Dowd's past criticisms of the Clintons and Obama were apparently over the head of some of her readers. You didn't get it so leave it alone! Her denunciations of Trump are the best things being written and far better than the imitative paragraphs of Times commenters. You go girl!
123
One of Ms Dowd's very best. Ever. She can add his enablers to the list. WE stand for the opposite of everything -- EVERYTHING -- he stands for and that they tolerate and defend. WE are already out there making sure that becomes obvious after Nov 6, 2018.
164
I have to laugh whenever I hear a layman, even a smart one like Ms. Dowd, talk about abandoning manufacturing. Where do you think you get your gasoline? Who provides your processed foods? Where did the nails come from that built your house? Where did the chip come from that allows me to read or write on a computer?
Ever since Ronald Reagan talked about the service economy we've had this silly idea that manufacturing just went away. 80% of the jobs disappeared and many of these went overseas, and are coming back. Manufacturing is what drives the economy.
It's too bad intellectuals aren't better educated about manufacturing.
29
What do we want? There are some who speak from the heart. I desperately hoped to find this here. Attacking Trump's tweets, and repeating "we don't want ..." 16/17/18 times is a wily concealment of a real revulsion, and some laziness. Browbeating us with chants Ms Dowd, conceals your fears that we all share. Yes, the heart and writing from the heart is terrifying - there be tigers. And anything Kissinger - the real slaughterhouse designer of Laos - is equally terrifying. We just wanted a block of flats. Please set your next essay as an argument with yourself. You are a gifted communicator. We need your unvarnished despair, not a carefully concealed broken heart.
11
He's going to be re-elected.
29
Can we at long last admit that we did indeed have a champ of a candidate who would have won, & who would have spared us all these powerfully-put terrible Trumpian terpitudes, the guy who did have integrity, a seasoned pro & the only one who made a moment about Not cozying up to Kissinger? Who's 'grumpy' now...
30
Maureen Dowd as a writer had every reason to doubt Hillary Clinton; her view point was an Opinion.
If readers cannot see that a view point is just that, they are wrong.
17
Some people have been saying things like this for a while. It's good to see Maureen Dowd is in with this crowd. There comes a point where people have to say what is said in this piece without trying to be funny or clever about it. The jokes on late night tv or cartoons in the paper are fine as appetizers or desert but not the main course anymore.
30
Like everything else, Donald Trump wants to take credit for everything, now he's changing the term from the "Old Boy's Club" to the " Trump Wife Beaters Club".
35
Vampires can’t break into your home. They have to be invited. The GOP let The Wrong One In.
102
. . . and we certainly don't need THIS president!
44
The pseudo-feminist hysteria continues, now visiting its fury on a White House secretary who appeared to be doing his job just fine, until irrelevant, unsubstantiated allegations of victimizing women came up.
But that's what a certain group of women have become in the bitter wake of their heroine Hillary's bumbling defeat - victims; angry, spluttering, illogical victims.
When the McCarthy era-like cloud of #metoo passes, complete with its self-absorbed disregard of due process, we can return to judging Trump on the quality or lack thereof of his policies, absent the shrill and whining cacophony of self-manufactured martyrdom.
18
We also don't want citizens who feel their only chance at being appreciated is to put others down with hatred, others like women, non-whites, immigrants, gays, non-Christians, etc., thereby providing the waves our current jerk in chief is able to ride high on, every single day.
We need a free press that can find a NEW way to present facts, observable reality, even ethics and morality, to these "unappreciated" citizens that helps them to realize the truth about who is REALLY taking advantage of them: corporate America and the wealthy.
The NYT and other media are the professionals; it is their job to find ways to get to people, to communicate in ways that different people will open up enough to, in order for them to receive truth. Please - as professionals - please, please find NEW ways to show real cost/benefit to "ordinary" people so they can understand why their lives are so miserable.
36
As a native New Yorker, it was obvious that Trump was immoral and unqualified.
Obvious from the start.
Ms. Dowd could not see that until now?
I've been unable to take her seriously since her early columns, fawning over The Donald.
87
Shocking! A Hit piece by Maureen Dowd. Actually, Maureen, we need exactly this kind of president. No Maureen, the presidency is not a chick flick. We don't want a president that swishes around and acts like a petulant teenager. We want one that actually support the country and the values that built it. As far as a president being elected what about the horror of having the feinting, lying Mao lady in the Whitehouse. Thank God, and Trump, for allowing us to avoid that tragedy.
13
I'm not a big fan of Maureen Dowd's writing, and I didn't much care for the endless hammering on Hillary Clinton--but it's not like she just made stuff up, and the personal attacks I'm seeing here are as stupid and misogynist as anything that got tossed Hillary Clinton's way.
In fact, they generally seem to be the same attacks. Golly, I wonder why that might be...little problem with women, guys and the occasional gal? Or is it just that you're so busy chanting the umpteenth recitative saying the same stuff that you got feom Hannity or Rushbo or d'Souza, that you're no longer even noticing what you say?
Speaking of misogynist rants, could one of you lot take a sec away from Rooting Out Gawdless Commieism or whatever the heck it is that you think you're doing, and explain why you can't get through a brief note without lots of capital letters, exclamation points, ridiculous claims, and attempts to portray any American who disagrees with you as a tearful girly-man?
Seriously, what is it with that? I mean, it's obviously pretty silly--but has it ever occurred that it kind of foregrounds just how ranty and pouty and strange your Maximum Leader really is?
You got a guy in the White House who's apparently so fragile he can't let anything go without shrieking like a wounded baby marmot. Were I you, I'd steer clear of the imagery.
31
Thanks Maureen but when you say "we" it's rather misleading. It would have made the article longer but I think substituting "Thoughtful and informed Americans" for "we" would be more honest. There are still large swaths of the population supporting this guy 100%. The evangelicals love him and give him a mulligan for his bad behavior with women and they honestly wouldn't care if he dismembered a baby in the middle of 5th Avenue as long as he made sure the mother had no option but to give birth to that baby. We've made too many turns and gotten lost as a country. The breadcrumbs of the constitution that have always led us back are being eaten by the idiots among us and it's over for the country. Hope you enjoy the rest of the weekend.
37
Drektitude is a great decriptsion of the culture in The west Wing Bernie Madoff also did some great things Does he now deserve a pardon
8
Sorry NY Times and Maureen Dowd, we do want President Donald Trump because he turned the economy around, created jobs, cut taxes, created trillions in stock market wealth, and returned corporate money to the U.S creating even more jobs. We want a President who cares about America, not about globalist corporations. We want a President who will always put America First, not illegal immigrants who drain our resources and dilute our culture. We want a President who destroyed ISIS and is rebuilding a gutted military that is necessary to keep the peace. We want a President who speaks his mind, and tells it like it is. We're done with politically correct, effete, and arrogant politicians, who are one thing in public, and quite another behind closed doors. We want a President who is willing to call out the Deep State in the DOJ/FBI, and the Intelligence Community, who have fought this President tooth and nail, and are in fact subverting an elected President. We want a President who will Make America Great Again. We want President Donald J. Trump. Now please cancel my subscription because your non-stop political bias has suffocated your once respected paper of record.
10
Yes, Maureen, "we" do want those things you eloquently revile. Because "we" is the belief-based, angry, delusional 40% of America that saw all of these repugnant characteristics on full display for over a year and pulled the level of their own volition.
"We" don't learn and "we" are not interested in questioning our own values or ever admitting we don't have all the answers (either our own or the ones that "GOD" has already pre-determined). "We" believe whatever Fox News tells us is true. "We" reject everything else as "fake news." "We" love Trump because he tells it like it is: our version of the world that we believe in.
Can't you liberals ever see reality?
24
Donald Trump is the itch we can't stop scratching. Scratch long enough and we dig through the skin of reasonable debate and into the flesh of damaging our character. I'm tired of this list of reasons why Trump shouldn't be president. For crying out loud we know this by now.
Let's start talking about how we get good people running for office at local, state and federal levels. No more celebrities or as Maureen rightly put it...."empty suits".
35
Let’s have a PARADE!! Bravo, Maureen! Pulitzer.
3
The writing in this column is your finest. The comments focusing on your past columns may be a bit fair, but take away from the message you are saying now.
We all learn from mistakes, or we are fools and stubborn. Maureen, glad you learned. Commentators: enough and let's get on with the message.
9
The greater question is, "How did we get him?" The underlying answer to that question is who are the people that voted for and continue to support him. Here is what I know about the ones I know. They are poorly educated, racists, religious bigots, male chauvinists, & megalomaniacs. Otherwise, they are wonderful people.
45
You just want John Kelly's scalp but you wont get it. Also, Trump is not going away, get used to it. Stop saying "We" and speak for yourself, American's aren't drones in a bee hive.
3
Finally, a column for the American people. Thank you Maureen, stay focused and relevant.
19
The problem is, Ms. Dowd, is that a whole lot of people do still want that sociopath in the white house, and an entire political party is endeavoring to keep him there.
But thanks for not mentioning Hillary.
23
We don't want Trump.
25
The cowardice of liberals deserves trump, and he will grind them into servitude because they don't have the courage to do anything more than whine.
#calexit - because leaving is the only alternative.
1
of course not! We would rather have a criminal in the Oval Office.
4
Liberal America, NY Times, and Ms Dowd are reaping what we sowed. It all began in the 90's when Dems stood by and watched the Reps impeach Bill Clinton over lying about sex with an intern even though the economy was booming, the debt under control with a surplus on the horizon, and we were not stuck in quagmire wars.
So what did Ms Dowd do then? Why she attacked 'Slick Willie'.
When Bush arrived on the scene, good bye surplus, hello land wars. What did Dems do? Watch as Kerry (like Clinton) was relentlessly attacked by those same Reps as a 'flip flopper'. Even Ms Dowd piled on.
After eight years of incompetency by the GOP and Bush, Obama had to clean up the same mess that faced Bill Clinton in '93, only this time it was a depression and not a recession ! Within two months of taking office, Republicans, the corporate created Tea Party, Fox News, and others blamed Obama for the deficit !
What did Dems do? Nothing ! Did they push back at the Fox News created narrative? Of course not. Instead, like a long suffering mom with an entitled brat living at home, they went to work cleaning up the brat's mess.
And then, when Trump began spewing his 'birther' lies, what did Dems do? What did the Times and Ms Dowd do? Nothing.
Please, it's a little late in the game to tell us what you don't want. The 'brat' is now President and we are all suffering and counting the days when he leaves 'the house'.
38
IF Donald was just looking for a job in the OVAL,
could HE pass an FBI background check?
33
Regarding the phrase "...not a ratings-obsessed id." You forgot to finish the last word.
12
Right on, Mo.
Keep on slugging.
7
We don't want a President who is an excuse for everyone else's abhorrent behavior. As long as Trump is President, every form of perverse, psychotic behavior has a champion.
30
Dowd is predictable. She is hand-picking examples of failed advisors that appear quite frankly in every administration. No Maureen, it's not about microanalysis of character, it's about policies that work. Trump is simply Reagan with a potty-mouth.
Ex: Reagan led a movement in supply-side economics, which brought on the largest economic post-war growth in history. Bill Clinton continued it for the most part, and the catch-all is that JFK preached his very message, which can be found in his speech to the Economic Club of NY in Dec. of 1962.
And much of your complaining, "We don't want..." is simply subjective opinion, out of context and often untruths when it comes right down to it. Typical liberal/leftist political talking points and arguments we have grown weary of hearing.
If I was your journalism professor, I would give you an 'C' for creativity, a 'B' for effort (I can be nice:), but an 'D' for content.
