George Will: Trump has a dangerous disability

[babylonsister]

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/trump-has-a-dangerous-disability/2017/05/03/56ca6118-2f6b-11e7-9534-00e4656c22aa_story.html?utm_term=.58a09a7bab58

Trump has a dangerous disability
By George F. Will Opinion writer May 3 at 7:36 PM


It is urgent for Americans to think and speak clearly about President Trump’s inability to do either. This seems to be not a mere disinclination but a disability. It is not merely the result of intellectual sloth but of an untrained mind bereft of information and married to stratospheric self-confidence.

snip//

What is most alarming (and mortifying to the University of Pennsylvania, from which he graduated) is not that Trump has entered his eighth decade unscathed by even elementary knowledge about the nation’s history. As this column has said before, the problem isn’t that he does not know this or that, or that he does not know that he does not know this or that. Rather, the dangerous thing is that he does not know what it is to know something.

The United States is rightly worried that a strange and callow leader controls North Korea’s nuclear arsenal. North Korea should reciprocate this worry. Yes, a 70-year-old can be callow if he speaks as sophomorically as Trump did when explaining his solution to Middle Eastern terrorism: “I would bomb the s--- out of them. . . . I’d blow up the pipes, I’d blow up the refineries, I’d blow up every single inch, there would be nothing left.”

As a candidate, Trump did not know what the nuclear triad is. Asked about it, he said: “We have to be extremely vigilant and extremely careful when it comes to nuclear. Nuclear changes the whole ballgame.” Invited to elaborate, he said: “I think — I think, for me, nuclear is just the power, the devastation is very important to me.” Someone Trump deemed fit to be a spokesman for him appeared on television to put a tasty dressing on her employer’s word salad: “What good does it do to have a good nuclear triad if you’re afraid to use it?” To which a retired Army colonel appearing on the same program replied with amazed asperity: “The point of the nuclear triad is to be afraid to use the damn thing.”

As president-elect, Trump did not know the pedigree and importance of the one-China policy. About such things he can be, if he is willing to be, tutored. It is, however, too late to rectify this defect: He lacks what T.S. Eliot called a sense “not only of the pastness of the past, but of its presence.” His fathomless lack of interest in America’s path to the present and his limitless gullibility leave him susceptible to being blown about by gusts of factoids that cling like lint to a disorderly mind.

Americans have placed vast military power at the discretion of this mind, a presidential discretion that is largely immune to restraint by the Madisonian system of institutional checks and balances. So, it is up to the public to quarantine this presidency by insistently communicating to its elected representatives a steady, rational fear of this man whose combination of impulsivity and credulity render him uniquely unfit to take the nation into a military conflict.

[Orrex]

1. Sez one of the lead cheerleaders for the GOP swamp that led to Trump's election.

Glad to have you on board, George, but you're about 37 years too late.

[babylonsister]

2. I'm glad he's on board now. He might still have a few

conservatives who will actually listen/read his column.

[OregonBlue]

30. To his credit, Will has never been a Trump supporter. He's one of the few "smart" ones who has

been appalled by a Trump presidency from the beginning. Not appalled enough to leave the party of course but pretty darned appalled.

[ginnyinWI]

34. I thought he had left the party.

Or maybe that was David Brooks?

[OregonBlue]

44. I didn't realize he actually left. I hear him offering a lot of criticism of the current bunch of

fools but didn't realize he was no longer GOP.

[Blue_true]

53. Will left the Republican Party. Brooks claims he was always an Indy. nt

[tblue37]

40. He did leave the party, but like all the other "rational" GOP "wise men,"

he helped lay the groundwork that made possible W, Palin, and Cheato. Without his and other pundits' decades of GOP BS, the low-info and misinformed voters would not be so ignorant, confused, and illogically angry at all the wrong people and all the wrong things .

[sharedvalues]

3. +1 billion!!!

[ProfessorGAC]

5. One My Least Favorite Columnists

His pedantic tone while espousing intellectually vacuous notions is galling.

[Orrex]

7. He's the smartest commentator in the business

Just ask him.

[ProfessorGAC]

12. Good One!

I find it amusing that he is the one talking about someone who doesn't know what he doesn't know.

