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Donald Trump’s Pathetic Fraternity
Donald Trump’s Pathetic FraternityNew York Times, by Frank Bruni, 10/1/16
...
Chris Christie blew me away. This was three and a half years ago, well before all the trouble. The New Jersey governor was addressing a group of education reformers. And he did what looks easy until you try it yourself: talked without notes, slogans, stammers or any other clumsiness for close to a half-hour. It was too specific a speech to be one that he’d pulled from memory; he was thinking on his feet, in shapely paragraphs. He radiated conviction. He oozed authority.
What in God’s name happened to him? To his potential? Yes, yes, I know: the George Washington Bridge happened. And the downgrade of New Jersey’s credit rating happened — again and again and again.
But while those events explain his diminished political fortunes and failed presidential campaign, they didn’t force him into his current role as a prime defender of an indefensible man. I looked up two weeks ago and he was on CNN, peddling the brazen lie that Donald Trump hadn’t spent the last five years raising questions about President Obama’s birthplace. He radiated insincerity. He oozed subservience.
The Trump campaign has shown me many things that I never thought I’d see and others that I’d never seen so clearly, including the readiness of power-hungry men to trade dignity for relevance and swap pride for a place at the table, even if the table is a despicable one.
Chris Christie blew me away. This was three and a half years ago, well before all the trouble. The New Jersey governor was addressing a group of education reformers. And he did what looks easy until you try it yourself: talked without notes, slogans, stammers or any other clumsiness for close to a half-hour. It was too specific a speech to be one that he’d pulled from memory; he was thinking on his feet, in shapely paragraphs. He radiated conviction. He oozed authority.
What in God’s name happened to him? To his potential? Yes, yes, I know: the George Washington Bridge happened. And the downgrade of New Jersey’s credit rating happened — again and again and again.
But while those events explain his diminished political fortunes and failed presidential campaign, they didn’t force him into his current role as a prime defender of an indefensible man. I looked up two weeks ago and he was on CNN, peddling the brazen lie that Donald Trump hadn’t spent the last five years raising questions about President Obama’s birthplace. He radiated insincerity. He oozed subservience.
The Trump campaign has shown me many things that I never thought I’d see and others that I’d never seen so clearly, including the readiness of power-hungry men to trade dignity for relevance and swap pride for a place at the table, even if the table is a despicable one.
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