Is Donald Trump a racist? I am aware of nothing that would make me think so, but I am also aware that I am not the person most likely to be aware of such things. But I’m not sure it much matters anyway. Under our system of government, and in the current century, it would be rather difficult, I think, for even the most racist of presidents to erect signficant barriers to trade between people of different races. As long as the darkness in a man or woman’s heart does no material harm, I think we can live with it.
On the other hand, Donald Trump is certainly a xenophobe, which makes him as unlikable as a racist, and matters a hell of a lot more, given the ease with which our government routinely erects trade barriers between people of different nationalities.
So the answer to “Is Trump a racist?” is: I’d guess not, I don’t really care (except insofar as I wish nobody were a racist), and it’s the wrong question anyway. The right question is: “Is Trump a xenophobe?”, to which the answer is yes — and it matters.
Is Donald Trump a serial groper? The evidence is mixed. On the one hand, he seems to have lived several decades in the public eye without any visible complaints. On the other hand, we have the notorious Carpe Vulva tape, along with the flood of accusations that followed. The fact that those accusations gibe so closely with the words on the tape could be seen as evidence either for or against their veracity.
But again, who cares, really? The extent of Trump’s boorishness, whatever it may be, seems unlikely to be much different in or out of the Oval Office, and is therefore largely irrelevant to whether it would be a good idea to install him in that office.
Is Donald Trump batshit crazy? Obviously yes. He seethes with personal resentments, all of which loom larger in his mind than, well, anything, and appears genuinely incapable of fathoming the possibility that there are people who don’t particularly care whether someone high or low has been “unfair” to Donald J. Trump. He claims to believe that Hillary Clinton’s policies would be disastrous for the country, yet works to undermine the Republican congressional and Senate candidates who stand as a bulwark against those policies, because preventing a national disaster is less important than petty vengeance against those who have failed to pay Trump his due respects. Moreover, he seems genuinely baffled by the suggestion that anybody anywhere might prioritize things differently. He has, as I’ve said before on this blog (and as countless others have said, sometimes more poetically) the mental, emotional and moral maturity of a four-year-old, with an attention span to match.
Is being batshit crazy a disqualification for the position of Commander in Chief of the armed forces of the United States of America? Hell yes.
Summary: I do not know and I do not much care whether Donald Trump is a racist or a serial groper, except insofar as I wish nobody were a racist or a serial groper. When I’m deciding who to support for President, I care about things that will affect his or her performance in office. In Trump’s caase, I believe the xenophobia is a sufficient disqualification, though I think one could reasonably argue that, given the shortcomings of the alternatives, we should not be so quick to disqualify. But I do not think that one could reasonably say the same about the paranoia, narcissism, and all the related mental instability. The next time Trump goes off on an incoherent rant — and he will — try imagining him in command of the United States Army. Take that image into the voting booth.
I think that Trump’s recorded groping comments are far more important than they’re given credit for. Their importance goes far beyond the fact that Trump is a sexual predator (like Clinton).
I have *never* heard anyone even *admit* to groping women. I cannot fathom the mental state of someone who would BRAG about it.
That Trump would would do this shows that he is f+++++d up in the head to a degree even few of his critics still fully understand.
For all that I’m sure you differ with the details of HRC’s policies, one of the recent leaked speeches (to the board of Banco Itau in Brazil) suggests that you might have more common ground with her than you would expect:
My dream is a hemispheric common market, with open trade and open borders, some time in the future with energy that is as green and sustainable as we can get it, powering growth and opportunity for every person in the hemisphere.
Of course who knows to what extent this was just her flattering her audience, but it happily surprised me to even imagine her uttering the words.
@Doctor Memory,
I think he would object to the “as green as you can get” part. I think he would prefer “as least costly” as you can get. Where costly includes the cost to society of non-green sources of energy.
@Doctor Memory
That sounds nice but we have (1) the current example of the EU a (2) sufficient knowledge of HTC to know that she pictures a technocratic oligarchy running the show. At very best, no tariffs but absolutely nothing resembling free trade – nationally or internationally.
