MAN CARD

The most ironic event I recall ever seeing in my life was Donald Trump accusing Hillary Clinton of playing the “woman card”. Mr. Trump stated that Mrs. Clinton is receiving votes in the Democratic presidential primary only because she is a woman, saying, “If Hillary Clinton were a man, I don't think she'd get 5 percent of the vote … the only thing she's got going is the woman's card.”

The irony, which rivals anything I've ever seen in the writing of O'Henry, is obvious. The only thing Donald Trump has going for him is the “man card”. Apart from presenting himself as a powerful alpha male who can magically solve all our problems, Mr. Trump has no qualifications whatsoever for the position of President of the United States.

• He seems to have no concept that he's running for president, not emperor. He seems to be unaware that the president has to work with the Congress, under constraints set by the Supreme Court. ^Note 1
   
• He has no military experience that might help him take on the position of Commander in Chief of the US Armed Forces.
   
• He appears to be completely ignorant in the field of foreign policy.
   
• He has no political experience - the Presidency would be his first public office.
   
• Business success is not necessarily a recommendation for the position of president. But Donald Trump actually hasn't been particularly successful as a businessman. A much-circulated article by Dylan Matthews estimates he would be wealthier today if he had simply invested his inherited money in Standard & Poor index funds.

He's also a truly awful person. The Huffington Post has been adding the following to all stories about Trump:

Meanwhile, in stark contrast to Donald Trump, Hillary Clinton actually is qualified to be President. She spent eight years in the U.S. Senate, serving on the Armed Service Committee, and on other committees on the budget, the environment, transportation, health, workplace safety, pensions, and children, families and the aging. She served as Secretary of State in the Obama administration from 2009 to 2013. Of course, that was the second time she had worked closely within a Presidential administration, as she had been deeply involved in the administration of her husband Bill.

Prior to the 2008 Presidential primaries, my sister Alice Krakauer wrote, on a website called Alpha Watch '08, "While pundits struggle to understand, biology has its way with us. We're wired to follow an alpha -- one who's virile, charismatic, and confidence-inspiring. We ally with the candidate in whose posse we want to be, the one who'd have our back. Our thoughts rationalize our choice, they don't determine it."

As the nomination of Donald Trump shows, those words are just as true today. While I wouldn't personally call Trump "virile, charismatic, and confidence-inspiring", that does seem to be how he's perceived by his supporters.
 

Note 1:   Trump's speeches rival those of Sarah Palin for lack of meaningful content. Here are some excerpts from his speech after winning the Indiana primary on May 3, 2016. Click here to see a video of the entire speech, and click here for a transcript. Note the constant assertions that he will somehow make everything great, with absolutely no indication as to how these things might be accomplished:

"We are going to make America great again. That's what our country needs - we have to win again, we have to know how to win, and we haven't won. We have been losing all the time. We lose with our military. We can't beat ISIS. We lose with trade. We lose with borders. We lose with everything. We are not going to lose. We're going to start winning again

We're going to get those miners back to work. Let me tell you, the miners in West Virginia and Pennsylvania, which was so great to me, Ohio, and all over, they are going to start to work again, believe me. You're going to be proud again to be miners.

We're not going to let Carrier and all of these companies just think they can move, just go to another country, make their product, sell it back to us and we only get only one thing, we get unemployment. Not going to happen any more, folks ... We are going to bring back our jobs and we are going to keep our jobs. We are not going to let companies leave

So we're going to have unbelievably good relationships with other countries. They're going to end up liking us better than they do right now. They are going to respect us. ... You know, it is a two-way street. And the two-way street means we are going down one side and they are coming up the other. And we're going to meet and we are going to have something that is going to be really fabulous.

We're going to build up our military bigger, better, stronger than ever before. It's the cheapest thing we can do. We're going to have to take out ISIS, and we're going to have to take them out fast.

We're going to have unbelievably great relationships with the Hispanics, the Hispanics have been so incredible to me.

We're going to bring back our jobs and we're going to save our jobs and people are going to have great jobs again.

And this country, which is very, very divided in so many different ways is going to become one beautiful, loving country. And we're going to love each other, we're going to cherish each other, we're going to take care of each other, and we're going to have great economic developments.

I won with women. I love winning with women.

You will be so proud of this country, very, very soon."   [return to text]