Trump is doing serious damage to U.S. democracy, while leaving not one mark on another man’s political aspirations to become president. If he were a woman, I think it is safe to say: We may never have a woman president again.
If Trump were a woman, we would be hearing things like: “I told you women are too emotional to be president. We should have never let her run.”
Or: “Instead of acknowledging she lost, she’s golfing. What does she think she’s doing? Taxpayers are paying for that.”
What about if she hired a woman version of Giuliani to represent her? Then imagine if that woman had been caught in a hotel room with an attractive boy, young enough to be her grandson, cocktail in one hand, other hand down her skirt.
“How can we ever trust another woman president if this one has such low moral standards that she hired an attorney like that?”
Next, imagine she tried to bully the rest of her party into supporting, without any credible evidence, a made-up story about voter fraud. And that coincidentally this alleged fraud was only taking place in cities with sizable Black populations, in swing states.
If Donald Trump were a woman, the GOP leadership and rank and file would be running the other way, blaming each other for whoever convinced them to buckle up and support her in the first place.
In fact, if Donald Trump were a woman, she would not even have been nominated in the first place: A major political party would never have advanced the candidate who was thrice married, rumored to have had extra-marital affairs, including with porn stars whom she eventually paid off. Hypothetical said woman certainly would never had a 65-point margin with white evangelical Christians over her running mate.
Patriarchal Entitlement and the Inability to Envision Loss
All major news organizations called the election almost a month ago. Multiple states have certified their ballots—including the ones Trump’s legal team was trying to invalidate. Yet Donald Trump has yet to concede his defeat to President-Elect Joe Biden.
He still refuses to admit he lost. A grown man, the supposed leader of the free world, showcases his temper tantrums on a global stage. Meanwhile, his aides are treading on eggshells, his fabricated lawsuits are going nowhere, and his legal team is crumbling in front of cameras. The president erodes our democracy with every passing day and tweet sent.
Donald Trump has lived his life encased in gross levels of patriarchal entitlement: Even if he cannot change the outcome of the election, he believes his behavior is acceptable.
And polls show Trump’s theater is working: Seventy percent of Republicans believe the election was unfair. Meanwhile, the vast majority of the GOP stand by and cower to their leader who is ready to throw any of them under the bus for prioritizing the health of the nation’s democracy over his fragile ego. The same Republicans who called him a “jackass” in 2016 are validating his unsubstantiated claims of fraudulent elections—which brought them to power as well.
If A Woman Behaved Like This
Obviously, if he were a woman, we would be hearing all about the unacceptability and why this behavior proves we should never trust a woman politician again.
While Trump is getting plenty of grief for his erratic and senseless behavior, none of the criticisms being leveled against him are gendered. Pundits are commenting on his narcissism and reality show personality—but little about his gender or race.
Donald Trump was the embodiment of wealthy white male entitlement since the moment he declared his candidacy. His handling of his defeat is the perfect bookend. While the majority of his compatriots may silently recognize his behavior as unacceptable, he is making it no harder for any wealthy straight white man to enter politics. He may even run again in 2024.
Perhaps Donald Trump is terrified of leaving office because of the legal battles that await, after his presidential privileges no longer protect him from prosecution. Or perhaps, it is simply his inability to accept that he can lose. Whatever it is, he is doing serious damage to U.S. democracy while leaving not one mark on another man’s political aspirations to become president.
If Donald Trump were a woman, I think it is safe to say we may never have a woman president again.
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