As for bat-shit crazy vs shrewd, compulsive liar, one can – and has – played the system while the other appears to lack the subtlety to be truly dangerous.
Steve
Thanks for these posts. You seem to be miles ahead of others in addressing relevant points in the political realm.
@Advo: Trump does not admit to groping women. You might want to watch the video, instead of relying on inaccurate press reports.
@Steve: It is not crazy for Trump to criticize Paul Ryan and others are are seeking to undermine his candidacy. Politics often requires rewarding your friends and punishing your enemies.
You ask “Is Trump a xenophobe?”, but your real complaint appears to be that he put American interests ahead of foreign ones. That is a qualifier to be President, not a disqualifier.
Conceding for the moment that his racism and serial groping are not things which effect his performance in office, they are likely very good predictors for other things which might be. For example being a racist is probably a pretty well correlated with being a xenophobe.
The example (which I think I learned from one of Steve’s books) that springs to mind is smokers being charged higher insurance premiums not simply because they are more likely to have health issues from smoking but because they’re also more likely to engage in other high-risk behaviour.
I don’t think Trump is crazy. He is a nihilist who gets off on saying outrageous things in order to stir up his crazy supporters. He loves their adulation. He believes nothing and will say anything.
@Roger,
No I think he thinks that Trump believes incorrectly that putting tariffs on foreign goods for example is in America’a best interest and that this belief is fueled by xenophobia rather then sound economic evidence.
About the video. Trump does admit to kissing women without permission (perhaps braggadocio) and uses groping women as an example of things women let you do to them when you are rich, so really you are splitting hairs here.
Roger:
You ask “Is Trump a xenophobe?”, but your real complaint appears to be that he put American interests ahead of foreign ones. That is a qualifier to be President, not a disqualifier.
Daniel sort of beat me to this, but I don’t think your statement fits the facts. Trump wants to erect trade barriers between Americans and the foreigners they want to trade with. That is, he *opposes* Americans’ interests, and is willing to inflict harm on Americans if that’s what it takes to inflict harm on foreigners. So any analysis that starts with “he puts American interests ahead of foreign ones” must be wrong.
Very interesting. But the proper grammar is “carpe vulvam”!
@Daniel: Watch again. Trump says that he is “automatically attracted”, but not that he kisses without permission. He is shown kissing a woman on the cheek, but with apparent permission.
@Steve: You have a disagreement with Trump’s trade policies, and that could be a reason to vote against him. But crazy or xenophobe as a result? Both H. Clinton and Bernie Sanders came out against the TPP also. Does that make them also crazy or xenophobes?
@Roger,
So the part where he says “It’s like a magnet. Just kiss. I don’t even wait.” implies what to you? What doesn’t he wait for?
This quote here describes exactly the behavior that the women allege, and it constitutes sexual assault:
—
Trump: “”Yeah that’s her with the gold. I better use some Tic Tacs just in case I start kissing her. You know I’m automatically attracted to beautiful… I just start kissing them. It’s like a magnet. Just kiss. I don’t even wait. And when you’re a star they let you do it. You can do anything.”
Bush: “Whatever you want.”
Trump: “Grab them by the pussy. You can do anything.”
—-
And he’s saying that in relation to the woman they’re about to meet, who is married and has rejected his advances before.
Pierre Lemieux (#11):
But the proper grammar is “carpe vulvam”!
I stand corrected, but I will leave the post unedited so that others can fully appreciate the erudition of the commenters around here.
@Roger (#12):
Both H. Clinton and Bernie Sanders came out against the TPP also. Does that make them also crazy or xenophobes?
I believe Sanders is exactly as xenophobic as Trump, exactly as demagogic, exactly as dishonest, and exactly as dependent on followers who prefer not to think. I’ve said so before on this blog, and if Sanders were still running, I’d be saying so again. Clinton, in my best estimation, is more of a liar than a xenophobe.
@Daniel: You don’t have to ask me; just watch the end of the video.
