Get this: According to The New York Times, some wives are threatening to divorce their husbands if the fellows vote for Donald Trump.
The Times featured one couple, a male dentist and a female a doctor, who had never talked much about politics before. When the wife learned her husband was for Trump, she threatened to divorce him and move to Canada.
Sheesh. It makes one long for the good old days when a fellow had to run off with a cocktail waitress before his wife called in the lawyers.
The Federalist shared some interesting insights on The Times article. Journalist Denise C. McAllister argues that in 2016, “you are who you vote for.”
“Why are voters not merely being associated with Trump, but actually and essentially being identified with him, sharing the same characteristics of racism and sexism that have been attached to him (justified or not)?” she writes.
And why, she ponders, do some voters who loathe Trump for what they perceive to be his negative characteristics give Hillary Clinton a free pass with hers?
Hillary does have a long history of habitually telling tale tales. She failed to be a good feminist by aggressively attacking the women her husband was caught having dalliances with. Even an ardent Hillary supporter has to concede that she used her power in the State Department to dole out favors in return for massive contributions to the foundation she and her husband own.
“Looking at Clinton’s sordid history of political and personal corruption, we have a profile of a person who is deeply untrustworthy, selfish and motivated by money, not the general welfare of American citizens,” writes McAllister. “Yet little, if any, stigma is attached to those who are voting for her.”
So why is Trump getting hit so hard whereas Hillary is largely given a free pass? McAllister argues that it is a reflection of the pathetic state of our culture.
“In our society, the Left has effectively shifted our culture’s values away from traditional morals to a specified group of behaviors they deem intolerable above any other,” she writes. “The new commandments are: Thou shalt not be a racist. Thou shalt not be a sexist. Thou shalt not be a homophobe. Anything else is acceptable.”
Being a middle-aged Caucasian male with libertarian leanings, I know I’d be wise to not comment on this matter. But McAllister offers some compelling points.
Free and open societies are supposed to talk freely and openly about common issues and ideas ---- but a fellow can be run out of town on a rail if he is on the “wrong” side of an issue or holds the “wrong” idea.
Too many of our universities, which were founded to foster free and open debate in the pursuit of truth, are now in the indoctrination business. Rather than teaching students how to think, too many are teaching them what to think.
Ironically, it is because of the politically correct groupthink that has infected our culture that Trump became the Republican nominee.
Time and again, during the primaries, he outmaneuvered the groupthink tactics that destroyed many Republicans before him. Many found Trump’s anti-PC persona refreshing.
He’s faltering in the general election, however, and one of the reasons is that lots of otherwise well-educated and thoughtful human beings see him as the devil incarnate at the same time they’re able to look blindly beyond Hillary’s peccadilloes.
So if you’re a husband who plans to vote for Trump, you better lie about it ---- unless you want your wife to divorce you and move to Canada.
Tom Purcell is a Pittsburgh Tribune-Review humor columnist. Send comments to Tom at Tom@TomPurcell.com