Commentary
Having read “I Can’t Back Trump, Who Only Has I’s for America,” Joseph Epstein’s op-ed in Monday’s Wall Street Journal, I found that he qualifies for my no-good-reason category.
Most of the other individuals I have placed in that category either simply hate his guts or detest his behavior.
Epstein is different. He finds many of Donald Trump’s policies – his stand on closing the border, his economic programs, and his unflinching support for Israel – appealing but for one thing: the man who holds them.
So, what precisely is wrong with Donald Trump? “To start with the obvious, his vanity, his preposterously bleached and elaborately coiffed hairdo, his sprayed-on tan, the lengthy neckties that cover avoirdupois.
“Add to that his propensity for insulting his political enemies. Then there’s his hyperbole, everywhere adding up his opponents’ misdeeds, building up his own achievements.”
“Still,” he asks, “why can’t I live with all this and vote for the man based on the general soundness of his policies? What I can’t live with, what I can’t vote for, is Mr. Trump’s relentless immodesty.”
Epstein concedes that “Perhaps no one who seeks the presidency of the United States qualifies as modest, but Mr. Trump is also altogether devoid of modesty’s, first cousin, humility. No other politician has so thoroughly availed himself of the first-person singular.”
Ironically, after reviewing Trump’s use of “I,” Epstein writes, “I find his immodesty not only a serious character flaw but a danger to his governing ability.”
While Epstein doesn’t believe Trump wishes to abolish the Constitution, undermine our democracy, set himself up as dictator, he thinks “such full-court immodesty has to work against one’s perspective, make impossible anything resembling a sense of history, allow for necessary accommodations with reality.”
He argues that “for the immodest leader, complexity doesn’t exist,” thus ridiculing Trump’s belief in common sense.
“Overrating his charm, profundity and political acumen, he plunges ahead, never hesitant, brimming with confidence,” notes Epstein. “This utter confidence, part and parcel of his immodesty, is what I find so off-putting – even dangerous – about the man.”
Epstein concludes with his belief that “one of the qualifications for president of the United States is one that be decent, honorable and fair-minded.”
While noting that he was the 45th president of the United States, “he fails to qualify as a suitable candidate for our 47th president.”
Seriously, do we want a president with humility – one with a modest or low view of one’s own importance – or modesty– a quality or state of being unassuming or moderate in the estimation of one’s abilities – as defined by Merriam-Webster?
Not me.
About Mr. Epstein
Reading his weak assessment for not voting for Trump, I had do a bit of research into his background.
The 87-year-old Epstein, a prolific writer, was relieved of his role of editor of the American Scholar, a position he held from 1975 to 1997, after considerable criticism for being anti-feminist.
What I found most interesting was a review of Epstein’s book, “Snobbery: The American Version,” by Alan Riding, who learns from Epstein that snobbery is “all about looking up and looking down at people, snobs are quick to decide who merits disdain and who deserves esteem.”
“The essence of snobbery, I should say, is arranging to make yourself feel superior at the expense of other people,” Riding quotes Epstein.
In a discussion of having good taste, Riding notes Epstein’s view that it can be bought in the form of clothes, furnishings, cuisine, and the like, yet not everyone learns how to use it properly.
“For the snob,” says Epstein, “the delight in inflicting ridicule is uppermost in questions of taste.”
With that brief look at Epstein, you can understand the importance of looking into the life of those who write op-eds. If the writer is not known to you, as was Epstein to me, I had to go beyond the statement at the end of his op-ed that read only: Mr. Epstein is author, most recently of “Never Say You’ve Had a Lucky Life.”
I’m glad I did. He not only fits the profile of the voter who simply cannot look beyond Trump’s quirkiness, he fits his own description of a snob.
FINALLY … At a townhall last month, after viewing a clip of Harris saying she had changed her stance on fracking, Trump told the audience, “She’s not going to allow it. You can’t take the chance.” And laughingly said, “You’ve gotta vote for me, even if you don’t like me.”
If you haven’t voted, there’s Just 13 more days to see the humor, humility and modesty in Donald Trump, who humorously refers to himself as “your favorite president.”
May God continue to bless the United States of America.
