Trump may have a mental disorder ("Trump's Mental Disorder-It's Time The Media Investigates"; McAdams, "The Mind of Donald Trump"), though Hillary only tells us he is "temperamentally unfit" to be president.
The media refuses to recognize Trump's possible disorder and, instead, uses synonyms or adjectives to describe his daily offerings, such as, he doesn't get it; he doesn't understand; he knows better; it's his strategies like telling Republicans to keep quiet and he will do it alone; he does not understand; the press is racist, not him; he will build a wall across our southern border; President Obama is complicit in terrorism in what occurred in Orlando; jurists of Mexican, Muslim heritage, or even women on the bench cannot be fair and impartial to him and his positions; instructing his campaign to refuse press credentials for the Washington Post; his campaign also talking about a Trump media empire; telling us it is none of our business what is in his tax returns; and not letting any of the billion+ Muslims worldwide into our country. This list continues to grow daily despite its common denominators of being disgusting, dangerous and yet at the same time delusional. As columnist Steve Chapman of the Chicago Tribune has written (Perspective, "Why people vote for Trump-The enduring appeal of false hopes" (June 16, 2016, p. 17)), "Even when he's [Trump] reading prepared speeches, they consist of clouds of verbal smoke."
But more incredulous is that Trump supporters believe his behavior does not fall in line with the worst of the world's leaders. Examples include Benito Mussolini, the Italian dictator and founder of fascism; Adolph Hitler who was responsible for the murder of millions; and Muammar al-Gaddafi, the Libyan revolutionary ruling by his own decree, nationalizing the oil industry and creating sharia as the basis for the legal system in Libya. Each was despicable in his own way(s) that history has detailed in great measure in countless words, books, stories and headlines over the decades. History has given us other despots that have ruled similarly throughout the world. But each arose to power based on stoking fears of the populace; lies; mistruths; half-truths; the importance of self and self-expression rather than country; and controlling what the electorate receives through a free press.
And we can't forget the actions of Sen. Joe McCarthy and his "McCarthyism", coined in 1950 in reference to the fears that he stoked of Communists and Soviet spies and sympathizers inside our government and elsewhere. Look at the lives and careers his actions ruined. Sounds awfully familiar now that Trump is suggesting the consideration of racial profiling.
We are now on the precipice of adding Donald J. Trump to all this lineage... unless either the Republican Party or, more likely, the American electorate come November's elections does something about him never rising to leadership of the free world.
While imposed by the 1942 order of FDR after the bombing of Pearl Harbor, the title to this piece also references the Japanese internment camps during World War II, the forced relocation and incarceration in camps in the interior of the country. This affected roughly 110,000 to 120,000 individuals of Japanese ancestry that lived on the Pacific coast, 62% of which were United States citizens. There was even an admission (made in 2007) that the U.S. census Bureau aided in the internment by providing confidential neighborhood information on Japanese Americans. Finding out decades later, history now tells us the internment was considered more the result of racism than any security risk posed by Japanese Americans. [One of these individuals as a child was actor George Takei of Star Trek fame (Sulu)]. All this sounds quite familiar in today's terms, just substitute what Trump is saying about Muslim Americans and Muslims worldwide for those whose heritage was Japanese in the 1940s. Must we not learn from history to never repeat it?
Yet, the media has given short shrift to the underpinnings of this dangerous elixir -- a possible mental disorder combined with unwarranted self-indulgence, incompetence, tyrannical behavior, and incomprehensible-and without foundation-preaching called the Republican presumptive presidential nominee. It is time once and for all to call out the media, and for the media to then report, that Trump is inimical to a society and country built on immigrants and inclusiveness. Yes, to be sure, we must be observant, protective and vigilant of our freedoms and security inside the shores bounding our country. But we don't do it with racism, bigotry and self-worth without any credibility. Trump, however, now stands to align himself with those leaders called or shown to have been unfit to lead in countries outside our borders.
A critical investigation into Trump by the media by comparing him to those vicious rulers that have gone before -- as a measuring stick -- is necessary and prudent if Americans are to be educated and informed before election day. We are all tired of the Media, as is true with Republican leadership, of going on bended knee to Trump without such a critical examination.
Never again Mussolini, Hitler, Gaddafi, McCarthy, Japanese internment camps. Never again Donald J. Trump.