Reality show phony - opinion from Maine

Barbara Bush called Trump “greedy, selfish and ugly.”

An opinion letter published in the Maine Lewiston Sun Journal 

Dave Griffiths: Why do people support Donald Trump?

“The mask of a barroom political crank turns out to be the face of the president of the United States,” writes conservative political columnist Michael Gerson.

In a manifesto, the New Zealand mass murderer praised Trump for being a “symbol of renewed white identity and common purpose.”

Trump, the draft dodger, can’t stand any comparison with John McCain, so he attacks him relentlessly seven months after the war hero’s death.

Barbara Bush called Trump “greedy, selfish and ugly.”

“Trump stands out among our presidents, not just for being so petty, bitter and mean-spirited, but also for being incompetent,” writes columnist Max Boot, a former Republican stalwart who moved on from a party that is now a personality cult.

“Henceforth the senior ranks of government can be filled with invertebrates and opportunists, schemers and opportunists,” writes Eliot A. Cohen, a former senior State Department official in the George W. Bush administration, of the scandal-plagued Trump years and the inability — or unwillingness — to fill top sub-cabinet slots with qualified policymakers.

Seventy-five percent of attendees at a Yale School of Management conference said they have had to apologize to foreign contacts for Trump’s behavior.

There is more, of course. And there is this question: Why does Trump’s “base” (aka "cult") still support this reality-show phony?

Many people appear to have forgotten their high school civics lessons about what it took to make America a wonder of self-government. So they tune into Fox — the sad equivalent of state-owned news.

Dave Griffiths, Mechanic Falls