@Advo: The meeting is on the video. Are you claiming that Trump committed some sort of criminal sexual assault against the woman on the video?
No, Trump does not admit to sexual assault.
This is yet another example of the news media spreading lies about Trump. Nearly all the attacks on Trump are based on lies and misquotes about what he has said and done.
I’m not sure how you reach these conclusions.
Whatever your definition of “xenophobia” is, I cannot imagine that Trump wouldn’t trump Sanders in that regard. For one thing, Sanders hasn’t (to my knowledge) advocated mass-deportation and doesn’t (to my knowledge) appear to be particularly bothered by the fact that the influx of non-white immigrants is ending America’s status as an Aryan nation (which appears to bother Trump and many of his followers very much).
These are very important differences between Trump and Sanders with enormous practical implications.
How can you equate the two?
And that Sanders is “just as demagogic as Trump” is just not a supportable statement.
In his rhetoric, Sanders has by and large staid within the bounds of what would be considered acceptable discourse in a democracy. He has gone farther in his attacks on Clinton and the Democrats than I would have liked, but I’m not sure I can blame him for that.
In the end, Sanders respects and supports the democratic system of the US, even if he bitterly complains about what he perceives as its (massive) problems.
Trump does not. Trump respects nothing and no one and has no regard to the consequences of anything he does. In revenge for his self-inflicted loss, he seeks to burn down the whole system.
And with regard to Hillary – I can’t see how Hillary is any more dishonest than any other politician, and certainly much better if you compare her to someone like Cruz or Ryan.
Of course not. The point is that his statements have to be understood with regard to this meeting. When he talks about “grabbing p***” he’s not referring to doing it in the context of a romantic candlelight dinner or somesuch, but in relation to a meeting like the one he’s about to have. A professional meeting or in any event one where women generally do not expect to be grabbed by their genitals.
Yes, he does, in general terms. He says that he likes to kiss women and grab their genitals “without waiting”.
“You can do anything if you are a star” he said. “Just grab their pussy”.
There’s no reasonable reading of this other than reading it as “without waiting for their consent”.
I am curious what kind of situation you imagine where Trump would “just kiss a woman without waiting” and “grab their p****” which would not constitute assault.
The key statement here is “When you’re a star, you can do anything.”
Trump isn’t in any way implying that the women WANT him to do these things. He’s saying that they don’t resist because “he’s a star”. There is no indication that a woman’s wishes are in any way a relevant consideration when he “just kisses them”.
His statements leave open the question whether he stops if the women DO object; but they’re quite clear on the fact that Trump doesn’t wait for an invitation before falling upon them.
His statements are all about his power to do things to others.
I agree with Advo and disagree with Roger on this one. You may be able to come with some convoluted explanation of his words that mean the opposite, but it is clear he is basically saying that because he is a star women let him get away with assaulting them.
It is difficult for politicians to take a stand on some things. For example, free trade at the moment seems to be seen as anti-American. Trump portrays NAFTA as the worst agreement ever signed. The evidence appears to be that to has been generally more good than bad for all countries involved, with small increases in welfare. Clinton could challenge Trump on this and defend NAFTA, but to do so would play into his hands. It is very easy to see the lost industry and difficult to see the diffuse benefits, so Clinton does not challenge this.
It may be difficult to take a stand, but that does not mean politicians should not do it. Jeremy Corbyn (UK Labour leader) recently took a stand for immigration. All other politicians are seeing the crowd and saying “I am their leader, I must follow them!”. We must limit immigration. Corbyn took a stand and refused to condemn immigration, calling instead for extra help for services in areas that found themselves disproportionately burdened. This is calling the bluff of the xenophobes who say it the strain on schools and hospitals that they are worried about. I do not like very much of what Corbyn represents, but one thing I do respect is his sticking up for his ideals in this instance.
@Roger,
You’re suggesting that Trump’s behavior towards a women on a recorded video is evidence of how he acts in other instances. That is a naive sentiment.
Should we be factoring classism into the mix of other -isms and phobias that are potentially damaging?