I want exactly the president I got, a man who fights, a man who talks plain and a man who gets the right policy initiated, because "we the people" depend on results, not good intentions. (Friedman)
"I learned from the Bible that God himself chose morally compromised individuals to accomplish some greater good. Even if he were as morally defective as his critics maintain, my response is this: Trump’s character is less morally significant than defeating the left. If the left wins, America loses. And if America loses, evil will engulf the world." (Prager)
1
Why'd you have to add the Kissinger comment at the end? By doing that you legitimized trump. I'm no Kissinger historian but don't even tell me that he was as evil as trump and besides that, he didn't have the power that has been handed to trump by complicit GOP. The only category that the white supremacist in chief should be in would be authoritans and dictators. Your column was representative of the views of the majority and would have been an affirming read, until you completely diluted it with the Kissinger comment.
3
Those voters who control the Electoral College definitely DID want a cheesy reality show in the White House. Never overestimate the intelligence of the American voter or underestimate his susceptibility to propaganda.
19
Excellent. And gee, Maureen, I never thought we could flip you to the perceived dark side.
Now next Sunday how about, "We want a President who..." Followed by "We want a Veep who..." Followed by "We want House leadership who..." Followed by "We want an electorate that..."
7
You missed the second half of the title for this: Trump Shows the Way 'the Presidency should not be Run.'
5
This 7th generation Texan grandmother expects her president first and foremost to be someone of integrity, someone who is not an embarrassment to our country. It appears, however, that all that matters now is power and money.
37
I really do wonder how the single issue, racist and demogogue-loving voter will feel when they realize that, to have their guy get into office (never a gal, god-forbid!) they have to possibly give up their Medicare and Social Security?
25
It would be great to see the inverse of this rant. What we need are good solid policy statements that are leveled at the Republicans, The Dotard, and their minions. Red lines that don't get all wavy, and goals that must be achieved for the good of the country.
2
Where were you in 2016? Too little too late , Maureen. If you had refrained from constantly tearing down Hillary things might have been different. Trump won because a lot of Republican and independent women held their noses and voted for him.
Thanks a lot.
24
But we REALLY didn't want Hillary, right Ms. Dowd? Oops, maybe there actually was a meaningful difference between the two candidates...
26
In defense of Maureen: She was absolutely right about Hillary in her columns beginning in the 1990's. Democrats ignored her insights and kept Hillary out front all the way to the presidential nomination of 2016. Had the Democrats nominated a decent candidate--one who had not shown herself to be a war monger, a drug warrior, an enabler of sexual predation, and a greedy self-dealer whose primary goal was the advancement of HRC--then Trump would not have won the election. Maureen's job is to write truthfully about what she sees. Democratic voters threw the 2016 election away when they ignored Maureen's observations and selected this terribly flawed individual as their candidate.
16
Maureen, I think that everything you said is wrong. Look who is sitting in the White House. Apparently somebody voted for him. And there are plenty of people around him like Mr. Nunes who will ensure that he stays there.
We get the government we deserve. We own it, as saddening and disgusting as it is. You will not see a landslide change in the 2018 election. It will be more of the same. Sadly, assuming the world is not blown up by then, Trump will get a second term, unless his psychosis causes his head to explode and Pence takes over.
We are now a country of “Every man for himself!”. When the military parade goose steps in front of the dictator down Pennsylvania Avenue, you will know pictorially that the America that once was, is now officially gone.
There are not enough people left in this country to turn it around. We have lost our way, lost our humanity. Sorry to be the bearer of bad tidings...
12
We don't want a president who is compromised by the Russian federation. He could easily prove that his hands are clean, but instead her diverts and obstructs.
American can deal with a con-man in the WH, but we are at great peril when a hostile foreign power holds sway over him.
17
We? There seems to be a significant number of Americans who do approve of all these atrocities and that is the real pity.
15
Thank for giving voice to the old insightful Maureen... This says it all:
We want our president to be a moral beacon, not a ratings-obsessed id.
6
These comments pretty well sum up the opposing views of the Trump presidency. Come November we’ll see which side predominates.
1
Amen. But that's what we have.
7
You just can't get past the fact that the deplorable Trump won the election. More than a year ago.
1
Get better candidates. Anyone could have beaten Trump but they allowed Hillary to run. Hillary, the only one who could not have beaten him. Really? You let her run? Wow. It’s on the Democratic Party. They let us down
10
I want a President who wins the election and does not lose by three million votes.
I want a President who does not betray his country.
I want a President whose library was closed because someone stole the book.
I want a President who protects the environment.
I want a president who will regulate the financial markets to insure we do not experience another Great Recession.
I want a President who will consider Gloria Allred for a cabinet position.
I want a President who speaks the English language
I want a President who will modernize Amtrak into a 21st century coast to coast. Canada to Mexico railroad with higher speed and high speed trains
I want a President who will understand the art of diplomacy and that it can, if nrcessary be war by other means.
I want a President who will rebuild America's crumbling infrastructure. (try driving Philadelphia's streets which are car killers)
I want a President who is not Donald Trump
I want Governor Jerry Brown.
17
Ms. Dowd, thank you for your clear and succinct description of what's wrong with President Trump. However, your seemingly clear-eyed view of the qualities a President should NOT have did not stop you from mercilessly mocking Al Gore, John Kerry, or even Barack Obama, men most people would consider the antithesis of Donald Trump.
79
Rachel Maddow, NPR, Nicholas Kristoff, Frank Bruni, David Axelrod, PBS - these are the people I trust will do all they can to present the truth. Baby Daddy who thinks he's Father Knows Best on a reality show has been proven not to be trusted and listens to alt right lie-for-entertainment tv.
I agree with njglea from Seattle who wrote - "This is not a game. Life is not a game. Democracy is not a spectator sport. Governments are not "parties". The president of OUR United States is not a "celebrity"."
But he sure acts like one...
42
What are you talking about? Millions of Americans either don't care about your list of "don't wants," or they do want them. There is no "we, the people" anymore. There is only "us" and "them."
15
Where was Maureen Dowd when Donald Trump was making his move to slip through that wormhole? She was ripping Hillary Clinton apart every chance she got, even when her column wasn't about Hillary. If she didn't "want a president who" she might have given that some thought in 2016 when she could have helped those of us who were trying our best to keep him out of the White House. She did her level best help him get in and she should apologize to all of us and to Hillary instead of complaining so much about what she helped enable.
119
The only thing that will shut Trump up, and down, is a failing economy. When he can't stand the heat, he will get out of the kitchen. It just won't be a fun reality show anymore.
13
I fear that Trump does accurately represent the views of many many Americans. So sad. The arrogance and bragging and hyper-militarism is their ideal. For me this is a misguided view of what it means to serve you country, your community and your family. Our duty is to stand for what is right.
26
Spot on, Maureen! Outstanding piece with a prescient warning about Kissinger to top it off! Well done.
15
Maureen -
Wonderful column; captures all the aspects of Trump that so many of us detest and find chilling. You haven't lost it, Maureen, you're the very best at eviscerating and demolishing a dangerous and incompetent so-called "stable genius" we're stuck with as president.
14
If we don't want a President like Donald Trump, we also don't want a press that bends over backwards to create a false equivalency between vastly different candidates in terms of competence and honesty.
It was not the Russians who elected Donald Trump. It was Charlie Rose, Tavis Smiley, Bernie Sanders, and the New York Times who for each fact check article that showed that Hillary Clinton was at the top of truth tellers among politicians along with Bernie Sanders,
published 20 about her problems with perception of honesty. Self fulfilling prophecy, anyone?
39
How much we have changed in 50 years.
If President Eisenhower had a staff member because he was accused of spousal abuse, he might have said:
"I'm sorry to see him go. He was a good worker. He says he is innocent of the spousal abuse charge and I must give him the benefit because of the presumption of innocence. I believe in due process and hope he is found not guilty.
That was then.
Now we judge people before the trial. We publish accusations in the New Yorker and the NY Times. The evidence against Harvey Weinstein looks compelling but many of the other people subject to public shaming may be innocent. We simply don't know.
But the end justifies the means. And the legal process is too time-consuming.
A news story is not the same as a trial by jury in which the accused gets to confront his accuser and cross-examination.
In the McMartin preschool case, 360 children accused the preschool of sexual activities that turned out not to have happened.
The legal process is indeed flawed but it is better than the news media. The news media told us that the war in Vietnam was just, that Bush's fabrications were adequate justification for invading Iraq.
People make mistakes. People sometimes lie.
I am ashamed of what the NY Times has become.
Bad as he is, Trump at least seems to stand for due process. Give this round to Donald Trump. He deserves an occasional victory.
7
Ok, you don't want that president who is that exhaustive list of outrageous, and I certainly don't want that president...but sadly, too many still do. Otherwise why wouldn't his own party dismiss him and get him out for the misconduct that I, an average citizen, have witnessed?
10
Trump promised not to fix what was broken but to tear it apart piece by piece - -- to strip away regulations that prevent certain self centered business people to make the kind of money they feel entitled to, regardless of the consequences.
I'm entitled to make more money on predatory payday loans.
I'm entitled to pollute that stream to make greater profits.
I'm entitled to privatize that road if i fix a few potholes.
I'm entitled to become filthy rich skimming my tiny little share off of billions of transactions that one person who even notice.
I'm entitled to humiliate, beat, or otherwise squash anyone who questions my entitements.
Great column. It may not be a full mea culpa but it's one of the clearest starting points for defining how much worse things have gotten, so we can next say what we do want and find the leaders who will actually work with integrity towards these goals.
16
"We don't want a president who (fill in the blank)." But apparently on some level we do, because we elected him.
3
We didn't want Trump, but that's who we are saddled with.
7
Sadly, scarily, apparently "we" do want this presidency. Did not get my vote.
5
You have to say which we you are talking about. One third of the we agree with you completely. One third, including the hero who shares a column with you and all Republicans think Trump is the second coming. The other third just wish the whole thing would go away.
2
Cherry picking the flaws of a singular imperfect person in a fallen world is on par with defending the bad behaviour of the others in the same Oval Office. How would you have evaluated the apostle Paul as President knowing that, in his own words, "...among sinners I am foremost of all." You might have saved words and time by just writing, "I don't like Donald Trump."
2
Whatever he says or does his name is not Obama or Clinton so he will never be liked or respected for anything he does by 50% of the nation.
He is putting people back to work. Opportunity to start a business has never been better or easier.
The military has a friend again in the White House.
ISIS is dead because the battlefield handcuffs have been taken off our military leaders.
He didn't pay the extortion the latest 'Kim' demanded to remain quiet. In fact Trump's hard line brought the North and South together.
He has added one million more Dreamers to the list than the previous administration called for.
He's done all this without one ounce of support from the resistance.
Dowd went for the personality traits but that will be only a minor footnote when historians calculate the positive accomplishments of this presidency.
5
Trump represents and acts out the worst behaviors of any American public official I have experienced in my 74 years on this earth. May we all persevere in maintaining our faith in a different future for our country than what we have at the present.
Mike B
21
In your next column probably you can note also what we do not want here in America. The Republican House and Senate. They are every bit as complicit as Trump is. And it is really their actions that are ruining our Democracy. Trump is just the distraction. Remember it was the House and Senate who voted to appoint the worst bunch of Cabinet members ever to serve. By voting for these members, the Republicans ensured that all of the protections that voters once had will no longer be there. Jeff Sessions trying to do away with our Civil Rights and destroying the Justice Department. Tillerson weakening our State Department to the point we cannot competently take care of Diplomatic missions. Pruitt putting our Environment in more danger, except of course the Florida Envirornment, where Trump has his Mar-a-Lago. DeVos trying to privatize our Public Education for the benefit of her own self-interest. And which one of the Cabinet members installed a $25,000 telephone booth at taxpayers expense so he could make sure that his calls are very private. Has he ever heard the word transparency? They are now Government employees not employees of the Republican House and Congress or Trump.
