Loser Trump: Uniquely Awful and at the Tipping Point

POLITICS-Does Tuesday’s election of Doug Jones as Alabama’s first Democratic U.S. Senator in more than two decades signal the beginning of the end for Donald Trump? Have enough voters who embraced Trump’s anti-Washington rhetoric finally awakened from the fevered dream of draining the swamp? Or was the defeat of Roy Moore an electoral aberration? 

Lots of pundits—left, right, and otherwise—buy the aberration theory. This was a perfect storm of a special election featuring internecine warfare among Republicans, a candidate whose reputation could not be much worse, and a Democratic opponent who had the good sense not to alienate anybody. Even so, Doug Jones won by less than two percent. I suspect if Moore’s accusers had all been 18 or older, the outcome would have been different.

The Alabama senate race was conducted in the glare of the national spotlight. A glare cast as the result of a constant flow of accusations against media and political figures whose abuse of (primarily, but not exclusively) women is finally being exposed. Bad behavior is not partisan. Democrats and Republicans have been forced from office. And yet, only a handful of GOP officeholders condemned Moore’s actions. If anyone needs proof that today’s Republican party is willing to deal with the devil, this is it.

Maybe America has reached the point where even Donald Trump is no longer immune. While special prosecutor Robert Mueller and his team continue to accumulate evidence against Trump campaign operatives, perhaps the real danger to the current occupant of the White House is his history of misogynistic behavior.

On Monday, a group of women who have accused Trump of sexual harassment and assault held a press conference to demand an investigation of his actions. Trump denies ever having met any of the women and essentially brands them as liars. Apparently, he believes he will continue getting away with it. As if to prove the point, he tweeted an attack on New York Senator Kirsten Gillibrand, suggesting she would do “anything” for money.

Last week, Trump’s approval rating dropped to 32 percent. This is the lowest of any president since pollsters began tracking approval during the Truman administration. Trump is less popular than Truman during the Korean War, Johnson during Vietnam, Nixon during Watergate, Carter during the Iran hostage crisis, and Bush following Hurricane Katrina. Not only has Trump achieved this dubious honor; he did it in record time, less than a year into his term.

On the Wednesday following Moore’s loss, USA Today published an editorial calling Trump “uniquely awful.” A national publication with a reputation sticking to the middle of the road when it comes to politics, USA Today also wrote, “A president who would all but call Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand a whore is not fit to clean the toilets in the Barack Obama Presidential Library or to shine the shoes of George W. Bush.”

Whether Trump’s continuing slump is due to Robert Mueller’s investigation or any of the numerous female accusers or a combination of both or any of a number of other factors is the province of pollsters and historians. Whatever the reason or reasons, we might be near the tipping point.