@10 Steve
I generally agree with Steve’s summary, but this response is beyond weak. When you talk about xenophobia you are referring to attitudes and values. Roger’s response is that Trump places higher value on the well being of Americans. That also is a claim about attitudes and values. Your response in 10 is that Trump *gets the math wrong*. Maybe he does, but that’s not remotely the same kind of claim, nor remotely an answer to Roger on this point.
Disqualification seems to be a very strong term or are we watering down what it means.
A statement like the following would seem as preposterous as choosing any trait/policy position of a candidate to be disqualifying.
“I believe the fact that Mr. Smith would like to remove the old tree on 8th and Main should disqualify him from being alderman”
What should disqualify Trump from being president is Clinton winning the election under the rules of elections.
Well put Will A.
@Daniel: “You’re suggesting that Trump’s behavior towards a women on a recorded video is evidence of how he acts in other instances. That is a naive sentiment.”
Isn’t that what everyone else is complaining about?
I don’t think that the video is evidence of much, except that Trump recognizes some uncomfortable truths about human nature. And that the Trump haters will carry on with phony outrage about the most innocuous things.
Roger,
If Trump says it’s Tuesday he’e lying, because it isn’t Tuesday somewhere. And “Tuesday” is a racist dog-whistle anyway.
Ken B makes good point – it is about ends and means. Trump wants (or says he wants) to make Americans richer by imposing tariffs. That does not mean he does not want to make Americans richer, just that he is choosing policies that will not achieve his ends.
Roger said “You ask “Is Trump a xenophobe?”, but your real complaint appears to be that he put American interests ahead of foreign ones. That is a qualifier to be President, not a disqualifier.”
The values answer is that doing so is xenophobic, which may be true but then most Americans are too. The real answer is that the policies he is promoting are demonstrably not in the best interests of Americans, unless Americans are prepared to be worse off to keep foreigners out.
Then makes a poor point (#27) because Trump is not called out for dog whistles and lying because he is being picked on but because he lies and dog whistles so much. If Trump says it is Tuesday and it is Tuesday most people will not accuse him of lying because of a technicality. There is simply no need to create “technical” Trump lies because of all the genuine lies he tells.
@Advo: “His statements leave open the question whether he stops if the women DO object; but they’re quite clear on the fact that Trump doesn’t wait for an invitation before falling upon them.”
Do most men wait for an explicit invitation before kissing or “groping”? Or do they “make a move” and stop if it meets resistance. That would seem to be a reasonable interpretation of his remarks. And I have no idea if the context is a date or professional meeting. If he’s talking about how he acts on a date then he’s describing fairly typical behavior with the addition that “stars” rarely meet with resistance.
In any case, I agree with Landsburg that this issue isn’t so important.
@ James Kahn:
The interpretation of his remarks wouldn’t be a question, it would be a statement.
The interpretation of his statement is that he will kiss and grope women whether or not he has their permission.
This seems to be your interpretation also.
Your interpretation also seems to be that if you are on a date with a woman, it is acceptable for you to kiss and grope her without her permission.
And pretty please, don’t reply with a “I didn’t say it was acceptable, I said it was fairly typical”
Will A: No, it is that women do not object when he makes advances. As for me, I am happily married, not sure why you want make this ad hominem. But are you claiming that on dates, men do, or ought to, ask permission before moving to kiss a woman or to lay a hand on her? I know that is what college campuses are pushing, but it is not common practice.
@James Kahn:
My statement was poorly worded.
Obviously, express “permission” as such should not be required. Any man who waits for an express invitation before touching a woman is likely to die a virgin.
What men should do is look for implicit permission and escalate more or less slowly depending on circumstances and response. My approach to that was always to start with touching the hand, holding it a bit, a kiss on the neck, the mouth, and so on.
The woman must at every point have the opportunity to pull back and fend off the contact…in which case you wait a while and maybe try something a little different later.
When a woman comes to my apartment on a date then I interpret that as implicit consent for me to try and kiss or lightly touch her.
