You can know when a political candidate is running scared.

When he or she starts to curse the living daylights out of his or her opponents by calling them derogatory names, making disparaging remarks about their physical appearance, or making statements about them that are downright lies, you have the contours of a campaign that is in dire trouble. Furthermore, you get a strong sense of the unworthiness for office from those who traffic in these demeaning attacks. Their defining characteristic is to win at all cost. Personal attacks on your political opponent are among the lowest levels to which one can sink in a political swamp. It is the ultimate form of gutter politics.

Yet this approach to politics is the most prominent aspect of the Republican Party’s efforts under former President Donald Trump to win back the White House. In this latest iteration of his contest — first against President Joe Biden, who he gave the moniker Crooked Joe, and now against Vice-President Kamala Harris, who he is struggling to define — Trump has taken his trademark of vilifying his political opponents to the vilest levels conceivable.

From his first run for presidential office against Hillary Clinton, he never pretended that he had respect for women. He revelled in what he seemed to have become an expert at, as he himself indicated in the Access Hollywood recording in which he bragged in vulgar terms about kissing, groping, and trying to have sex with women. Finally, he was forced to face the inevitable consequence of such behaviour when he was called to accountability in the Eugene Caroll rape trial. He was found guilty of sexual abuse and ordered, on two occasions after defaming her, to pay her a hefty sum.

Now he suddenly finds himself confronted with the Kamala Harris phenomenon and does not have a clue how to define her. Now that the bogeyman of Biden’s age has been removed from political calculation, Trump now has the dubious distinction of being the only and oldest presidential candidate in the history of the United Sates, running for office at age 78.

To compound matters, he is now a certified felon awaiting sentencing after having been found guilty by the state and people of New York on 34 counts of fraudulent accounting related to his sexual liaison with a porn star. Not to mention the almost US$500 million that he faces, also in New York, for fraudulent behaviour with respect to business activities in the state. He faces two more federal indictments after another was dismissed by a judge appointed by him. This is up for appeal.

With these and other problems on the horizon, Trump seems to have come to the conclusion that the best offence is to lash out like a wounded bear at his opponents. Thus the mean-spiritedness that he shows on the stump, and especially now towards Harris, is his stock in trade. His mantra is to call her names and to demean her at every level. According to him, she has a low IQ, a general criticism that is often made by whites against blacks. Thus, she is “dumb as a rock” and a diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) hire, which means she did not get to where she is on her own merit but by being given special privileges as a black person. Trump’s misogyny is quite palpable, and one would be naïve to think that this will change anytime soon.

What is disturbing to well-thinking individuals is the extent to which people come out to listen to the drivel, hatred, and racism that Trump oozes on his campaign stops. Yes, I get it. Many who attend his meetings do so out of curiosity and because they are seeing him for the first time. If Trump is nothing else, he is an entertainer, and charismatic in a vile way. So people laugh when they should actually cry or give applause when they should hang their heads in shame at some of his utterances. Much of what he regurgitates at each stop makes no sense, but his audience seems willing to lap up the entertainment rather than be bored by serious policy discussions. Why bore people when you can entertain them? Not that Trump is capable of any serious discussion on important national policies, anyway.

Trump knows that he can say anything and get away with it. What his audience seems not to grasp is that he has no respect for them and for whatever intelligence they may possess. He can tell them lie after lie because he knows he can get away with it. But as a person wanting to be employed as president of the United Sates, whenever Trump speaks, whether from a political platform, in a town hall, or at a press conference, he is not just speaking to the base of his party, he is also speaking to the people of the United States who he is hoping will entrust him with power. He is speaking to his potential employers.

So when these employers hear the kind of drivel and lies that proceed from his mouth they need to take heed and decide whether that is the kind of person to whom they would hand the presidency. The lies that he spews should not only be insulting to the intelligence of his immediate audience that come out to hear him speak, but also to every well-thinking and patriotic American who love his or her country, apparently more than Trump does. They must decide whether they are going to allow themselves to be bewitched or hoodwinked by the cultic and toxic messianic brew that oozes out of Trump’s pores. In November, they will have to choose whether they will be willing to reward this egregious assault on their intelligence.

The Cherry tree LANE Massacre

The horrible and obviously terroristic attack meted out against residents in the Cherry Tree Lane in Clarendon must be condemned, without reservation, by all well-thinking and peace-loving Jamaicans. This incident merits larger and deeper commentary, but it is just sufficient to say here that what the residents experienced as eight of their own were mercilessly cut down by bullets, and nine others wounded, was an act of sheer terror.

Prime Minister Andrew Holness has characterised the act as terrorism and has vowed to bring the perpetrators to justice. With the enhanced capability of the constabulary force in intelligence-gathering, there is greater assurance that this will be a possibility. In the meantime, this column, and I am sure its readers, grieve and mourn with the families who have lost loved ones. We pray for a community in shock and pain.

Dr Raulston Nembhard is a priest, social commentator, and author of the books Finding Peace in the Midst of Life’s Storms; Your Self-esteem Guide to a Better Life, and Beyond Petulance: Republican Politics and the Future of America. He is also host of the podcast Mango Tree Dialogues on his YouTube channel. Send comments to the Jamaica Observer or stead6655@aol.com.