Is there anyone in this Administration who has put Country first? Not one. This is what has to change. Trump is but a symbol of all of the dysfunction in Congress.
19
Wrong, wrong, wrong. People do want what we now have. Maybe not the whole package, but someone who pays attention to everyone, not hard left, identity politics played by the DNC and too many Dems, of which, BTW I am one. For example,I am, or at least was, all for the Dreamers. Oamba's "nuanced" solution was a nice idea, but actually pretty arrogant, assuming as it did all of America, rather than only a portion of America agreed with him and that his ideology would remain intact against all others and prevail "because it should" Without a mandate and supporting legislation it was just plain cruel. The other side is now in control, doesn't like it and is trying to dump it. That's the way it goes. But here's what galls me. Really galls me.
The Dreamers are now attacking those who worked hard to keep it and, through compromise may be able to keep part of it "They Sold Us Out" goes the chant. Look, it ain't all about them, and they are not only arrogant to think so, but decline to realize that our system of government that they are actually not a part of but want to be a part of, is a based on compromise. They want it all, and they are not really "entitled" to anything, and are absolutely ungrateful because their staunchest supporters, including me, are, in their best judgment able to salvage only part.
I, and many, many like me, am willing to sacrifice a great deal for Dreamers and immigrants and immigration policy.. I'm not going to jump off a bridge for them though.
4
We do need a press, neither Right nor Left that simply REPORTS the news without underlying agenda, constantly analyzing for us, reciting poll numbers every 15 minutes. We do need truths, not alternate facts, not constant opinions of what either party should do to counter what the other is doing. We need the great newsmen and women without a personality contest REPORTING, not resorting to the soundbites with a good photo op. Tell it like it is, then get out of the way.
8
Sadly, apparently just slightly over 40% of us approve of this president and seem to want exactly that.
4
One jerk gets thrown off a WH staff and it's a meltdown? And I'm having my foot removed because of an in grown toe nail. Please....
4
Blah, blah, blah...I guess Ms Dowd hasn't seen the latest Rasmussen poll which shows the president enjoys nearly half of the country's support! And please stop with "Trump supporters are inbred idiots...". I am a proud Trump supporter with a graduate degree and a legal immigrant wife who also supports Trump! The fact is all you silly people who embrace the "resist" movement eat, live and breath in your own little echo chamber! There is a big portion of the population that proudly supports the president and many others who support him privately! Look at the election and prove me wrong...lol
9
We don't want a president who mocks people.
We don't want a president who views children raised in America as bargaining chips, holding them hostage to his own megalomaniac dreams of building walls.
We don't want a president who is a pathological liar, so addicted he cannot speak without lying.
We don't want a president who scoffs at knowledge, at science, at research and would rather send the planet to hell in a hand basket than acknowledge such things as climate change.
We don't want a president who flouts international cooperation in search of more personal limelight.
We don't want a president who is blind to the evils of prejudice such as his own, deaf to the dignity of women, dumb to the notion of boundaries - like the separation of powers, the Constitutional shield that defines a wall he should be respecting - the 'wall' that the Founders put up to protect the press and religion from his boundary-crossings, the freedom of speech that does not bend to his will for ego-boosting applause.
We don't want a President whose eyes have never shown a sincere smile, genuine laughter, or true empathy for others unlike himself.
25
We, we, we, we, ... Speak for yourself. I like Trump. Bush and Obama really screwed things up. Trump is the reset button.
4
"We" may not want "our president" to be all the things you describe in the article, but Trump supporters actually do not mind anything going on, in, or to the country right now. For his 50 million supporters, Trump is a role model for who They Want their politicians to be. He represents their values , beliefs, and manners of conduct.
Some of them will deny it, but that is who they are, and they will swim or sink with him. "Our" outrage is by now, old news. We'll see just how many Americans are outraged or disgusted with the president in the 2018 elections.
33
“Peoples lives are being shattered and destroyed by a mere allegation,” he [who shall remain nameless] wrote. .... — life and career are gone. Is there no such thing any longer as Due Process?”
Well, start by asking the victims. Have their lives been shattered? Has Due Process failed them time and time again? When the we see real progress in investigating, defending, and protecting the victims... then we can start the dialog that Himself seems to be championing. False allegations should not be tolerated, but let's get a sense of perspective. Mice and elephants are both shades of grey, but there is a size difference, a power difference, and a social acceptance difference. Or is #45 just being the elephant in the room?
19
Yes yes! A brilliant summation of what the "we" (of some of us) DON'T want, anger and blood pressure rising as I fell into my "victim stance," wondering, at eighty seven, "Will I have to wait for mid-term elections to see these desired changes take place?!"
Then, from my warm living room window, I looked at the beautiful grassy park across the street, sparkling this morning as a homeless couple, SO shabbily dressed, she with bulging backpack, he pulling a shopping cart with the rest of their possessions slowly entered and heard anew, "If not me, who? If not now, when?"
19
Well said. Puts into excellent wording just what I feel.
8
Parents do not own their children. And while my heart breaks for any parent who has lost a child, especially in war, especially in a war of choice, I believe that John Kelly's son made the ultimate sacrifice, not John Kelly.
23
Two lessons from Trump's WHITE House:
1) A bankrupt casino owner doesn't necessarily make a good president.
2) A Marine Corps general doesn't necessarily make a good manager of a daycare center.
73
...with deep gratitude Maureen for the stellar reporting and clearly expressed facts.
For indeed although "all of us are entitled to our own opinions even the president is not entitled to his own facts"
Keep up the wonderful free press!
14
"We were moving from a white-majority, male-dominated country... without taking account of the confusion and anger of older Americans who felt like strangers in a strange land."
Hold it. I know lots of Older Americans( I am one of them) who (weren't) - aren't "angry" or feel like strangers in a strange land. Please let us call this what it was/is: Older white Americans with Anger/cultural issues and younger white Americans with; anger/cultural issues.
42
Beautifully said. But I hope someone here has noted that Hillary Clinton also sought advice on foreign policy from Henry Kissinger. On foreign policy, she's just as frightening.
11
Would that there were a way to benefit from Dr. Kissinger's knowledge and insight while ignoring his deplorable judgment. But it is challenge beyond the ability of our chief executive.
4
I read your column as a reasonable summary of some issues of our current President, including your suggested solution to correct the situation...vote. I was surprised to read the vituperative comments by my fellow readers. There are some issues that they raise which have substance, but I am distressed to see that many of the writers seem to agree and condone the manner in which President Trump conducts himself.
A leader of either party that continuously lies and behaves in the manner that you have pointed out, is not worthy of the office and we should do our best to elect better, more qualified office holders in the future. Unless we do that, our country will continue to lose power and influence around the world.
22
Trump does not show the way, the way is what his voters want it to be.
Trump is a product of his voters and these are a product of decades of US domestic politics.
Go face it, the US has voted for what was logically the end product of decades of local politics in education, health and social areas.
I dont't agree with nearly everything that Trump stands for, but I accept that he is just what the legal majority of voters wanted in the US.
5
"We want our president to be a moral beacon"
The job of the President is to run the executive branch of the federal government. Period. Full Stop.
Being our savior is not in the job description. In fact, the federal government is supposed to have a very limited role in our lives. That the Presidency is a laughing stock is a good start.
4
I'm proud to be an American "Because." Because I've traveled and worked in the Mideast, Far East and Africa. Because I've experienced autocracy at work. I've seen a man beheaded and I've experienced extreme censorship. I've known severe depression while working for untold amounts of time the Mideast, Egypt, India and other Middle Eastern and Far Eastern countries. What I wish for will take a Superman to become President. One that realizes that taxpayer revenue spent on the Afghanistan and Iraq wars. projected at 6 trillion, would be better utilized on fixing the nation's infrastructure, education, healthcare and possibly the most important of all, better support for our veterans. I want a President who doesn't care about publicity. He's strong enough on the inside that his moral compass can't be swung by clapping and applause for doing nothing notable except lying. I want a President who realizes that you can't make everyone happy. One, that through strength of character can succeed in making our country whole. A President who builds bridges of friendship with our neighbors, not walls to separate and divide. I want a President that understands that drug overdosing is a social, societal issue. Building a wall will not keep drugs from entering our country when certain citizens feel that they've no hope for a better life. Most importantly, I want to wake up in the morning and smile as the thought of "How proud I am to be an American" once again drifts through my psyche.
314
Maureen: Too bad you couldn’t stand Hillary. This is what you get.
104
The best news about this column is that the press/media seem to be growing up. Perhaps the people who control the messages have begun to understand that they are not in middle/high school or college. Perhaps they have begun to understand that the messages they convey actually impact the kind of world we live in.
This is not a game. Life is not a game. Democracy is not a spectator sport. Governments are not "parties". The president of OUR United States of America is not a "celebrity".
Good People of the press/media, please continue to take your jobs more seriously and get to the real truth. Forget "equal time" for insignificant entities that only cause trouble. Your jobs are not to create more trouble. Your jobs are critical to a civil, well-educated society and your only goal must be to tell WE THE PEOPLE the truth about the world you know so much better than the rest of us.
The reason The Rachel Maddow Show is the most popular cable news show is because she does exactly that every weeknight on MSNBC at 9 pm ET. WE trust her.
Thank you for helping WE THE PEOPLE create the kind of world the vast majority of people want to live in.
120
Not sure it goes without saying that Rachel Maddow is the most popular *left-wing* cable new show, #4 behind three shows at Fox News.
If 'WE" trust Rachel Maddow, "WE" are not too bright and easily fooled and manipulated. I'm sure "WE" think Rachel Maddow is middle of the road and the NY Times is fair and balanced. Thank God that "WE" lost the last election. "I" am happy that unemployment is at an all time low for "ALL" including African Americans/Hispanics. "I" am happy to see the economy exploding and jobs coming back to this country. "I" am happy to see tax cuts that increased my paycheck and bonuses given out to millions of Americans because of it. "I" am happy that we are working to secure our borders and have a President who supports our military, police and law enforcement agents. "I" do stand for the flag and support our veterans. "I" am so happy that "WE" did not elected the most corrupt, disingenuous, morally bankrupt and dishonest woman ever to run for public office as leader of the free world. "WE" can all agree with that...........
1
Maureen -- Succinct wisdom at the beginning; the rest of the column was just getting started...
17
I am sorry to see my comment misaddressed; it was intended for the blamer beneath us.
Never getting anywhere blaming the road conditions on a map.
Can't blame Mo for Trump getting over on US. She wasn't defending his disgusting behavior. Murdoch does that. Made a living off of men who do that.
too bad you didn't figure all this out before you wrote all your election period columns
162
We do want a president who will cut taxes, secure our border, build the wall, strengthen our military, appoint constitutional judges, defend our allies including Israel and not support those countries that want to destroy Israel including the U.N. I can accept Trump's flaws because of the above.
Obama was corrupt and used the FBI, DOJ, and IRS to harass conservatives, spy on the Trump campaign, and knowingly sold American uranium to the Russians which ultimately ended up in Iran. Obama was a Muslim sympathizer who empowered Iran and hated Israel.
17
Wait a minute, you missed a couple--i) Obama wasn't born in America, and ii) HRC ran a child sex ring out of a pizza shop.