It is not implicit consent for me to grab her genitals. This applies even more where the context is not a date but a business meeting or some chance meeting context during the day.
The legalistic discussion of consent aside, women have to be warmed up and get into a state of arousal before they can enjoy the touch of a new intimate partner.
According to the semi-scientific findings of the pick-up artist community, the minimum time frame between first approaching a woman and sex is between 5-8 hours and it is generally not possible to compress that further (unless the woman is sexually fired up already for some other reason).
Even if you’re Brad Pitt (20 years ago) you can’t randomly grab and kiss women and expect them to enjoy it.
Trump made very clear in his recorded statements that this is just not a consideration for him.
And as to whether the sexual assault allegations are an important consideration in thinking about “Trump the president”:
Ignoring the kind of message we’re sending by electing a sexual predator, and the very real consequences that has for behavior in US society, we can agree that Bill Clinton was obviously very good at being president despite probably raping Juanita Broaddrick.
The mere fact that Trump grabbed women thus doesn’t mean that he’s mentally unfit for office.
However, the fact that he would think that this is something to brag about indicates not merely a lack of morals, empathy and sexual restraint, but a derangement of his rational faculties.
“Duh”, you might say. “As if more evidence of that would be needed.”
Can’t argue with you on that.
On a completely unrelated note, I have been thinking about the lag in productivity growth in recent years and was wondering how much of that might be traced to the commodity bull market.
The last time period with very low productivity growth was 1975-1979, the end phase of the last commodity bull.
I can think of three ways how rising commodity prices would impact productivity:
1. Declining productivity within the commodity sector:
Expanding commodity production is horrible for productivity. You go from using efficient oil conventional wells and employing the most productive people to mining tar sands/fracking and having to pay high wages to third-rate workers because the job market ran out of professionals years ago.
Even if the commodity sector is only a relatively small part of the economy, if its labor productivity drops by 30% that has to have some measurable effect on the whole economy.
2. Investments are diverted into the commodity sector:
Capital and human resources that would otherwise serve to drive productivity increases in the overall economy now go towards increasing commodity production, ironically driving overall productivity down instead.
3. Improving labor productivity is de-emphasized vs. improving other input costs:
If you’re a car manufacturer and the price of your commodity inputs like steel and energy suddenly goes up by a factor of 5, trying to minimize those costs gains in importance relative to saving labor costs. This should lead to lower improvements in labor productivity than otherwise.
I would assume that someone at some point must have analyzed this, but haven’t really been able to find anything specifically addressing in particular the impact of 3.
Funny Landsburg would post this. Democratic illustrator Barry Deutch (Ampersand) recently posted A President’s Character Is Less Important Than Their Policies.
While listing the policy considerations that are driving his vote, he forthrightly acknowledges:
Landsburg: “I wish nobody were a racist….”
Sorry to disappoint you, Whitey.
@ James Kuhn #31:
“But are you claiming that on dates, men do, or ought to, ask permission before moving to kiss a woman or to lay a hand on her?”
This almost sounds like an incredulous question which I find incredulous in its own right.
”
But are you seriously saying that you should ask for a woman’s permission before laying a hand on her? Seriously?
Even though you know she wants it bad.
”
Yes, of course I ask a woman if I should kiss her. Men ought to be gentlemen with women (and even without women):
http://thoughtcatalog.com/kate-bailey/2014/02/the-20-rules-of-being-a-modern-gentleman/
I’m a 51 year-old man who is currently dating. Last month, I had dates with two different women. On the date with the first, I asked if I could kiss her. She said I could give her a hug. And I hugged (but didn’t grope) her.
I didn’t ask the second date if I could kiss her because at one point she volunteered that I could kiss if I wanted. So I kissed her but I didn’t grope her.
I do understand the strategy of kissing and groping women on dates. It is kind of a playing the odds. 1 in n women will like it if I kiss and grope them so I will kiss and grope dates until I get a hit.
I would suggest thinking about whether you or anyone else groped a woman who didn’t want to be groped by you or someone else even if you or that person thought the woman wanted it, is that something that ought to have been done.
