3-4-5
Three marriages. Four bankruptcies. Five military deferments.
This is part of the picture of the United States that will be presented to the world if Donald Trump becomes its president. Alone, each may not be remarkable in any way, but taken together, I feel it may be a disturbing picture indeed.
Marriage, I realize, isn’t what it used to be sixty years ago when I married my own wife, but I do remember saying something about “’til death do us part.” However, stuff happens and sometimes things just don’t work out. I still feel marriage demands a sense of commitment and three of them don’t seem to demonstrate this.
Bankruptcies used to be a signal of failure, but lately they’ve been used as a legal means of avoiding responsibility by preventing creditors from taking what you owe them. I view bankruptcy as an ethical lapse and Mr. Trump has had four of them.
Serving one’s country is a duty and getting five of them seems to show a certain reluctance to do so. In the days of the Korean conflict, we called them “draft dodgers,” unjustly or not. In any case, I think that draft deferments, like the ones used by Vice-president Cheney during Vietnam, indicates a lack of courage as well as a certain amount of unscrupulous manipulation of the system.
The first person I voted for in a presidential election was Dwight D. Eisenhower, a member of the Republican Party, like Mr. Trump. He was married once, had no bankruptcies and, rather than ducking the draft, commanded our armed forces in World War II, led the world in the defeat of Hitler, served as head of one of our leading universities and became a two-term president of the United States. One marriage. No bankruptcies. 1-0-0.
Times have changed, especially the Republican Party — and the United States.
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