5
Traces of a Fox News devotee. Constitutional judges? Just one of the many talking points of the Right that is more advertising slogan than anything factual. Both liberals and conservative judges follow the Constitution. Most cases involve a balance of two or more constitutional principles or interests. The two camps come up with different balances. A liberal will for instance place a higher priority for clean air and water over the economic interests of corporations, the conservative vice versa. Having studied Constitutional law and most of the time agreeing with the great scholars on the left, I'm offended that the Right and their media have cast the issues in such a simplistic talking point. Secure borders. Tell me that the Obama administration didn't deport criminals in large numbers. Tell me this: if Trump brags that crossings are way, way down, almost nil, why the need for the wall? Seems we've caught him in another lie, perhaps. How many acts of terror perpetrated by immigrants from his select countries on the travel ban have we had in three decades. Perhaps it's all bluster that gullible people eat up like candy.
3
They are so much more than “flaws”. The man is immoral, valueless, and totally self centered. While he may try to give you some of what you want the price democratic institutions will suffer may not be recoverable. Those institutions are far more important than anything on your “wants” list in the long run.
2
Don’t your columns on “shifty” Hillary now seem quaint?
127
No, they seem vicious, misogynistic and wrong.
7
We don’t want a president who is too shallow to read his daily intelligence report
You call this shallow? I call it stupid, incapable of comprehension.
96
It's beyond stupid. It's dereliction of duty.
4
If Kelly is a military hero, then bring on the traitors.
Oh wait.
That is what Traitor Trump is doing.
56
We don’t but all those women at his rallies wearing the “touch me here Donald” t-shirts sure did, and all those right wing Christians and unhappy white supremicists braying “Lock her up!” sure did and all those women-abusing Fox News personalities sure did and Putin and his bots sure did and all those poor saps who believed he was going to make them rich sure did and all those RINOs who didn’t care as long as he cut their taxes and killed environmental regulations and sprayed oil all over those global warming hippies sure did and it turns out there are millions of them who sure did.
85
Yes, but they'll be drowned in a Blue Wave, We hope,
2
I don’t want to read yet another NYT columnist who lives in an echo chamber of dripping hatred for this President.
Outside the NY/California liberal orthodoxy there lies a nation that Trump WON by over 3 million votes.
Time for a road trip, Maureen.
17
In other words, you're asserting that liberal NY/California doesn't have "real Americans" in it, whose votes shouldn't even be counted? If you're not willing to make that statement better come to grips with the fact that Trump lost the popular vote by 3 million.
No Republican president has won two popular votes since Reagan; but every Democrat has.
18
Um. Won by 3 million votes? That is a 6 million vote shift from the official tally that gave Hillary 3 million votes more than Trump.
I guess it is understandable when your president keeps insisting that he won by an unprecedented margin, that it must have been him who actually won the popular vote.
10
Why is it that you conservatives are constantly wanting to invalidate or minimize the population of both New York and California? Are they somehow less 'American' than fly over country? I hear a lot of noise of how 'unfair' it'd be if the coasts were able to 'dictate' over the rural states, but somehow that doesn't extend to the coasts. It's 'democratic' to allow rural states say over the coasts, but not vice versa. Something wrong with that picture.
15
Do you have a guilty conscience, Ms Dowd?
51
Bring your shine box, maureen, trumps shoes are a little dusty.
5
'Dreckitude' really says it all.
39
Dear NY Times,
Maureen Dowd has written a passionate "anti-manifesto" on what we "don't want in a President". My favorite paragraph is this one--
"We don’t want a president who bends over backward to give the benefit of the doubt to neo-Nazis, wife beaters, pedophiles and sexual predators — or who is a sexual predator himself. We don’t want a president who thinks #me is more important than #metoo."
Dowd captures the essence of being ruled by this narcissist who is doing the bidding of corporations, polluters, and corrupt pigs. A President whose ego makes it impossible to admit that the 2016 vote was plundered by the Russians, making his election a fraud. I worry that he will ruin the country in the eyes of the world, backed all the way down the sewer by his resentful, right-wing "base".
97
We want President Obama back! And apologies from this op-ed columnist for all the swipes she took at him.
150
I loved Obama. But no, we don't want him back. He was a terrible politician, even though I think he's a great man. His race was divisive -- he couldn't help that, but that helped create the voters who supported Trump He did not inspire the Democrats to develop leadership capabilities, nor to find a presidential candidate who appealed to "ALL Americans" and who would not think of adversaries as "deplorables". Unfortunately, his race was divisive. Dems needed a candidate who could appeal to Trump's followers, invite them into the world of education-for-work, healthcare, continued prosperity. He was not a great leader.
2
YES. This op-ed columnist ridiculed President Obama in many of her columns.
A president whose office was untainted by one single scandal, whose intelligence wisdom and intellect prevailed in all he did, who treated people with humanity and civility. What a tragic contrast with what runs the office now. I fear that DT is not going anywhere soon. What is even more tragic is the millions of followers he has and the support of the GOP, who seem
to be unfazed by his despicable ways. One can only weep for this country!
6
What else do you "we" want?
Dump Trump!
That’s all, folks...
57
Better late than never Maureen.
62
Yes, we’ve quickly learned what the misogynistic, racist white male patriarchy is all about. It’s simply dark and terrifying and here’s the list of actions taken that I, 77 year-old white male, wish I had never lived to see. But, like my Holocaust family, I must bear witness to the following:
I don’t want to see hundreds of thousands of Hispanic immigrants deported.
I don’t want 13 million people denied health insurance so the rich can have tax cut.
I don’t want the pillars of our Constitutional democracy—the Justice Department and FBI—
politicized and demeaned and dismantled.
I don’t want middle class taxes raised, as with the cap on state and local taxes, to benefit the rich.
I don’t want a President and Chief of Staff using the flag and racial stereotypes to support
Confederate generals while slurring African-American professional football players and
an African-American Congresswoman.
I don’t want a President who plays nuclear chicken with North Korea.
I don’t want a President who is mentally unstable and who clearly suffers from a
narcissistic personality disorder.
164
Well Maureen, now you get it. A little too late but now you get it.
83
Right on Ms. Dowd, as usual. Though I wouldn’t glorify Kelly as a military hero. He is a clown.
45
I don't know what Maureen Dowd is talking about. Clearly "we" do want callow, vain, shrill, insecure, vapid, racist, incompetents running all aspects of important government business. Mr Trump was elected and from the looks of it, will be re-elected. We're looking at 8 years here. Ms Dowd played her part in helping this happen, with her tabloid fever write-ups on Mrs Clinton and Barack Obama (a man she oh so cleverly insisted on calling "Barry"--disrespectful!) so what is she going on about now?
112
Why in the name of all that's holy do you think this loser will be re-elected? It's far more likely that he'll be impeached.
4
I agree in principle, but very thin blah...blah...blah.
7
Ouch! Ms Dowd is a little too harsh on Henry Kissinger. At least Henry knew how to wield American Power effectively unlike Rex and the Trumpster. On the other hand, Henry does need to acknowledge his mistakes: that bad business in East Timor is a blot on his record but also the fact that he recruited that idiot Sean Parker into Bilderberg.
7
Why is it do difficult to see Kissinger for the war criminal he is? East Timor? Remember Vietnam?
1
Henry Kissinger is a war criminal who should be in jail.
1
Kissinger is a war criminal.
2
Summed up - we didn't want unindicted Hillary or Obama in the WH.
11
Actually we did want Obama (the first President to twice receive more than 50% of the popular vote since Eisenhower!) but the Constitution said no.
Hillary will remain unindicted but the Big Loser probably not.
4
Um, you DO know that President Obama was limited to two terms, right? And that he got elected twice?
2
But, we who voted, elected Clinton over Trump by nearly 3 million votes. Only the anachronistic electoral college, a sop to slave-owning states (now known as the fly-over states), put the dotard in office.
3
Bravo!
4
Maureen....no mention of Hillary and Bill and your own unrelenting attacks on them for years and years? Your snark is one reason, perhaps only a small reason but a reason nonetheless, that we are in this mess. And today's column is a sad rehash of things that have been written by many others over the past week.
66
Maureen Dowd is speaking for millions of us. I was not a Hillary supporter but I voted for her to avoid the unthinkable Trump. I have many issues with Obama: transparency, bombing Syria etc, etc. But Trump? Goodbye country - unless we vote him out.
2
Steve, we're staying point, staring down the demon in the WH, today. Today, Trump is the topic. Why? Because he is, God forgive me, the president, today. That is what matters. Stay focused.
Righteous Indignation Abounds....
4
Indeed, and rightly so...
2
you go, mo. as we know, the declaration of independence is similar in format to your piece today; a complaint and an indictment of the virus that is trump. lets hope the real ones are coming soon and fbi officials find some spine to stand up to orange blowhard. maybe we can call your piece the declaration of american sanity; 2018.
and also agreed re war criminal kissinger. when are we handing him to the world court for prosecution? and including his pal in despicableness, cheney.
8
You can draw a straight line from Nixon through Reagan, to W and Palin, and finally to Trump, as America decided that its highest office housed a job that any moron could do. Well, now you get to see whether any moron can do it. I think it's abundantly clear that this is exactly the sort of president America wants - you've been practicing for him for more than forty years. If that's not so, then show the world in November.
33
We're gonna! Remember that the Big Clown got 46% of the vote against a truly terrible candidate.
All I remember is your attacking columns on HC and fawning over Trump... so now you know what YOU want. Thanks for nothing.
69
She did attack Clinton. She was despicable in the way she talked about Obama. But she didn't fawn on Trump. Writing that someone is mentally ill hardly constitutes fawning.
1
Who is "we"?
8
Pains me to say it: "We" is is the un-you!
1
New York liberals, of course.
A prize-winning column.Maureen you are back where you belong. Enough celebrity interviews. This column should be mandatory reading for every American. It is time to out Trump.
8
What we as America doesn't need is a Press that Hides the truth if your a democrat, That helps to weaponize the government to effect an election or remove a duly elected candidate from office because he's rolling back the socialist liberal new world order you all believe in... were not Europe or Russia Or china ,what is being exposed is Illegal here.. I'm personally proud of our closet conservative that became president..he also got that over all of you ,you didn't have a clue he was a conservative ..after all he was a democrat until he ran for office
9
Let's stop listing our wishlists and decide what we will do, every day, to accomplish what we want for our country. And that goes beyond writing columns.
20
Remembering Selma, and if 20,000 Americans can cross The Bridge peacefully to carry America over; 20 million Americans can walk to Washington and ask for change.
3
Time to focus on a good candidate, who understands the next frontiers for democracy, and Election Days:
6 Nov 2018
3 Nov 2020
It’s apparent to most of us that the administration can’t even understand itself let alone negotiate “good deals” with others.
Democrats should stop wasting energy - pretending to “come to the table” as if this is government as usual - and focus on organizing the government that we need.
Vote. Vote. Vote.
It’s the only real solution.
31
I'm not really sure who the "we" in this column is supposed to represent.
I think outside the beltway, or indeed outside Ms. Dowd's office, a lot of people really don't care about Trump's abusive behavior, or lack of morality, or intelligence. As stated in the opening paragraphs , the voters dismissed "brainy nuance" in favor of this boor -- not that they had any alternative.
You give the American public too much credit. You Ms. Dowd may want these things, but my guess is that most people who live between the Hudson River and San Francisco bay, could care less.
12
You are right, there is no honor amongst the DC thieves.
And it goes back in time through and including the last few administrations.
The lack of honor and leadership to do what is right is a bipartisan cancer that has metastasized into the higher levels of otherwise honorable agencies such as FBI, State and Justice.
We need Accountability through term limits, removal of money from lobbying, small hard dollar caps on campaign financing.
