In case you’ve just awoken from a years-long coma, Donald Trump is now the president. Yeah, I know! But it’s true. And even though he now sits in the Oval Office, he still has a habit of crudely insulting pretty much anybody who criticizes him.* It’s one of the things his voters seem to like about him — “He fights!” — and it’s taken him all the way to the White House. Why would he change things up now? It’s just what he does. It’s Trump being Trump.
You’d think our moral, ethical, and intellectual betters in the press would be used to it by now, but they’re not. It drives them crazy, which is another thing Trump voters like. The press can’t get him to stop throwing out putdowns, because every time he says something to piss them off, his ratings jump 10 points. None of the old rules apply to him, and none of the old tactics stop him.
Not even the Democrats’ absolute favorite tactic of all, their last resort and also their first: the flat-out accusation of racism.
Joe Ruiz at CNN (booooo!) reports:
President Donald Trump mocked California Rep. Maxine Waters during a freewheeling speech Saturday night, saying she had a “very low IQ…”
“Did you ever see her? Did you ever see her? ‘We will impeach him. We will impeach the president,'” Trump said before telling the crowd he hadn’t done anything wrong.
“‘It doesn’t matter, we will impeach him.’ She’s a low IQ individual,” Trump said.
Now, just because Trump slams all of his critics, no matter what color they are, that doesn’t mean the Democrats are going to let him get away with treating a black person the same way he treats everybody else. Look no further than America’s second-favorite Jon Favreau, the one who wrote speeches for Obama and now has a podcast and didn’t direct Iron Man:
The President went to Pennsylvania, singled out a black Congresswoman from California, and called her stupid.
That’s not race-baiting. That’s racist.
— Jon Favreau (@jonfavs) March 11, 2018
Did you get that? Insulting Maxine Waters’ intelligence is racist because she’s black. You need to give her preferential treatment, no matter what she says and does, or else you’re a bigot. Equal ain’t nothin’ but a sugar substitute.
And Favreau must be right, or he wouldn’t have gotten all those likes and retweets!
This is all very strange, considering how scornful Favreau can be about black people who don’t share his political opinions. Check out these doozies from the 2016 campaign:
Ben Carson has the best mushrooms
— Jon Favreau (@jonfavs) December 16, 2015
I’m sure glad Ben Carson fired those staffers who advised him to look incredibly stoned during the last debate. Look out, field.
— Jon Favreau (@jonfavs) December 31, 2015
Ben Carson’s closing statement https://t.co/wazPt8drTA
— Jon Favreau (@jonfavs) January 29, 2016
I love that Ben Carson gives us all a few second break every now and then
— Jon Favreau (@jonfavs) February 14, 2016
It’s almost as if he’s saying Ben Carson is dumb.
But that’s different, because Favreau is a Democrat and Carson is a Republican. Mocking the brain surgeon’s intelligence isn’t racist, and it won’t be until the day Carson decides to switch political parties.
No matter how many dumb things Auntie Maxine says, we mustn’t point out that she’s a complete idiot. Her blithering ignorance and thundering stupidity are completely off-limits, as long as she remains a Democrat. Quoting her lamebrained utterances is racist, and using them to mock her is super-duper-racist. You must not do things like this, never ever:
You won’t get away with this sort of derisive personal attack as long as Maxine Waters has a (D) after her name. It’s racist, and you’re a racist, you racist. Racist, racist, racist, racist, racist. #Racist
And people still wonder why Trump won?
It’s just exhausting. I’m sure a case can be made that Donald Trump is a racist. If you want to comb through everything he’s ever said and done, you can probably find evidence for that. But calling a self-evidently stupid person a “low-IQ individual” is not racist just because she’s black. Maxine Waters would be dumb as hell even if she were as white as Nancy Pelosi.
In which case, criticizing her would merely be sexist.
*Except for Eminem. Probably because Eminem keeps begging him to hit back. Bad idea, considering how much Trump thrives on spite.
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