not excuse or defend Donald Trump’s mindset, attitudes, or opinions expressed since last Friday, which are appropriate for someone about age 15 or younger. Those kinds of thinking, attitudes and opinions are not appropriate for someone who is 70 years old now, and who was 59 or 60 years old in 2005, when he said and did the things revealed in the “Access Hollywood” video and audio recording released on October 7, 2016.
Many of Trump’s supporters have tried to defend his behavior in 2005. For example, Corey Lewandowski, one of Trump’s supporters who appears on CNN, tried to defend and explain away Trump’s mindset, opinions and beliefs by saying, “We’re not choosing a Sunday school teacher.”
No, we, the American people, are not choosing a Sunday school teacher. We are choosing a President of the United States.
A potential President of the United States should be held to a higher standard than a potential Sunday school teacher, not a lower standard.
People who are offended by Donald Trump’s behavior in 2005 and 2016 are not offended by his use of slang terminology for a woman’s genitalia. They are offended by the mindset, attitudes and opinions about himself and others, particularly women, that he clearly demonstrated in 2005 and 2016.
Imagine for a moment. Imagine if video and audiotape of Hillary Clinton en route to taping a segment in a daytime drama had been revealed.
Imagine Clinton being caught talking about men, and saying the kinds of things Trump said, but imagine those things being said about men. Imagine Clinton talking about trying to “move on” a married man, in the way Trump talked about himself trying to “move on” a particular married woman. Imagine Clinton and the journalist saying the same things about a handsome soap opera actor who was escorting her to the taping.
Imagine Clinton saying the same things Trump has been recorded as saying in 2005. Imagine her saying, because she’s a woman with power and influence, “You can do anything you want….. Grab ’em by the cock.”
And then imagine Clinton trying to defend herself and explain her comments away by saying it was “just locker room girl talk.”
If what has happened to Donald Trump had happened to Hillary Clinton, her credibility as a major national leader would be destroyed.
Why shouldn’t the American people apply the same standard to Donald Trump?