[Mr.Bill]

56. George Will is articulate,

not necessarily intelligent. The former is often mistaken for the latter.

[Orrex]

57. Indeed I have often fooled people with exactly that same trickery

Of course, I'm not a Conservative hack pulling seven figures, but that's my misfortune.

[Scarsdale]

46. Right on!

He NEVER found anything good about President Obama, yet he STILL cheered on tRump. Too little, too late.

[calimary]

47. Yeah, no kidding. Too late to do much to turn this around, I suspect.

That God-forsaken side of the aisle won't pay any attention to guys like him now. They've stopped listening to somebody like him, who's finally had his "come-to-Jesus" moment. He's not officially "one of them" anymore. No longer just another in a continuing series of useful-idiot mouthpieces.

[Orrex]

49. It a lot like a "remorseful" Trump voter

Now that he's usurped the office, they claim that they regret their votes, not least because they've realized that he's hell-bent on destroying everyone outside of the 1%.

Will is doing much the same, in effect wanting to have it both ways. He can play the curmudgeon and cry about the horrors of Trump, but unless he's personally going to impeach Trump, then he can shut the hell up. Granted, he posted some screeds against Trump in the run-up to the election, but I don't recall him penning any pro-Clinton declarations, either.


Strictly speaking, very little is visible now that wasn't plainly visible before they cast their ballots, but somehow they all had their epiphanies after it was too late to do anything about it. Well, fuck them. Fuck every last one of those stupid racist fuckheads. Fuck them.

[erronis]

59. The nice thing about being a repuglican - you don't have to be rational. Just say right words. /

[sharedvalues]

4. Will's smart - the Penn angle is interesting

One way to amplify the message of cognitive disability could be through Penn.

Penn must be VERY afraid of a PR disaster. Imagine if many people started saying "Penn admitted someone who is this morally and intellectually flawed??". That would be a trainwreck for Penn and would damage their ability to recruit top students. Penn would have to fight back in the press -- which would only raise the profile of the cognitive disability.

So if people want to get this president out, they can start saying "Penn admitted someone who is this morally and intellectually flawed?? Penn must only care about money, and must let in any rich student."

[former9thward]

8. I doubt a university is responsible for a 70 year old when they educated him at 18-22.

If universities are held to account for every graduate for their entire lives there would not be a single university that would make it out alive.

[VOX]

13. Universities track their "distinguished" alums like hungry beasts...

It all comes back to fundraising and MONEY. Successful alums are always tracked for multi-million-dollar naming gifts, scholarships, etc. Having an alum become president of the U.S. is a very big deal for that school. The image-boosting name is included in student materials, alumni publications, donor newsletters, etc. Eventually, a university often grants an honorary doctorate or an aumnus of the year award. That makes for many events, to which many influential friends of the honoree would attend-- all of it done with fundraising in mind.

Of course, none of the above will apply to #45, a first-class, loudmouth jerk who's pretty toxic in terms of generating any good feelings, unless history is completely rewritten sometime in the future.

[Missn-Hitch]

23. Haha! I keep picturing him on the Penn Newsletter. The one from Trump Steaks.

[DFW]

67. As a Penn alum, I agree

I never even knew Trump was a fellow Penn alum until it was mentioned in the 2016 campaign. The University alumni communications I received certainly never made such a big deal out of Trump having gone there that I ever saw anything about it.

The high school in Massachusetts I graduated from made a bigger deal about W when he was awarded the presidency in December 2000. They got a LOT less proud of it as his presidency turned into a catastrophe. Ironic historical note--his dad, also an alum, was the one who gave me my "alumni interview." You could tell that Bush, Sr. had bad judgment--he recommended they let me in!

[NewJeffCT]

16. since it was a different era back then

did Daddy Trump make a nice donation to Penn to ensure little Donny got into the school? Back then, if you had wealthy donor parents, you could skate by not attending classes and still get the "Gentleman's C" as a grade in all your classes.

[tblue37]

41. W's daddy's money and political power bought W two Ivy League degrees,

even though his peers said he skipped class and horsed around in the back when he did bother to show up.

[NewJeffCT]

45. not sure if it's true or not

but, W was supposedly rejected by the University of Texas, so he decided to go to Harvard instead...

