No time for complacency

By Dr. E. Faye Williams, Esq.
TriceEdneyWire.com Columnist

I viewed the final 2016 presidential debate with great interest. It held few surprises, but served to confirm my evaluation of Donald Trump as an overgrown, petulant child-like man. Sadly, his year-plus emersion in the political process has not reformed his juvenile instincts to tear down that which he cannot control or does not like. He continues to present a narcissistic disposition that demonstrates his willingness to ruin the game if you won’t let him win. Consequently, I am not surprised at his on-going accusation that the electoral process is “rigged” and that he will not support the democratic outcome unless he wins the election!

Just as the Republican Party has not deteriorated into a party of racism, intolerance, xenophobia, misogyny, and obstructionism overnight, their acceptance and their nomination of a presidential candidate who now threatens to break down the fabric of their party is nothing new to them. Mitch McConnell threaten to make President Obama fail. Trump’s “birtherism” campaign against President Obama to the present, his public statements and the rhetoric of his campaign have been a litany of misrepresentations, obfuscation, and (as the old-folks used to say) bold-faced lies. Some of his more outrageous ones follow:

On May 30, 2012, Trump tweeted: “In his own words, @BarackObama “was born in Kenya and raised in Indonesia and Hawaii.” This statement was made, in writing, in the 1990’s. Why does the press protect him? Is this another Watergate?

On August 6, 2012, “An extremely credible source has called my office and told me that @BarackObama’s birth certificate is a fraud.”

On December 12, 2013, “How amazing, the State Health Director who verified copies of Obama’s birth certificate died in a plane crash today. All others lived. “

On September 6, 2014, “Attention all hackers: You are hacking everything else so please hack Obama’s college records (destroyed?) and check “place of birth.”

On September 15, 2016, after years of spewing poisonous information about President Obama and for political expedience, Trump aide, Jason Miller, released the following statement:

Having successfully obtained President Obama’s birth certificate when others could not, Mr. Trump believes that President Obama was born in the United States. Mr. Trump did a great service to the President and the country by bringing closure to the issue…successfully compelling President Obama to release his birth certificate…”

Trump has tried to convince the nation that our eyes and ears have not read, seen or heard his litany of lies. Although I can think of many more of his lies to list, the Washington Post has identified what they call Trump’s Biggest Lies. Among them are:
The real unemployment rate is 42 percent.
Thousands of New Jersey Muslims celebrated the 9/11 attacks.
Obama founded ISIS and Hillary is the co-founder.
Obama intends to take in 200,000 Syrian refugees.
The Mexican Government is sending the “bad ones” over here.
He (Trump) was against the Iraq War.

Notably, this review of Trump’s lies does not take into account his moral turpitude, as evidenced by recent videos and the emergence of numerous victims of his sexual improprieties. Combined with his lies, there is overwhelming indication of an individual devoid of the character REQUIRED of a President of the United States.

My greatest fear is that those opposed to Trump’s demagoguery will casually accept the outcome of the election predicted by the media and ignore their responsibility to vote. The consequences of this election are far too significant for anyone to leave it to others to vote the right way. I encourage all of my readers to take the opportunity to vote early. If that is not possible, build time into your personal schedule to vote on November 8. Now is NOT the time for complacency!

This article originally published in the October 31, 2016 print edition of The Louisiana Weekly newspaper.