What did we know? And when did we know it?
And why didn’t we pay more attention to what we knew when we could still do something about it?
Of course, the current chaos in the White House evokes a number of other important questions about, for example, the Russian connection. But when the dust finally settles months or, more likely, years from now, we need to seek an answer to one paramount question that derives from the three questions at the top of this column:
Knowing everything we knew about Donald Trump long before Election Day, how did we ever allow him to become our president?
This isn’t a facetious or partisan question, and it has nothing to do with Trump’s own policies or the policies that conservatives hope to implement during his presidency. Liberals and conservatives can disagree on taxes and health care and immigration. But this question involves Trump’s essential character, and eventually we’ll likely have to acknowledge that Trump was never fit to be president.
The campaign revealed plenty of warning signs that we should have taken more seriously. It wouldn’t be hard to name a dozen of Trump’s activities and attitudes that should have been suspicious or even disqualifying.
Trump’s refusal to release his tax returns should have raised more eyebrows, and his subsequent lies — that he would release them when the audit was concluded or that only the media cared about the returns — should have been taken more seriously. Trump University was clearly a scam that exploited the hopes and dreams of people who could ill afford the tuition.
And do you know any thoughtful, well-centered, self-confident 70-year-olds who still brag about their sexual prowess in a public forum?
Then there are the name-calling, narcissism, boasting, rudeness, impulsivity, arrogance and curious blend of ignorance and unwarranted self-assurance. None of this has to do with policy positions. But we knew about all of it before the election. Why didn’t we ask ourselves harder questions about whether these are characteristics that we want in our president, or in a next-door neighbor, for that matter.
Here’s a case in point: I thought the Access Hollywood tapes were the certain death knell of the Trump campaign. Was I ever wrong.
Still, it’s a thing of wonder to hear a potential president brag about the impunity that his money and celebrity provide for him to commit what is essentially criminal assault against women.
Trump dismissed his unseemly comments as locker room talk, implying that he never took action on his brags. But this improbable tactic required him to impugn the integrity of the 15 or more women who said independently that Trump did indeed grab, grope and aggressively manhandle them without their permission.
Because Trump wasn’t charged with these alleged criminal acts, he’s not entitled to the presumption of innocence. But somehow our nation, through the marvel of the Electoral College, gave Trump a pass on this and other episodes that should have been revealing indices on the character of the man who now leads the country. Yes, this is an issue of character.
Can an imperfect man or woman be a good president? Certainly. The duties of the presidency has been discharged with varying degrees of success by slaveholders, Indian-killers, racists, rule-benders and rule-breakers, adulterers, drinkers and liars.
But we’ve moved into new territory with Donald Trump. His faults involve incompetence, bad judgment, immaturity, self-centeredness and a basic dearth of much in the way of core principles. All of these deficits were clearly indicated by things that we’ve known about Trump for years.
Our grand republic will survive the Trump presidency, but at best it will be a long time recovering. But all Americans, including Republicans, Trumpers, Never-Trumpers, and even Ever-Trumpers, might have done a better job of evaluating Trump’s fitness for office.
However the Trump presidency ends we have to ask ourselves harder questions in the future about the people who want to lead the country and then listen more carefully to the answers.
John M. Crisp, an op-ed columnist for Tribune News Service, teaches in the English Department at Del Mar College in Corpus Christi, Texas. Readers may send him email at jcrisp@delmar.edu.