[Nay]

18. Oh, please. It's a well-known fact that ALL universities admit iffy applicants in

order to siphon off some of the family's money. No university is going to get a black eye for tolerating a Trump. Plenty of rich idiots/psychopaths/amoral people have marched through college.

[SharonAnn]

24. It's not that they admitted him, it's that they graduated him.

[MrPurple]

54. Trump commuted to Penn every day while living in NYC and working for his father

He transferred to Penn in his junior year, I think. One of his lies (it's easier to point out things he says that aren't lies) was that he said that he graduated top in his class at Penn, but when the dean's list was reviewed, he wasn't on it a single semester that he attended. Given everything in his disposition, I doubt he focused on school work much at all and was passed through doing next to nothing.

[Barack_America]

66. Bush didn't kill Yale. Penn will be just fine, says this alumni.

[janterry]

6. While this is very well written and incisive

I'm more interested in why our Congress is so broken. Many (perhaps most) of the republicans deplore Trump - and yet they continue to make peace with their devil...............
How can we continue as a democracy if there is no check on insanity? They know he is unfit - and yet they remain silent. They need to be held accountable on our opinion pages, too. There is no excuse for what they are allowing.

[Missn-Hitch]

25. I think winning a few more seats in 2018 will send a "clearer" message to Congress.

[janterry]

31. Yes

[pangaia]

9. Said the pompous, self-righteous asshole.

Well Will, you got that right,.
But you could have said it in about 25 words. It's not like you're getting paid by the word, don'tcha know.

[ginnyinWI]

35. oh but I loved reading every word!

I like the way he writes.

[pangaia]

42. Actually he is a good wordsmith.

Ever read MEN AT WORK?

[VOX]

10. File under: "No Shit, George"...

The dreaded liberal left (gasp!) knew this guy was a seething head-case years ago when he was delving into birther crap with paranoiac zeal. Glad you could make it to the club, finally...now that he's PRESIDENT. Thanks a pantload.

[malaise]

11. He is part of the problem as are all ReTHUGs but this is true

an untrained mind bereft of information and married to stratospheric self-confidence.

[Generic Other]

14. For once we agree on something

Strange times. Strange bedfellows.

[Gothmog]

15. When a GOP type loses George Will, they are in trouble

[Missn-Hitch]

26. He left the GOP when The Executive Producer of The Apprentice became the nominee.

[calimary]

48. Well, there's "left the GOP" and there's "left the GOP."

If he still votes with them and supports them over Democrats (or hell, any other party or group for that matter), then he hasn't really "left the GOP." As Rachel keeps reminding: "Don't listen to what they say. Watch what they DO."

[erronis]

60. As always, cutting to the quick. And what they DO is much less obvious

Shrouded behind a lot of proxies. We can't follow the money anymore. Who is really paying George Will to make these statements?

Random twits and posts and editorial comments on ru.com have become the way for a group to try to influence the real world.

Personally I never felt that Will or a lot of other left/right blowhards were real people. Their POV depended on the moneybags, or in the case of raving fanatics their own loopy brain circuits.

Mea culpas from 70+ year-old pundits are worth their weight in dried-up poop.

[babylonsister]

63. Well, Will wrote a good article. And that's what he does. nt

[BumRushDaShow]

17. "he does not know what it is to know something."

"he does not know care what it is to know something."

Fixed.

[GoCubsGo]

19. You know we're screwed when this asshole becomes a bedfellow.

[WinkyDink]

20. George Will has a dangerous liability: He thinks the Republican Party is somehow un-Trumplike.

[Sunlei]

21. I don't believe trumps resume, I don't think he could even pass a high school level class.

University of Pennsylvania records and where was Donald exactly during those years?

[WinkyDink]

70. Let's not be silly.

[3catwoman3]

22. I do like the "intellectual sloth"...

...and "stratospheric self-confidence" descriptions.

[Bernardo de La Paz]

27. What tRump DOES know is that he doesn't want to learn anything. No study, no work, all golf.

Instead of a briefing book on every issue, he gets ONE PAGE. There must be bullet items. There must be no more than 9 points maximum.

[Bernardo de La Paz]

28. tRump only knows whatever someone told him in the last ten minutes.

So he goes from one extreme to the opposite.

"We are behind NATO 100%."
"NATO is obsolete."

