Each day, we hear support and rationalizations from Donald Trump\u2019s surrogates and various fellow Republicans concerning his extreme, impulsive, and threatening conduct and speech. What does it say, however, when Trump repeatedly claims that the election is rigged due to \u201cwidespread\u201d voter fraud and then refuses to say if he will accept the results if he loses? Yet, he offers no solid evidence, instead forming his own reality. What does it mean when reporters, correspondents, and political writers have been receiving and chronicling unprecedented levels of death threats from Trump supporters and right-wing extremists, and some have had to employ police escorts and bodyguards? What does it portend when Trump\u2019s campaign has inspired followers to wear T-shirts full of foul and violent language and rallies in which they chant \u201cLock her up!\u201d in unison for many, many minutes, demanding that the government jail his opponent?<\/p>\n
It means, primarily, that the United States is facing one of the most consequential presidential elections in the country\u2019s history. Make no mistake that the very rule of law and constitutional functioning of the United States federal republic are at stake.<\/p>\n
The third presidential debate of Trump versus Democrat Hillary Clinton on Wednesday night, Oct. 19, encapsulated so much of what is troubling about the Republican candidate and about his campaign. He again displayed a disregard for the truth, as when he said he didn\u2019t know Vladimir Putin, which PolitiFact has rated false (a “Full Flop<\/a>“) given his prior statements. Most disturbing, Trump made clear that his own ego comes above the peaceful transition of governmental power: He refused to say he would accept the election results, and instead told moderator Chris Wallace, \u201cI will keep you in suspense, OK?\u201d This is a response suitable for a TV reality show, but it\u2019s an irresponsible, perilous stance for a presidential candidate in a democratic election. His statements in questioning the bedrock principles and the integrity of the election have reverberated across the country. Historians noted that Trump’s contentions in advance of an election may well be unprecedented, according to the Washington Post<\/em>.<\/a><\/p>\n Mindfulwalker.com joins many publications nationwide in urging the sound defeat of Trump and the election of Hillary Clinton as the 45th U.S. president. With Trump, this country risks having an extremely ill-suited, xenophobic, misogynistic, authoritarian, and damaged person assume the highest office of the land, with the power of the presidency and the nuclear codes in his control.<\/p>\n No wonder many, many citizens feel more frightened and distressed at this prospect than they have felt about any major party presidential candidate during their lifetimes. I know I do. This election season has been painful, and in many ways, a blight upon U.S. electoral politics. Why haven\u2019t more Republican officials rejected their party\u2019s candidate? The Clinton campaign has been far from blameless in the disheartening level of dialogue at times. To be sure, many voters feel legitimate concerns about incomes that aren’t keeping pace and the displacement that has come from an economy that has lost manufacturing jobs while gaining jobs in services<\/a>.<\/p>\n Yet even with some reservations and concerns, I wholeheartedly endorse Clinton as someone well-qualified and worthy of support to become the next president. On the other hand, the idea of Trump as president is alarming. That Trump has gotten this far \u2013 to become the presidential nominee of a major party \u2013 and that so many Americans (including a sizable number of GOP officeholders) still see fit to back him are as disturbing as his actions.<\/p>\n This is a seminal moment: Even if Trump goes down to defeat and Clinton becomes president, what then? Beyond an endorsement of Clinton, here are some key bottom lines of this disturbing election season and what they signal to the nation and world.<\/p>\n The concerns and polarized attitudes have been enflamed for months, and in some ways years. Still, they became even more intense after the Washington Post<\/em> on Oct. 7 released a video clip of Trump conversing on a hot mic, captured prior to a 2005 Access Hollywood <\/em>taping, which showed him bragging to show host Billy Bush about sexually predatory actions toward women. In the two weeks since then, major media outlets have published the accounts of 10 women<\/a> who have alleged Trump had engaged in unwanted sexual advances toward them. Trump has countered that the women have all made up the allegations.<\/p>\n Two speeches on Thursday, Oct.13 reflected the vastly different views of this issue and of this election. First Lady Michelle Obama delivered a speech as morally and emotionally powerful as any in a generation. Her speech<\/a> resonated with many, from its opening minutes when she talked of her response to hearing what Trump said on the video: \u201cAnd I have to tell you that I can\u2019t stop thinking about this. It has shaken me to my core in a way that I couldn\u2019t have predicted.\u201d<\/p>\n Michelle Obama\u2019s speech was moving and on-target, dismissing any portrayals of Trump\u2019s and Bush\u2019s conversation as simply \u201clocker-room talk\u201d; terming the lewd conversation as \u201cdisgraceful\u201d and \u201cintolerable\u201d; calling out its violence and disrespect; and saying that the men she knows do not treat women this way. \u201cIf all of this is painful to us as grown women, what do you think this is doing to our children?\u201d the First Lady said. \u201cWhat messages are our little girls hearing about who they should look like, how they should act? What lessons are they learning about their value as professionals, as human beings, about their dreams and aspirations?\u201d<\/p>\n