Americans will dial in and uphold the values when we have these obvious ideas implemented joined by some part of media that goes back on mission to inform without bias and with respect to us, the citizens.
Right now, media does not respect us and the government thinks we work for them.
Exercise your rights...
...fire them all, all of them.
Re rack.
11
Wow, someone ACTUALLY gets it. Bravo!
When summoned to testify (in this case as a character witness for the unnamed "Marine") one must do so, truthfully. If Kelly testified in favor of the man's character, perhaps he knew only favorable things (he probably had no knowledge of the man's private life). Until convicted, the accused must be presumed innocent, and the nature of the accusations does not invalidate Kelly's testimony on the basis of his personal knowledge.
3
Article begins with good analysis of Trump's ascent, but the rest reads like a campaign speech draft.
Also, older Americans like me were taught that "whom" is the dative object form, not the direct object. (who we are and whom we don’t want to be).
7
This article begins with a photo of a previously low-profile nonverbal staffer NOW SHARING CONVERSATION with "her boss" ... a technical strategy well-known to be used by this current administration. "Let's show them." (I even use the quotation marks for which this current administration is known.)
The content is correctly defined ... a list (though incomplete) ... as what we hope can be stopped AND is recognized going forward as behavior that is not conducive to a thriving environment.
Resist. Live long and prosper. In peace.
6
Some day I want to see a picture of Trump talking to Madeline Albright, Donna Shillalah (sp?) Ruth Ginsberg or other brilliant woman who is not 6 foot tall & beautiful. (Sorry if I offended these 3 ladies.)
7
Progressives just don't get it. You put us on the path of "diversity celebration", but in doing so, you created a hierarchy of entitlement based upon race, gender, and creed. You pushed it in our schools, over the airwaves, in social media, and in the workplace. President Obama made it a point to assure the world there was nothing special about America; that we are guilty of colonialism and oppression - and the new America was going to pay for our arrogance. President Trump understands our desire to be One America; to be the driving economic power in the world; to be the shining city on the hill for all the people of the world to see. You don't accomplish that by cutting us up into little diverse segments and pieces, all speaking their own language, all with their own values and morals, and all with unique agendas. Progressives just don't get it. And sadly, I doubt you ever will.
9
I understand what you are saying but see things a bit differently. This America is already showing significant differences in culture, language, values and morals...just between whites. It takes a lot of time and patience for folks who have immigrated to the US to "Americanize." Early immigrants to the US (Irish, Italian and others) were ostracized for being "different." I see diversity as broadening our understanding and appreciation of our fellow man. Offering everyone a better quality of life economically, good healthcare and education, and promoting strong parenting (by setting good examples) will make this melting pot of a country more harmonious.
3
Our country is about diversity, pluralism and the integrity of different ethnic groups hammering out democracy and the rule of law...that is America's soft power. That is its strength. All the values, morals and agendas are the same...the four freedoms, opportunities for economic success and the rights of rule of law.
In that context, we must confront the growing menace/influence of Putin's Russia who wants to make Russia great again by supporting authoritarian suppressive regimes.
Perhaps you are able to sequester yourself with like-minded people but most of us city dwellers live in a different diverse world.
The shining city on the hill is full of self-serving politicians bought by the rich to
serve up their distorted view of growing urban populations.
As a member of the Republican party of a different era, I hope someday you will view your country not with contempt but what it offers its citizens.
3
"President Obama made it a point to assure the world there was nothing special about America." Whoever told you that LIED to you. Go read Obama's speech at Selma:
“What could be more American than what happened in this place? What could more profoundly vindicate the idea of America than plain and humble people –- unsung, the downtrodden, the dreamers not of high station, not born to wealth or privilege, not of one religious tradition but many, coming together to shape their country’s course?
…That’s why Selma is not some outlier in the American experience... It is instead the manifestation of a creed written into our founding documents: “We the People…in order to form a more perfect union.” “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal.”
…The American instinct that led these young men and women to pick up the torch and cross this bridge, that’s the same instinct that moved patriots to choose revolution over tyranny. It’s the same instinct that drew immigrants from across oceans and the Rio Grande; the same instinct that led women to reach for the ballot, workers to organize… led us to plant a flag at Iwo Jima and on the surface of the Moon.
It’s the idea held by generations of citizens who believed that America is a constant work in progress… It requires the occasional disruption, the willingness to speak out for what is right, to shake up the status quo. That’s America. That’s what makes us unique…”
3
Thank you. Very clear, concise and so true.
4
Ms. Dowd is wrong. The Republican Party wants all of that Trumpian Dysfunction as a humongous distraction factor as long as it can play its Regressive Values Game (Gorsuch, voter suppression, gerrymandering, etc) and keep the Corporatist Kleptocrats (EPA destruction, tax giveaways, etc) happy. Trump is as much a feature as he is a bug of Republican downward deviancy.
(And Ms Dowd should remember that people like her oh-so-smart brother do love Trump, too. Random vandalism and pilfering like his does thrill the teenage mind.)
19
Could not have said it any better - just a perfect synopsis of our mess.
4
I will take Trump's "muscular certainty" over Obama's "brainy nuance" any day of the week.
10
I couldn't agree more, Bob. I may not care for the tweeting and some of the silliness we see, but I certainly do appreciate the agenda and the fact that things are getting done.
Thank God for President Trump. Everyday that I wake up and I'm reminded that Donald Trump is president, is a great day.
9
As always, right on the mark.
And don’t forget Henry Kissinger.
2
Hilary Clinton counts him, kissnger, as a friend whose advice she sought as sec of state. so yes, I voted for her because I had to, but she would have been a president who would have sought advice from her"friend". I supported Sanders with close to $1000 until the ridiculously compromised dnc put their super delegate thumb on the scale snd anointed her. so while trump is an abomination, she was no bargain. better luck in 2020.
We don't want a president that seeks to avoid taxes and uses the office to enrich himself and his family while shifting the burden of taxes to the poor and middle class. We don't want a president that could be called Ivan the terrible.
49
WE THE PEOPLE do not want the kind of United States of America - or world - like the one you describe either, Ms. Dowd.
Everyone in OUR United States of America came here, via their immigrant ancestors, for a better life in some way. They came to escape religious prosecution or to escape "class" discrimination. They came here to create a more equitable place for ALL people.
However, the same kind of war-mongering, power-grabbing,socially unconscious, insatiably greedy white European men who have caused chaos, war, destruction, rape-pillage-plunder since weapons were created are now trying to destroy the world again.
WE THE PEOPLE have seen a better, more peaceful way to live and WE will not go gently into the night. WE will stop the International Mafia Robber Barons from destroying OUR lives and OUR world again - by whatever means necessary.
This must not stand in OUR United States of America - or world. Not now. Not ever again.
31
Actually, the Spanish came over to grab stuff and shove Catholicism down people's throats--often quite literally--and the sainted Pilgrims came over to create a radical Protestant dictatorship.
Might be good to find out who, say, Anne Hutchinson and Roger Williams were.
Barry is looking pretty good about now huh?
83
He always has, to me.
22
Not really.
1
Me too.
Oh, we don't want such a president? Maybe next time, then, Maureen Dowd, don't spend decades relentlessly and deliberately and viciously trashing the candidate who IS qualified. And when we DO have a qualified, accomplished, distinguished and successful president like Barack Obama (whom I notice you no longer call "Barry"), don't relentlessly mock him, either, just to get attention for yourself.
266
Obama didn't run against Trump, Dw, and he allowed the one who did run against him to do everything she did while in office, and everything all his other agency heads did: IRS (which has apologized); FBI, DOJ, as well as Secretary of State.
3
Amen!
3
Tell us what qualifications Trump has. Please be specific.
1
Berzelius "Buzz" Windrip is alive, well, and occupying the White House. "It Can't Happen Here;" unfortunately, it already did. And the current Doremus Jessups of the world still refuse to use words like liar, predator, and idiot to describe the occupant. They're just words (thank you George Carlin).
39
Let's not leave out thief, hater, loser, self-worshiping empty vessel or enemy of the people (everywhere). Nobody wants IT in their family, business or living anywhere close to them - do they?
2
OH MAUREEN, my dear.
You ARE preaching to the choir. Like always. Isn't that in your job description? Why I read your bloated, cries from the left are beyond me, because your tantrums do NOTHING to change reality and the awful sticking point in this world called the electoral college. You hate that ,now, dont ya?
Perhaps, once, in that left mind of yours you could unravel THE REAL benefits of a system of governing by which THE PEOPLE choose whom they would like as their statesman.
For eight years we had your far left American hating monarch. Now. We have a flawed America loving fighter.
Get used to him, my dear, he IS, after all, a man who stands before the bullies of the world and screams to them just how much America Is RISING and SHINES.
I KNOW. I KNOW. you hate that.
Better America soars under a flawed man than drowns under a closet commie.
25
The people choose their leader. And here I thought that the majority of the American people voted against Trump.
Oh wait, I forgot about those 2 million illegal votes.
Dear Sean Hannity,
Trump is the "commie" - he has failed to protect us from Russia's attack on our democracy.
3
Why, then, "Lover of the Right Truth", are you reading the NYTimes? Opinion pieces, no less!
The NYTimes has taken great pride in accuracy (truth, that is!).
No alt-facts allowed.
An OPINION, however, is 'allowed to be' slanted, so long as it doesn't mess with the actual facts. When Maureen says "We don't want..." she means herself and whoever agrees - which is, of course, most of the NYTimes readers, who choose to depend on this source of news because it is worthy. Trustworthy. Newsworthy.
3
The NYT kept telling us Hillary was going to win. How did this influence the election? Maybe the liberal press has some guilt in this whole mess.
28
Yours is probably a rhetorical question but I'm game. It is, I believe,one of the few times I have seen that point raised. I have always felt it played a part in Hillary's loss. The press even had Clinton believing she was inevitable, She was telling people how humble she felt when she was interviewed while on her way to vote on Election Day. Too soon.
I know of at least two people in the Philly area, where I believe the Democratic vote was lower than usual, who could not bring themselves to vote for either of the the two main candidates. They have voted for Democrats for years. They believed the press that Hillary was a shoo-in and didn't need their vote anyhow so one stayed home and the other voted third party.
However, I still blame the DNC for allowing a system of Super Delegates who it seems were all rounded up and place for Clinton about a year before the primaries even began. In addition they failed to properly and equally support other candidacies as they should have. If Clinton had prevailed over a stage full of primary candidates as Trump did her candidacy would not have been so difficult to accept. She would have truly felt like the people's candidate. Instead it felt like she was the choice of Wasserman Schultz and other out of touch big-wigs in the party. And the candidate also of the press, who barely knew the names of any of her primary opponents. She was always The One.
3
Pretty much everyone on this thread believes that Hillary Clinton would have been a better president. Nobody seems to care that she abetted her husband in his various attacks on women unfortunate enough to be in his orbit, fiercely defended him when she knew exactly what he was doing and made life hell for the women he abused. But nothing sticks to Hillary.
Now the evidence is mounting that she paid a British spy to get dirt on Donald Trump from Russian operatives he knew who are former KGB. That dirt, totally unsubstantiated by the testimony of James Comey himself, was used as the primary evidence for a surveillance warrant from the FISA court to spy on what was believed to be a key Trump aide. But nothing sticks to Hillary.
Trump may be rude and crude and naturally not the president preferred by the Left, which clearly wanted a president who would have continued Obama's drive to make this a secular-socialist welfare state, but the American people got tired of a president who was making them defenseless, hopeless, helpless, penniless and powerless - except for his leftist allies and billionaires who never cared for the American people in the first place.
