It’s a very tough time.
It has been awful. Let’s not kid ourselves!
But last night, when that big, hulking bully literally stalked Hillary Clinton on the debate stage, I reached a new level of contempt and disgust.
The moderators did what they could to keep the conversation fairly timed and on focus, but I so wish one of them had said, “Mr. Trump? What are you doing? Are you trying to physically dwarf and intimidate your opponent right now? SIT YOUR ASS DOWN.”
That national conversation today is heavily focused on male violation of women’s boundaries. Follow the #notokay hashtag on Twitter.
There will be people in your spiritual care who excuse Trump and justify his behavior or try to compare it to Bill Clinton’s. I hope that nothing will prevent you from saying exactly what you think to those people no matter who they are, no matter how venerable, no matter how much they pledge, no matter how much you’d prefer to spare both of you a difficult conversation. Unless you have evidence that they’re actually not in their right mind — in which case you should ignore them — this is an opportunity for conversation.
Thanks, Donald, I guess, for inspiring countless sermons on consent, “locker room” conversation and why it degrades everyone who participates in it as well as those who are the subject of it, and stalking.
Did you happen to catch Trump calling Hillary Clinton the DEVIL? I didn’t catch it but a friend of mine did. I was too busy hyperventilating at Der Trumpster’s threatening to imprison her. Jesus, he is a pathetic, unhinged dude.
Hang in there, good people!
One particular aspect from the debate that has been bothering me like a stone in my shoe today (out of so, so much that is so terribly wrong about the rise of Trump) is his phrase “locker room talk.” Not in my locker room! I’ve been in locker rooms for years, played sports in high school and college, then changing at the Y or for exercise classes, etc. I don’t talk like that and I haven’t heard talk like that in all those locker rooms. Most recently, a few days ago I was in a locker room with my preschooler so she could change for swimming lessons, which she is excited about. It was a pleasant utilitarian space, shared with grandmotherly-looking women there for a water exercise class. Obviously on the surface it’s ridiculous of him and his sycophants to try to gloss over his venomous hate speech with the phrase “locker room talk,” but it’s even more diabolical upon reflection because it’s not an innocuous phrase at all: the excuse itself undercuts what should be a safe space for women (or anyone) about to engage in joyous, healthy God-given freedom of movement. It harks back to a pre-Title 9 world, back when women could not even run the Boston marathon legally…
I know, just one tiny terrible detail among so much that is so wrong.