Trump as President Would Erase Civil Liberties, Voting, Reproductive Rights

Think a Donald Trump presidency would "Make America Great Again"? Think again.

Unless you happen to be a rich white Anglo-Saxon Protestant (WASP) male, a Trump presidency would spell disaster, according to Colbert I. King's opinion piece in Friday's Washington Post.

In his column ("President Trump would reconstruct our racist past"), King warned, "The prospect of a Donald Trump White House presents African Americans with the most consequential presidential election since the 1876 race between Republican Rutherford B. Hayes and Democrat Samuel J. Tilden. That 19th-century contest ultimately derailed efforts to extend the full rights and privileges of citizenship to freed African Americans. Unless folks of color get off our duffs, history may well repeat itself."

King goes on to write that Trump "is, without question, an ignorant, undisciplined, ranting bully who exaggerates and lies without shame. He wears a tough-guy masculinity but is actually a coward who picks on women, demeans minorities and is thoroughly lacking in human decency." He reminds the reader that this is the make who likes "stop and frisk."

Since the death of Antonin Scalia, Republicans have vowed to block any Supreme Court nominee that President Barack Obama picks. However, Trump's wish list of possible replacements is far from favorable for minorities.

For anyone debating whether to vote in this upcoming election, ask yourself this: Are you willing to throw away any (or all) rights that African-Americans, women, the disabled, and any non-rich WASP men have obtained over the past 100 years? That means voting (for minorities and women), the right to own property or hold a job equal to what a white man is entitled to with the same education, the right to an education...the list goes on. Then read Colbert I. King's column, and plan to vote as if your life depends on it. Because it does.

Trump - 'Just Plain Crazy?'

Apparently Robert Kagan isn't the only opinion writer with The Washington Post who is wondering whether Donald Trump is fit to be president.

Eugene Robinson, opinion writer for The Post, wrote in his column ("Is Donald Trump just plain crazy?"), "During the primary season, as Donald Trump’s bizarre outbursts helped him crush the competition, I thought he was being crazy like a fox. Now I am increasingly convinced that he’s just plain crazy."

Robinson goes on to write that Trump "lies the way other people breathe. Telling a self-serving life...seems to be a reflex for him." Robinson then goes on to offer instances where the blatant lies even contradict when Trump has already said in the past.

Robinson goes on to write that Trump is "alarmingly thin-skinned," as well as "the worst kind of bully," having belittled Ghaza Khan, wife of Khizer Kahn and mother of a Muslim American soldier killed in Iraq.

To read Eugene Robinson's opinion piece in its entirety, click here.

Is There Something Wrong With Trump? Robert Kagan Says 'Yes'

Is there something "very wrong" with Donald Trump, the GOP's presidential nominee? Robert Kagan seems to think so. In an opinion article in The Washington Post ("There is something very wrong with Donald Trump"), the Brookings Institution and a contributing columnist for the Post wrote, "One wonders if Republican leaders have begun to realize that they may have hitched their fate and the fate of their party to a man with a disordered personality."

Kagan goes on to write, "You don’t take a crack at every single person who criticized you. And you especially don’t pick fights that you can’t possibly win, such as against a grieving Gold Star mother or a general. It’s simply not in your interest to do so."

He also writes that Trump "cannot control himself." That, in the Oval Office, can be an extremely dangerous scenario; say the wrong thing to the wrong world leader, and there's a good chance of WWIII. (Has anyone read Pat Frank's novel Alas, Babylon?) There are times when one simply does not get a "do-over", when "Oops, my bad" just won't cut it.

To read Robert Kagan's opinion piece in its entirety, click here.

Ted Cruz and the GOP Nomination

George F. Will discusses Ted Cruz's "audacious 'base plus' strategy" for the Republican nomination in his Washington Post opinion column.

In it, Will discusses how voter turnout affects national elections: non-Hispanic white turnout increased by 10 million between George W. Bush's 2000 election and his 2004 reelection; Barack Obama's election produced a surge of African American voters with a decline of white voters, with a higher African-American voting rate in Obama's 2012 reelection over white voters. Will states that turnout may very well put Cruz and Florida's Marco Rubio as the top two Republican contenders.

To read Will's entire piece, click here.