For the past nine months, a surefire escape phrase has gotten me out of political discussions. My friends will tell you that I hate conflict, despise politics and do my very best to abstain from ever voicing an opinion on the race to the Oval Office.
What has been my strategy? A simple shrug, accompanied by this demure, barely audible sentence: “You know, worse things could happen than Donald Trump.”
So far it has worked quite well. Autopilot brings this familiar phrase to my mouth any time political debate rears its divisive head, and I have avoided many a quarrel by displaying an attitude of apathy — with a sprinkle of nonchalance — in the face of conflict. In the past nine months, no matter what has spewed from the mouth of this billionaire Independent cloaked in Republican garb, I have held my ground.
On June 16, 2015, Trump infamously proposed his plan for a new Great Wall, with which to keep the “drug dealers and rapists” from Mexico at bay.
Eh, worse things could happen than Donald Trump.
On June 28, 2015, Trump went on CNN to clarify his previous statements by saying that he “loves the Mexican people and does business with the Mexican people,” but at the same time, those people are coming from all over, and they are “bad. They’re really bad.”
Still, worse things could happen than Donald Trump.
On Aug. 6, 2015, Trump faced the fury of feminists when he implied that debate moderator Megyn Kelly’s “ridiculous questions” were a result of her menstruation. “You could see there was blood coming out of her eyes,” Trump said. “Blood coming out of her wherever.”
Could have been a misunderstanding, right? Right. Worse things could happen than Donald Trump.
On Sept. 9, 2015, in an interview with Rolling Stone, Trump mocked the physical appearance of former candidate Carly Fiorina, saying he could not imagine anyone voting for “that face.”
As someone who believes that Fiorina is a very beautiful woman, as well as someone who simply acknowledges the individual beauty of all women, I was put out by this comment. But it’s still safe to say that worse things could happen than Donald Trump.
Megyn Kelly may have thought her interactions with Trump would be minimal and impersonal after their first falling out. However, last Friday on Twitter, Trump called for a boycott of Kelly’s Fox News show, saying that it is “never worth watching,” and she is “sick and the most overrated person on TV.”
There comes a point in which, after I have said something over and over again, even I can no longer believe it. Because here’s the nugget of wisdom in all this: if I have to repeat the same pacifistic statement for months on end, it is probably because I can’t quite convince myself that it is true.
I have been taken for a ride of sorts. I have spent a long time avoiding conflict by shrugging off a situation much more serious than I would allow it to be in my mind. Don’t get me wrong; worse things could happen than Donald Trump. There could be floods. There could be fires. Someone could steal the filling from every Hot Pocket in the world, leaving us biting into empty carbohydrates.
But this is no excuse to ignore the obvious. Some people are fit, or at least competent, or at least marginally qualified, to lead a nation. Some people are not.
I think we know in which category Trump belongs.
