Vincent J. Curtis
30 Sept 2016
At the first Republican primary debate, moderator Megyn
Kelly went straight at Donald Trump for his alleged treatment of “women.” Kelly prefaced her question with a series of
unqualified premises.
You’ve called women fat.
You’ve called women ugly. You’ve called women stupid, she said, or words
to that effect.
“Only Rosie O’Donnell,” Trump interjected to laughter.
Kelly continued to bore in relentlessly, much to the
annoyance of Trump. And much to the
annoyance of this viewer, because the beautiful but dense Kelly didn’t realize
that her trick of logic had been exposed and yet she continued to piously and
righteously to allege that Trump was a bad man.
For Trump to have ripped Kelly then and there for her mental density
would only have conduced to establish her point, that Trump is a bad man
towards women.
The Clinton slime creature employed the same illicit trick
at the presidential debate on Monday.
The trick is to employ what in logic is called an “unqualified”
statement. For example, it is true to
say that “cars are blue,” because some cars are
blue. It is equally true to say, “cars
are white,” because some cars are
white. In both premises, the subject ‘cars’
is unqualified. There is no qualifier ‘some’,
‘all’, or ‘none’ modifying the meaning of the subject, cars. What happens when you add a qualifier?
Adding a qualifier gets you, “some cars are blue,” and “some
cars are white,” both of which can be true simultaneously. Likewise, “all cars are blue,” and “no car is
white,” can be true simultaneously.
However, “all cars are blue,” and “all cars are white,” cannot be true
simultaneously.
Suppose Megyn Kelly had premised her question with, “Mr. Trump,
you’ve called Rosie O’Donnell fat, ugly, and stupid, doesn’t that prove you are
terrible towards women in general?” The
logical fallacy of the statement is obvious when formulated that way, which is
why Kelly didn’t formulate it that way, but in a way that illicitly made her
case that Trump was terrible towards women in general.
But Trump obviously loves his wife and his daughter, and
highly regards the many women who work for him, including his campaign
manager. It could just as logically
pressed that his high regard for these women proves his high regard for women
in general.
But the game being played isn’t reaching a logical
deduction, the game is political sliming, and the means are illicit and
fallacious.
The Clinton slime machine pulled the same stunt at the
debate. Near the very end of the debate,
Hillary Clinton just remembered that she had pulled together a
campaign to slime Trump with the allegations of Alicia Machado, the Miss
Universe of 1996. She accused Trump of
calling Machado “Miss Piggy” and “The Housekeeper,” twenty years ago on account
of her gaining 60 lbs in weight during her reign as Miss Universe, and on
account of her Venezuelan heritage.
There has been no independent verification of these claims, but when you
are running a slime campaign verified facts don’t matter.
Hillary Clinton, in practiced and proud fashion, accused
Trump of being bad towards women because of what he allegedly said privately to
Alicia Machado twenty years ago. Hillary
went so far as to imply that Trump was a kind of pervert who “liked hanging
around beauty pageants.” I suppose
owning and producing the pageant isn’t reason enough to hang around and ensure
that it comes across as a television spectacular. But when the aim is to slime, facts and
context don’t matter. Perhaps Hillary does
have expert credentials at spotting sexual perverts, but I digress.
Donald Trump has no fixed attitudes towards women any more
than he has a fixed attitude towards men.
Trump is a meritocrat. What
matters to Trump is the job an individual does, and he is indifferent to that
individual’s race or gender. Such
indifference used to be a liberal ideal. The other side of this coin is that Trump is
an equal opportunity insulter. If an
individual isn’t doing the job he expects, he is going to let that individual
know in no uncertain terms, and why.
This may at times make him an unpleasant man, but it doesn’t make him
prejudiced. In fact, just the opposite,
for he is indifferent to race and gender; it proves that he is only concerned
about the job.
It is a nasty trick to employ to reach an unqualified
conclusion on the basis of one or a small number of individual cases. Trump is not bad to women in general because
he let individual cases know it when they let him down. It is just as reasonable to reach the
opposite conclusion on the basis of one or a small number of individual cases
in which Trump praised or promoted individual women. Can it be said that Donald Trump loves all
women because he loves his wife and daughter?
Of course not, but that is the illicit trick that Megny Kelly and the
Clinton Slime creature used against Trump, only played in reverse.
I’ve noted previously how even getting physically close to a
Clinton can get you covered in political filth.
It is happening this time to Alicia Machado, who is having all the bad
and stupid things she did in her life dragged into the public square. She is getting this treatment because she lent
herself to Hillary Clinton, who is benefitting at Machado’s expense. Donald Trump was forced to stand physically
close to Hillary during the debate, and she spent the entire night trying to
cover him in political filth, saving the unverified Machado accusations for the
very end. Trump has spent the rest of
the week washing off the slime.
None of Hillary’s debate preparation included thought about
improving the American economy, bringing back jobs, dealing with the budget
deficit, strengthening the military, fixing the VA, or solving foreign policy
crises. It was all about sliming Donald
Trump in the most effective way possible.
Given the long string of slimed and bloodied bodies trailing
behind the Clinton bus, do Americans realize that electing Hillary Clinton
president could well get all America covered in Clinton political filth?
Hillary’s legal troubles aren’t going to disappear even if
she is elected president.
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