[Mike Nelson]

29. Spot on...

...I trust Will's essay included praise for Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton pointing the unfitness out earlier.

[Danmel]

32. This quote sums it up

“The fundamental cause of the trouble in the modern world today is that the stupid are cocksure while the intelligent are full of doubt.”—Bertrand Russell.

[ginnyinWI]

33. + 100!

This guy may be a conservative, but he very articulately describes the dilemma we face with this man. Mic drop!

[yellowcanine]

36. Will having a sad-on because last two Republican Presidents have been know-nothings.

While the last two Democratic Presidents have been well educated and well spoken.

[KG]

37. piss on george will anyway

[Hortensis]

38. "Rather, the dangerous thing is that he does not know

what it is to know something."

"His fathomless lack of interest in America’s path to the present and his limitless gullibility leave him susceptible to being blown about by gusts of factoids that cling like lint to a disorderly mind."

Will abandoned intellectual honesty with the rest of his sort in an attempt to maintain position with his people, but he is still occasionally willing to express an obvious truth well.

[usaf-vet]

39. The problem is that my elected officials....

have shown zero interest in what the majority of their constituents have to say. They hold be invitation only town hall meetings. Or last minute scheduled meetings. Or stand in front of prescreened crowds to get a sound bite on the evening news. Add that to gerrymander secure seats and you have a brick wall to talk to.

Right Rep Sean Duffy and Senator Ron Johnson?

[lpbk2713]

43. I saw this on the ed page of my morning newspaper.

I had to double check that it was authored by George Will.

[Maraya1969]

50. What is scarier is there are people who still think he is great. What disability do they have?

[Wednesdays]

51. Like I said in another thread, they'll invoke the 25th amendment and then Trump will skate

because no one will try to prosecute a doddering old coot.

[Blue_true]

52. People like Will are posers.

He knew that Trump was trouble from the start. Once Trump got the republican nomination, people like Will and other republicans that were repulsed by him should have come out in guilty voice saying that they would vote for Clinton and explaining why.

[babylonsister]

64. Will never liked him:

George Will: NAY
The dean of conservative columnists has left the Republican Party over Trump’s nomination, saying, “This is not my party.” (June 26, 2016)

Will detests Trump, and had previously called for Republicans to defeat him if he is their nominee: “Were he to be nominated, conservatives would have two tasks. One would be to help him lose 50 states—condign punishment for his comprehensive disdain for conservative essentials, including the manners and grace that should lubricate the nation’s civic life.” (April 29, 2016)

https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2016/11/where-republicans-stand-on-donald-trump-a-cheat-sheet/481449/
Which Republicans Oppose Donald Trump? A Cheat Sheet

And this ^^^ is a longgg read. Lots happened since then-minds changed.

[lillypaddle]

55. I don't agree with George about much

but he has this one in the bag. Glad to see him appearing as a contributor on MSNBC, and I never thought I would say that.

[Honeycombe8]

58. Nailed it. Wow. nt

[bora13]

61. he's a pealey

got it written in radium ink all over his con face

[R B Garr]

62. K&R, George Will and Anna Navarro really have Trump's number.

A few other GOP'ers do, too. So far they have refused to normalize him. This is a great read.

"quarantine this presidency"...wow, has any journalist ever had to write this before? Sad.

[Ligyron]

65. Well,this was good anyway

"His fathomless lack of interest in America’s path to the present and his limitless gullibility leave him susceptible to being blown about by gusts of factoids that cling like lint to a disorderly mind."

[loyalsister]

68. "dangerous disability"

Like a contagious form of epilepsy, or a mental illness that runs a person into a raving mass killer, or captain Hook and his threatening prosthetic, Freddy Kruger and his deformity....

That's a messed up bigoted headline, and though not surprising anymore, it's disappointing when DUers endorse and cheer at the sight of it.

[Blue_Tires]

69. Yeah, I know this new anti-intellectual GOP is killing Will's soul deep down inside...

[Nitram]

71. Best first sentence in any piece about Trump.

"It is urgent for Americans to think and speak clearly about President Trump’s inability to do either. "

Too bad Will is otherwise a climate change denying intellectually dishonest partisan hack, who always has to put gratuitous slur against liberals no matter what the topic.