Trump gets things done, and he tells people what he really thinks, and he's not even close to the pathological liars that Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama are. If he can just get Mitch McConnell to kill the filibuster so that Chuck Schumer doesn't have full control of the Senate with his perpetual threats to close the government unless he always gets his way, the American people will have a government that is actually doing what was promised. That's what is driving the Left and their media lapdogs mad. It is not the idea that Trump might fail, it is the horrible prospect that he might succeed and display for all to see the total failure of every idea the Democrats have.
38
The Left doesn't care about anything Hillary may have done because their issues are with Trump's agenda, period.
I have always been puzzled at how they process this: More immigration means more competition for middle class and lower class jobs; business is the main force that doesn't understand the word "illegal"--and yet the Left doesn't recognize that the Democrats have become the party of business, and the Republicans have become the party that is helping average Americans earn a decent wage and have a chance at a job they didn't have before.
3
"Trump gets things done . . ."
Sure he does.
Just as he promised, the wall has been built and Mexico paid for it.
16
Please tell us just what has HE has accomplished, aside from alienating the FREE world against us and gladly pitting American citizens against each other, trying to remove checks and balances from our government, and surrounding himself with incompetent yes-men/women? It is well documented and verified that he doesn't even read bills, OR the daily reports made specifically for the POTUS! He's just a carnival barker ! And as much as we make fun of him and his tweets and incompetence, we do that as a way to relieve our fear of what he may do next!
I truly don't understand why his followers/believers choose not to read MANY outlets that will offer truths about him and what HE truly wants. It takes courage to see what you don't want to see, but as an American citizen it is your responsibility.
A chillingly obvious omen, was his Oval Office meeting with the Russians and that eye-squinting, genuine smile, versus ANY OTHER smile you have seen on his face since taking office. He was overjoyed. He admires dictators, he aspires to become one. If you don't believe that, then don't clap at one of his speeches, and see if he calls you a traitor. Some words are NOT cheap. In fact, in a democracy, they can be very dangerous. He is uneducated and doesn't care to be informed. A bully doesn't EVER take care of the bigger, more important picture. This man is dangerous! Congress is doing NOTHING to protect us. Read about 1930s Germany. History can and DOES repeat itself.
1
Thank God Trump won.
25
Your God loves a three time married adulterer who brags about assaulting women? I'm uninterested in your God.
2
Like many others, Ms. Dowd expresses disdain for Trump in a manner that communicates that any idiot should understand. At the same time she worries that those who support him will find others to carry on his legacy. The clear message is that Trump supporters are idiots. Trump got the vote of most veterans and most middle class whites. A recent editorial introduced an admirable Trump supporter. Ms. Dowd doesn’t go there. Not knowing the opposition while accusing them all of being idiots is the very essence of identity politics.
18
"Admirable" and "Trump supporter" are contradiction in terms for everyone except the bubble dwellers and haters who continue to support this scoundrel.
2
NYT folks keep talking about what ifs in the election. The Election is over, Hillary lost!
30
Curious, nowhere in Ms. Dowd's column does the word "election" appear. Rather, it is filled with the discouraging and dangerous consequences that have resulted from that election. Time to recognize that the president is responsible for things, not just the ones he claims he accomplished, like the absence of airline crashes.
3
"Hillary" is not what this is about; the word represents the Left, and the next election, regardless of who is running on "her" ticket, because as has become crystal clear, it WAS her ticket, regardless of anyone else who may have deserved it. She bought it, and by God, she was going to have it.
2
The election is over. But there are others coming up and it does help to know what went wrong and how it might be fixed. Democrats don't believe in leaving it all up to the stars and their Maker. And maybe the Russians.
2
It is wonderful to see that Maureen Dowd has at last found the appropriate target for her dismissive and nasty way of dealing with figures like the Clintons and Obama. This is a wonderful column, but a little late in the game. But better late.....
28
You helped elect him, ivory tower hypocrite.
61
Maureen, seek help child, quickly! Obama's brainy nuance? He couldn't speak intelligently without the aid of his teleprompter and weren't you the one calling him out on his big ears to 'toughen him up'? What? No quintessential aid for Donald?! I read your list of "We don't want a president...", but guess what sweet cheeks, the last dude in the Oval Office, I too can do a laundry lists of what I don't want in a president just as easily. I can also do a laundry list of what I don't want in a political party, like the Dems, who seemed to think themselves as some moral compass... The party that just 20 years ago, defended and rallied behind the likes of Bill "it's all about sex" and "put some ice on it" Clinton, who, in case you forgot, rented the Lincoln bedroom as if it were Motel 6 (apologies to Motel 6)! I could counterpoint every item you listed with recent events brought to us by the other side. Now you seem to try to pass yourself off as an intelligent person, and I think deep down, you know the Left, like todays news journalists, is just as sleazy as you try to make out the current administration. Like I said, seek help.
25
A lot of hot air and the usual personal complaints by the usual parrots.
Even in the face of reality where across the board national economics is spurred, people are making more money, and the attempt to get the border control issues resolved - all we get is the same ole same ole personal attacks.
I'll take Trump because even though I was nervous about him at first, he's pushing more conservative measures than anyone since Reagan. He's no Reagan of course, he he's on the right course for the nation.
NYT and the rest of the "moral" justice brigade just cant get past the idea there was no collusion except for the democrat party we now find out. They cant past the idea that you cannot berate and judge a guy's entire life because he did locker room talk. Pretty disgusting comming from the likes of people who aggressively defended Bill and even worse - Hillary's actions to smear those women.
Oh and unlike Obama the master of "I", Trump actually emphases "We".
What a smarmy out of touch article, and that's while you'll lose again next time around. Normal everyday people dont think like you Maureen, or the faux offended at everything types here.
20
I'm sorry, just choked on my coffee. The most narcissistic individual who has ever disgraced the White House emphasizes "We"? If Trump ever says "we" he means his holy trinity, me, myself, or I.
1
"Oh and unlike Obama the master of 'I', Trump actually emphases 'We'".
Trump doesn't care about this country.
Trump doesn't care about the people who work for him.
Trump doesn't care about his family or the women he married.
His behavior shows thatTrump cares about TRUMP.
He will betray ANYONE if given the opportunity.
1
he doesn't know what he is signing.
2
about time Maureen Dowd hits hard on criticizing Donald Trump compared to her sympathetic tone pre-election 2016, alittle too late.
50
First: Congratulations on finally managing to write a column without mentioning or blaming you know who.
Second: Couldn‘t you have grasped all this in, say, 2016?? Your hindsight is 20:20.
79
I was hoping this week’s Sunday Review column bumpy Maureen Dowd would’ve explored the complexities of Hope Hick’s relationship to Donald Trump. We all know Trump shouldn’t be sleeping in Lincoln’s bedroom and that there is a good chance that Henry Kissinger is a war criminal so it’s absurd that Trump met with him. But, oh, what is Trump doing to Hope Hicks and why is she standing over his shoulder at his Oval Office desk?
Are not Hicks and Trump a perfect Times’ subject for one of Dowd’s often snarky columns?
Hicks has had affairs (of the heart?) with Mormon Orrin Hatch’s former chief of staff, also a good Mormon, and Trump’s former right hand man, the journalist arm bruiser, Corey Lewandowski. This is surely enough good salacious political material for a Dowd op-Ed piece.
Yes, where is Maureen Dowd when we need her!
16
Maureen Dowd, you are a rock star - YOU have the best words.
12
We didn't want the most corrupt person ever running for president so mthat's why she lost, MAGA!
15
You and your brother helped create this monster.
52
Perhaps, Ms. Dowd, you should have thought of all this before spending so much time and so many column inches trashing Hilary during the 2016 campaign?
67
Well put
9
The common, working American is sick and tired of the jaded liberals, the globalists, the members of the resistance, and faded media, along with the marxist brainwashing of the millenniums. We will just put Donald Trump back in office in 2020 in spite of all your criticism. We are not impressed by your pseudo-intellectuality. We did it before and we'll do it again. The media has failed us and they will fail us again.
15
"We will just put Donald Trump back in office in 2020 in spite of all your criticism."
Not so fast.
Trump has to get the GOP nomination first.
A reliable source (someone who has a history of raising money to elect Republicans) told me that he expects Trump will face primary competition.
Stay tuned.
2
I AM the common working American. And I am none of those identities you describe with implied disdain.
I should remind you that he did not WIN the majority of the American vote, regardless of how you choose to disqualify that number. AND he had the specific help of the Russians. WHY oh WHY doesn't that frighten you??
You are using the exact wording that Hilter's and his regime used to completely corrupt that government.
Just what have I done to you, for you to totally trash my values and needs, and the safety of this democracy ?
2
"A military hero like general kelly who made the ultimate sacrifice of losing a son in war should have a higher standard for integrity and honor, the words he lavished on his disgraced aide, Porter."
Plenty of families have lost sons in the Iraq war, their sacrifice is as horrible as his.
There is no integrity or honor with kelly. kelly is a lying bigoted slug. kelly is a huge embarrassment to the Marine Corps and should resign, post haste.
37
GIGO
"Trump doesn't care if he's selling garbage policies."
Trump calling Mr. Porter “bad garbage."
This entire administration can be summarized in four simple words:
GARBAGE IN.....GARBAGE OUT!
20
Wait a minute, didn't Hillary write effusively about Henry Kissinger in her pre campaign book? Pretty tricky, Maureen Dowd.
7
Dowd should apologise to all her readers for supporting this useless basket case of a president over Hilary Clinton when he was running for office as a preface for this change of heart article.
27
And by extension through your snark, bile and wit, Mo, you managed to aid and abet this man you now so full-throatedly denounce. Your country thanks you. Keep up the good work. Way to go. Kudos. You’re now just as eager as Trump for a pat on the back.
18
Hmmm i smell the rotting stench of hypocrisy!
19
Dear Mr. Bennet, Editorial Page Editor and Head of the Opinion Department,
I believe your Opinion page has been hacked by the Russians. For proof, please see Maureen Dowd's column, "Trump Shows Us the Way."
Either that, or Ms. Dowd has finally come to her senses with the overwhelming deluge of appalling/disgusting behavior coming out of the Trump White House, behavior which a majority of people, including readers of this column, Socrates, Susan Anderson, Suzanne Moniz, gemli, Larry Eisenberg, R. Law, Karen Garcia and so many more of your informed readers, have been pointing out for years now.
Can you please check and clarify what has happened to Ms. Dowd?
Sincerely,
A Concerned Reader
16
Maureen,
Should Trump gets impeached, you deserve some of the credit.
3
we don't want this clown as President of the United States of America.
Period.
7
And we surely didn’t want a President who was a congenital liar, utterly corrupt and unaccomplished.
6
You mean Obama?
3
Great description of Hillary, thank you
1
Great column, Maureen--hope it's not just temporary sanity on your part. A lot of us would have like to have read something like this piece during the election year instead of a valentine to Trump and another one of your obsessive screeds about the Clintons. Those who need to read this, won't--they'll be watching the video of the NRA chick burning a copy of the Times--but I want to believe that there will be a tipping point for this rogue administration when even some diehards will wake up and smell the stink coming out the White House.
67
Maureen seems to forget her contribution to Trump's victory. She trolled Hillary Clinton for decades, far longer than any Russian bot ever has.
79
We don't want Trump!
14
During the campaign, Maureen Dowd constantly denigrated Hilary (and Obama), but was strangely sympathetic to Trump. Now she wags her finger at his boorish behavior? She helped elect this misogynistic buffoon!
74
Did Joy Reid co-write this piece?
Apparently, Mo has got the message that she needed to be tough on Trump to the point of saying, "we do not need him" in order to keep the cash cow of digital subscribers ponying up their dollars time after time to keep this newspaper afloat.