It’s obviously a moral question. Is it moral for a man to kiss and grope a woman on date because he thinks she wants it?
Should women just accept that on dates they will be kissed and groped without their permission from time to time on a date because it is a societal norm?
Will A:
That’s *really* not how it works.
This is about non-verbal communication.
I explained my approach in my post above.
Women EXPECT you to understand their non-verbal communication. They don’t like men to be clueless in that regard. If you expressly and openly ask for permission, that’s exactly how you come across.
Here’s an alternative approach, how to ask for permission non-verbally:
When you’re saying goodbye after a nice evening, lift your hand to her cheek and brush her hair aside, lightly touching her cheek.
Or just touch her cheek slightly.
If she draws back, that is where it ends. If she doesn’t draw back, you can lean in for a light kiss. Don’t move too fast, but also not too slow.
Again she has the opportunity to turn her head away.
If she doesn’t, you kiss her.
That’s how you get permission without looking clueless.
@38
What is missing in all these comments, on both sides, is that is that Trump isn’t referring to most or typical women. He is referring (in the hypothetical technically) to starf*ckers. We all know that there are women (and men) who will make themselves far more availaable to a “star” than to a normal person. Circumstances matter. There is no evidence that if he met a woman at the Kennedy Center Honors ceremony he’d be practicing carpe vulvam.
@ Advo #39
What you call clueless, I call being confident and respectful.
My approach is how to ask for permission verbally.
If you are afraid of being perceived as being clueless then by all means take whatever approach of non-verbal communication that you feel leads to minimizing unwanted contact.
Can you point me to the field poll or study of American Women that supports the following:
“Women EXPECT you to understand their non-verbal communication. They don’t like men to be clueless in that regard. If you expressly and openly ask for permission, that’s exactly how you come across.”
Or is this something you just know to be true.
Advo advances the notion that people use communication to communicate. Will A is unconvinced and advances the notion that not understanding communication has no effect on the communicator.
Will, can you read between the lines here and see what I am communicating?
@ Ken B:
Of course there is non-verbal communication and I don’t ask every woman I interact with if I can kiss them.
I don’t always ask before taking the last cookie on a plate if I believe others don’t want it.
I am unconvinced that it is moral to kiss and grope a woman because I think she is non-verbally communicating to me that she wants it.
Non-verbal test: After a nice steak dinner ask her to pull your finger. Always worked for me
@ Ken B #42
Even iceman #44 asks a woman to pull his finger. He doesn’t grab her hand and make her grab and then pull his finger.
@Ken_B:
Where do you get that idea from?
His remarks are framed in a context where they are clearly not limited to SFs.
He is talking about the married woman whom they’re about to meet, who has already rejected his advances:
“Yeah that’s her with the gold. I better use some Tic Tacs just in case I start kissing her. You know I’m automatically attracted to beautiful… I just start kissing them. It’s like a magnet. Just kiss. I don’t even wait. And when you’re a star they let you do it. You can do anything.”
He talks about kissing a married woman who clearly doesn’t want to be kissed by him, and then explains that this for him is his general approach towards beautiful women.
Advo 46
From his words on the tape.
And your quote elides an interjection and question from Bush, which matters. He cites carpe vulvam as an exampleof what star can get away with. That is hypothetical, like he could should someone in the middle of fifth avenue. And it patently does not refer to all women, only those starstruck.
People talk like this was new. The only Rolling Stones album I owned I bought about 1975. The title was Starfucker. Look up the song Star Star.
Will A
*Even* iceman? Is he a known boor or something? He seems a fine fellow to me.
I agree that he is too crazy to be president but, he is a xenophobia, but Hillary Clinton’s public position is quite xenophobia
@ Ken B # 48
I meant no slight to iceman. He started his post by saying “Non-verbal test”.
Perhaps I should have said, “Even iceman #44’s non-verbal test asks …”
@KenB:
Your interpretation is a very big stretch.
You might as well argue that he was talking about grabbing womens’ (pussy) cats.