Better late than never, huh?
11
No, we don’t.
2
wow. NYT readers sound exactly like FOXNEWS watchers. Just the names have changed. No wonder this nation is in such complete disorder.
5
With John Kelly one has to question whether his voice would have been heard at the Gun Ri Massacre during our engagement in the Korean War. Was his voice heard during the My Lai massacre in VietNam? Was his voice heard when presented with false claims of Weapons of Mass Destruction. And Abu Gahriab was calling you John, did you pick up or were you just along for the ride? So many court-martial offenses, so many let go free……….
7
Maureen, how is it relevant that Hope Hicks was dating Porter?
The worst enemy of women in the workplace, sadly, is often other women.
6
Exactly.
1
Thank you.
1
Excellent column
1
“And I don’t want to vilify another presidential candidate that I don’t like so that a cretin is elected who will do everything possible to destroy our country.” Not that I want to put words into your mouth ms Dowd but - I really do and you deserve them.
26
Dowd,, you use the word "we" throughout ... but, it isn't we, its you .. You don't want this or that ... Most of America is quite happy that Donald Trump stomped on the corrupt Hillary and sent her back to the cough drop factory ..
6
"most of America" 3 million more of us DID NOT vote for thr trump crime family.
1
Well, Thank you. WHere've you been?
This is the best dissembling of Trump's scattered beliefs.
This is the Dowd that took Obama to task for his shorycomings.
Please continue Maureen. You have work to do.
6
Is it any wonder that Trump thinks of himself as a dictator? Every single day Congressional Republicans support him and ignore their duty to censure him. Can you imagine what would have happened to Hillary Clinton if she were President and behaved as Trump and his cronies have? There is no end to their hypocrisy and it will remain this way until Puppet Trump is no longer useful. Any bets on whether or not he will get his parade? He will probably order the Armed Services to change their marching step to mimic Nazis or Italian Fascists under El Duce.
16
Your “we don’t wants” are based on fake news, hyperbole and noncontextual comments.
3
"...the allure of Barack Obama’s brainy nuance had given way to a longing...
Actually, the brainy nuance was quickly off-putting - even before we realized how destructively totalitarian it was...
The purported blank slate was what originally got our attention - as one NYT journalist so presciently wrote...
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/27/opinion/27dowd.html
"...a new blank slate in an old pickup truck...
Days of Future Passed - in another sense of the (album, not movie) phrase...
4
It is amazing how the NYT can continue to raise the bar of superfluous rhetoric:
" allure of Barack Obama’s brainy nuance ". Obama is a chicago con man. Trump is a NY con man. Obama stole money for health care companies. Trump is stealing money for military companies. What we do not need is whining journalists. What we do not need is a government that continues to destroy the happiness of its citizens.
2
Let's make this simple, Maureen Dowd: you helped elect him.
24
Recognize this fact or not, Trump is President (with Russian help) because a significant number of Americans are just like him writ small; mean little pieces of trash hiding in plain sight. Trump is a gangster, the fat cats are his lieutenants and his bass is his mob, resentful, eager for the spoils of his victory and for revenge. It may already be too late to stop the criminal conspiracy represented by Trump and the GOP now that they are in control of the system. Earnest opponents of Trump are seeking to use the law to rein him in. The outcome is a toss up as Trump is increasingly shaping the character of our national life. The advent of social media and the shadow it has cast over us all has provided an opportunity for a level of thought manipulation, consequence-free bad behavior and ignorance approval never seen before. What we now have is a permanent mob of vapid followers ready to worship whoever can deliver the next thrilling shock no matter how outrageous. You really can't blame the originators of these communication media; they may even have been well-intentioned as well as having a desire to profit from the next shiny object, but they and their minions are psychologically clueless and victims themselves of a pathology introduced into human society that may turn us all into Trump-like gibbering idiots if it doesn't do us all in by unleashing some apocalyptic consequences. From that perspective Trump and his followers are merely propagators of lethal contagion.
17
This’s the President that the Majority of White Men and Women wanted!
4
You are so right Maureen,
We Do not want that pathetic creature who stole the presidency thanks to Putin.But how can we get rid of IT? Pesticide, maybe?
10
Geez, Maureen, I knew I didn't want a president as you describe way back when he was running. Why didn't you? We all knew who he was, especially you, since you know him personally. Your brother Kevin liked him. But how could you?
I'll never understand it. Never in a million years, why you pushed him so hard and punished Hillary......
31
We don`t want a demented President , period . That is the crux of the problem . He is not well in the same manner that Caligula was not well .
3
The readership of the NYT lives in a hyper-echo-chamber-bubble. The only people that don't want DJT in office are the Coasties, RINOs and Limousine Liberals. If you want to know who wants him there leave your bastions of self worship and visit the heartland, where the real people despise both of those classes.
6
You pretty much cover how this idiot/possible sociopath got the the White House with the exception that; a lot of credit goes to CNN. The "centrist" of the three news channels give Trump WAY more time than any other candidate. The ratings rose. There is no doubt Trump can drive ratings. By the "sensible news channel" giving Trump so much time, it legitimized him. He wore into the Republican senses. And he won. I wonder how big Jeff Zucker's bonus was?
4
Trump is no horrific GOP anomaly: the historical record of lying and deceit is damning.
A superficial list includes Joe McCarthy, Nixon's southern racist strategy, Watergate, Iran-Contra, The Savings and Loan swindle, The Clarence Thomas/ Anita Hill hearings, The stolen presidential election by the GOP Supreme Court in 2000, 9-11, the manufactured Iraq war, the crash of 2008 and the final obscene treatment of Obama.
Quite a group of "patriots." Trump fits right in.
10
Gee Maureen, sure is good you spent all those years bashing Bill and Hillary, your role in tearing them down is part of the reason why we have an occupant of the Oval Office who embodies all of the traits you decry.
12
Right On! Ms. Dowd!
1
This column is Pulitzer-worthy.
Your words "We don't want ... a phallic demonstration of overcompensation.." have the unapologetic complexity of a Faulkner short story.
Structurally though, your polemic is linear like a Mies van der Rhoe design. It's the sum of less is more and more is more.
Thank you for waking me up as i sleep through the Mardi Gras weekend in we-never-sleep-New Orleans.
1
How can Trump drain the swamp, when he himself is the " SwampThing"?
7
Hey Maureen! I'll bet it feels good to stand for something!
1
So Ms. Dowd and the Times have devoted these valuable column inches to what can only be described as a temper tantrum in cadence, echoing the very same vituperation that her ilk in the press have flung at President Trump and his supporters for going on three years now. If she, the self styled opinion makers, and the American Left continue to inhabit their narrative where only dumb, racist bigots support the President and his policies they are going to have a long 7 years.
2
We’re all still waiting for an apology for your complicity in helping get the dotard elected.
49
Bottom line, Maureen..we don't want this president!
11
Maureen- wait isn't this what you wanted? You bashed Obama and Clinton mercilessly and now concerned that Trump is the President? Whoa...lets look back at where you have been Ma'am and how you contributed to this chaos.
64
and we don't want a President who makes a mockery of the presidency and spends more time in front of the mirror covering up his bald spots than reading the daily classified reports put in front of him, and where we now are seen by other nations as idiots for having elected a buffoon to lead the free world.
The Electoral College may have been a great idea by the founding fathers, but has created an abomination to sit in the oval office.
21
We don't want Hillary. We don't want Bernie. We don't want democrats. Blah blah blah. How about being positive and saying what you want, or is that too confusing.
18
Nice list. You should be required to end each column with a disclaimer that you so thoroughly trashed Hillary in 2016 that we got this clown car instead.
59
Wow! What a complete miss from Maureen.
Any progressive running for the White House after eight miserable years of a ead economy and a doubled national debt while America's enemies were being funded by our progressive Democrats would have been doomed to failure. That the candidate was a woman deserving to be convicted of multiple federal crimes was just icing on the Democrat cake.
Mr. Obama had hated the way America had been mankind's best try of running a fair country because of capitalism, patriotism, and the role og Christianity in our history and culture. Hillary is just the first of a sour string of Dems who will run into voters still sore over what Mr. Obama proudly did.
The last ten or twenty WH chiefs of staff have not proven to be out smartest or kindest people, but the one we have now sure beats Rahm and the Chicago gang.
8
You missed something Ms Dowd. We don't want a President who portrays us to the world as crass, ignorant, lewd, violent, lazy, fat, tasteless, artificial.... (I have run out of adjectives) because that is exactly what we are not.
16
"We don't want..."
I disagree. You DO want.... just in a more palatable package. I say that because beyond bad manners and other massive character deficiencies, Trump is just another Bush, or Reagan; a racist president leading a racist country. You are all dreamers, but in the way Ta-Nehisi Coates uses the term.
6
I usually refrain from shooting into the crowd of the NYT misinformed, but this hateful anti-Trump manifesto comes on the same day that Nadia Murad writes her excellent account of the genocide which followed our departure from Talafar and the Sinjar area, where American soldiers and support had to be during the final months of the American presence in the Iraq war. Remember, we called it, paradoxically, Operation New Dawn.
Iraqis in general, and most notably the Yazidi women in the north and the people of the southeast east of Basra were in absolute shock to know that former President Obama decided to unilaterally stop all border biometric identifications many months before the last troops left the country in December, 2011. As one Captain quipped, "George, we might as well paint a large sign saying 'Welcome to Iraq. Please visit our holy sights. And if you happen to see an American, please feel free to shoot him, as you are now not being identified.'
That is fact. So ask yourself, where in heck do you think the ISIS jihadists came from? Mars?
Thanks to our former president, who effectively ordered the borders open to terrorists, Iraq saw unimaginable horror that could have been avoided, and not just in Sinjar!
Maureen, if you want to trash our new President you should back up one notch and look at the last one! I ought to know. I was one of those who was ordered to do the dirty deed. Shame on Barack Obama!
8
If there is ever a way to punish Trump supporters for their short-sightedness, foolishness, idiocy, bad judgment, jingoism, xenophobia, love of authoritarians, hypocrisy, ignorance and inability or lack of interest distinguishing lies from truth, I would be all for it. Trump is filth at the top, but the bottom feeders who enable and defend him need to be shown responsibility.
18
Do you want Mike Pence a "religious nut" (I take that expression from Barry Goldwater) who want to impose his religious discriminatory views and build a theocracy? Because, if you get rid of Trump (impeachment, resignation), Mike Pence got the job.
5
Who is "we?" Comrade Bonespurs has lots of supporters, although it is hard to believe anyone would support him. How is it that the Republicans are so weak & afraid that they cannot stand up to his constant assault on Democracy, the free press, immigrants, science, misogyny, the list is long.
No matter how many pieces you pen decrying Trump, it does not make up for your support of him during the campaign. Where was your disgust then Maureen? Did you not see that attacking H. Clinton would help him get elected?
Every day I ask myself how Trump got into the White House. It is clear to me that he picked the lock, and now we are saddled with the most incompetent, corrupt, and yes criminal person ever to inhabit the Oval Office.
27
The problem Ms D is Who are "we"?
Obviously we "the people" do not speak with one voice.
Do "the people" really get the politicians they deserve?
"...the allure of Barack Obama’s brainy nuance" brought out the best in many.
But the worst in many others--desperate to destroy him. Why?--because he spoke in complete sentences, defending policies with reasons instead of invective and spittle. Tried not to foul the planet nest. Made them look bad--a black man. What does that say about "we the people"?
They include the humiliated birther Trump--“he can finally get back to..issues that matter, like: Did we fake the moon landing? What really happened in Roswell? And where are Biggie and Tupac?”--who now measures his Id by how much Obama he can undo.
Have Americans or even Trumpies moved on to "longing for a more muscular certainty?
"Muscular" meaning what? Brawny vs brainy? Certainly not literally--he couldn't keep up with Merkel in Europe--insisting on a golf cart--yet some still applaud.
Political "muscle"? Is what? Tough Guy? --
Making DP's out of many thousands of kids? "Out of my yard."
Insulting the county's neighbors and allies? "Who needs you--unless you kiss my ring?"
Wallowing in the depths some women will fall for money--"They let you do it!" And being fulfilled.
Drooling over military parades of Putin and Kim Jong-un--
The American President's Idols--because it's treason not to applaud them.
11
So at last Ms. Dowd has written a piece in which she does not shift halfway through to attacking the Clintons or Obama. A big step forward for her. Nice of the NYtimes to keep her on the payroll all these years with her fixation. However, difficult to forget journalists like her helped put Trump in office. Now she writes a full on complaining piece about how we don't want a president like Trump. How about a piece where Ms. Dowd says, I was wrong and my "brother" was/is wrong too?
28
“As a more lucid Trump tweeted in 2012 about Rihanna getting back together with Chris Brown, ‘A beater is always a beater.’” Maureen, did you forget that Chris Brown is African-American. Only white guys get a pass for beating their wives. Donald Trump was no better in 2012 than he is now. He just wasn’t president back then. Back then he was birther-in-chief.
8
Good stuff Maureen. 3/4ths of the time I thought you were also talking about HRC...with special emphasis given to your very last point.
1
Love it............any of you columnists that gives Trump the trashing he deserves, makes my day! Am praying for the day he is removed from office.
1
Congratulations, Miss Dowd, you managed to keep your favorite target Hillary Clinton out of what we want from the President. May be finally you have had enough of Trump.
9
Maureed Dowd is partly responsible for what we do not want- but got. There was not a column she wrote where she did not take a dig at Hillary Clinton or slagged her off. It never failed.
Now we have the worst possibility, a lazy, uninterested narcicist and a bunch of self serving henchmen-if they last. Hillary Clinton with all her faults would not have made America a world-wide laughing stock. There would have been the dignity the presidency deserves.
21
Trump's behaviour can be summarily compared to that a rapist who complains that the victim didn't partake in the enjoyment! And his supporters reward him with blaming - the victim, of course!
2
What hypocrisy on the part of Dowd. She had nothing bad to say about Trump during the campaign. She saw him as a kindred NY soul--an ally against the Clintons. And now she complains about him. She is as shameless as Trump.
11
Well said!
3
Yes! Thank you!
Well said.
1
Thing is, 30+ % of Americans do want all those things listed. They approve of Donald Trump still.
Maybe you should think about what you want next election time, Ms. Dowd.
You thought your words against Hillary were cute, even journalistic. Turns out words like Rocket Man, (Trump’s version of Kim Jong-un), “both sides are responsible” (for a murder over racism), “he’s a hard worker” (describing a staff wife beater) aren’t examples of the brightest and the best, are they?
What was your part, Ms. Dowd, in putting Trump on the throne?
16
It is satisfying to see, Maureen Dowd, that you now realize that there is someone worse than Hillary. Too late, unfortunately.
8
Well this is rich. Dowd consistently and constantly denigrated Hillary Clinton during the campaign. So, along with all the rest of big media, Dowd put Clinton down and gave invaluable coverage and air time to Trump, giving him more coverage for his inane, hateful speeches than Clinton’s more intelligent, solutions-based policy speeches. Happy now? And now Dowd has the gall to write this column? What on earth did she expect? She shares responsibility for the chaos and ineptitude in the White House which is damaging the United States for the foreseeable future. Good job!
9
Umm . . . well . . . yes. What she said.
So, Ms Dowd, does this mean that you don't like Donald Trump?
2
We don’t want a columnist who disparages a female candidate who was eminently more qualified than the electoral college candidate who was anointed the winner. Maureen, you made your anti-Clinton at all costs position apparent in the run up to the 2016 election. It is too little and much too late to change your tune. You helped elect this monstrosity, now we all must try to live with it.
9
Dear Maureen,
Thank you. Well said.
Quite. Your nitpicking of President Obama for eight long years looks pretty silly now, doesn't it?
6
Well, Ms. Dowd: you certainly did your very utmost best to make a career out of tearing down Trump's opponent, while largely soft-selling decades of shady Trump behavior, and his slimy dealings of all sorts.
Congratulations! You helped in no small way to elect him - you own him! He's all yours. Thanks so much for using the vaunted power of a NYT Op-Ed Columnist to get Trump elected.
10
And we don't want a President who really cannot think for himself. He is a Foz News shill.
1
From the beginning our new reality has all been in plain sight. Loyalty to party over country. Closeted white supremacists baited out of the closet by this conn man of a white supremacist. The gilded age returned now populated by not only the American Oligarchs but also Russian Oligarchs. 'Reality' TV blurring the lines of fact and fiction. 24/7 'News' whose life blood is ratings. Gosh who could of seen this disaster coming?
2
No, no, no, Maureen. We want a President who will make America great again. And it’s happening because we elected a flawed man with a vision, and a plan that works. Meanwhile you of the Left are being ground down between the stones of Puritanity and self indulgence. Truly, Les Miserables.
3
8 years ago, America gave the Community Organizer a chance. He lost all branches of Government, was proven to be a liar, destroyed race Relations and stalled our economy. Now America has given a Community Devoloper the reigns and we are seeing growth, prosperity, strength and respect throughout the world. Very refreshing.
4
Trump is a warning sign of our failing democracy. Those who support an overt racist like Trump are racists themselves - including Kelly. This also includes religious fundamentalists who vote for Trump. It includes those who hypocritically claim they are just seeking jobs. It includes all the Republican servants of Trump who placed him in office being fully aware of his well-known racist past,
Indeed, Trump runs amok every hour of every day. His personal lifelong racism and hatred of immigrants dominates his actions while at the same time pleasing his band of KKK admirers. Trump spits on every principle this country fought and died for since its founding. Nevertheless, he does indeed know how to whip up the under-educated, white racist and Christian fundamentalist base with lies and innuendo. It is the lesson he learned from the worst of history's dictators - people that Trump admires openly.
More threatening to our democracy even than Trump, are the Republican leaders who backed him along with proven Russian support in order to take over every branch of government. The ignorant and unstable Trump is a clown show distraction while the GOP-led Congress generates massive deficits to fill the pockets of super-wealthy. Trump is a buffoon, but there is no excuse for the betrayal of our nation by the Republican Congress. They are the greatest problem we face.
1
“It’s always a pig in a poke. Why not a pig who pokes?” — Maureen Dowd, 8/15/15. Imagine that exact comment made by a male writer. I don’t mean this to be nasty, but to be honest: I’d really like to read a column by Maureen Dowd in which she tells us the real truth of what she was thinking, and why, through 2015 and 2016. At his initial meeting with the NYT right after the election, Trump made a cutesy-pie reference to her. I don’t agree with those who say she affected the election - he lost New York. But really, could she give us an idea of what was really her thought process?
Gosh, where were you when Clinton was in office and another comic it Clinton ran in 2008 and 2016?
1
No idea how you scored a Drudge link. Did you pay him?
Does your brother Kevin care about any of this? Or as long as "those people" are getting it in the neck, is he fine with it all?
1
Maureen Dowd helped make this mess, with her constant snark about Obama and the Clintons. A catalogue from her of Trump’s deficiencies, shortcomings and failures does no good at this point. I see more eloquent and compelling statements and analysis from Facebook friends’ posts on a daily basis. Does she think she is redeeming herself? This column couldn’t be less compelling if it were written by Susan Sarandon. It’s like if George W. Bush were to come out against the Iraq War.
7
This essay would have been good about 18 months ago.
The "We don't want a pres who..." riff seems obscene at this point. We're stuck with him and, let's be honest, the NYTs has had no small role in winning the WH -- just measure the coverage of Hillary's gdamn emails vs. the studied silence on Trump's gansta past.
Op-Ed writers ought to be hired for their clarity regarding the present, along with a sense for the power of the past, and, maybe most importantly, a refined prescience for what might be coming next. I'm afraid Ms. Dowd's "insight" doesn't measure up in any of these time zones.
1
Tough talk from someone who relentlessly trashed Hillary Clinton at every opportunity, thus enabling the very thing you are now whining about.
4
We got stuck with Trump because of Bernie Sanders, James Comey, and Vladimir Putin. Now we're waiting for Bob Mueller to save us from this worm.
5
Well said, Ms Dowd
Well, a whole lot of us still prefer Team TRUMP to the totally corrupt and plastic Obama/Clinton Gangs....What else is new?
2
A plethora of eloquence parading as intellectual reasoning. All poppycock.
1
I want Trump to be exiled to Queens, N.Y. and never be heard or seen again.
7
"We want our president to be a moral beacon, not a ratings-obsessed id."
Y'all still don't get it. The "We" that voted the man in have long since given up on our politicians being moral in any way, shape or form. Look at what "your" candidate brought to the moral table. I was surfing through some old syndicated columns the other day, and came across one by Robert Novak. It talks about Hillary Clinton and thousands of missing emails. From 2000. Yes, 18 years ago. I kid you not. She literally stole the election from Bernie Sanders by colluding with the DNC to be sure he never had a snowballs chance. Seriously, they only collusion that happened was that.
Look at the Russian "Interference" that is alleged. The only thing one can even believe happened from outside is that emails that showed what a completely dishonest person she is were brought to light. And that's somehow a bad thing?
"We don’t want a president who treats the presidency as just another personal business franchise or family employment program."
Or a Secretary of State who sold Uranium to Russia in exchange for "speaking fees".
"We don’t want a president who treats the hallowed house where Abraham Lincoln once wrote the nation’s most sacred texts as the set of a cheesy reality show." So how about the time that your potential "first husband" and his intern turned the Oval Office into sexcapades 101. Remember "I did not have sex with that woman?
9
Worm vs. glowworm.
I agree with absolutely everything negative written or said about the oaf cum scoundrel in the Oval Office. Anytime, anywhere. But "we don't want a president who owes hundreds of dollars to the Russian government". Do you have any proof of that? If so please elaborate.
1
Mo, your pretentious " the allure of Barack Obama's brainy nuance " tells us everything We need to know about your fellow traveler, shallowness .
President Trump is President, the GOP ,because it is not a herd will continue control of both houses and President Donald J.Trump will be re elected President in 2020.
MAGA !
3
The choice was simple. We didn't want Hillary Clinton, Gary Johnson, or Jill Stein. The Electoral College chose Donald Trump. Ms. Dowd can (and will) write and whine about the electorate's decision for many years to come. But, right now millions of middle-class workers are seeing 1%-3% increases in their paychecks and really couldn't care less about Ms. Dowd's whining.
7
I'll believe that pay increase when I see it...So far...nothing!
Agree 100%.
And I believe we all would want a journalist who did the right thing - apologized for 8 years of calling President Barack Obama "Barry" to belittle him, while praising an uber-friendly Jolly Banana - Yellow Obese Oaf. Just say it "I was wrong, President Obama was excellent in every way that this Oaf is awful."
Until then, readers might keep several grains of sodium chloride handy when they read this well-argued column.
14
Well said. About getting us into a war - even further into a Middle East conflict - keep an eye on the Israeli, Lebanon, Syria/Russia, Iran stuff. BiBi would love to draw us into conflict there, and thus provide Dumpy Trumpy with an excuse to shoot down the multi nations Nuclear agreement with Iran that is periodically due for review and possible cancellation by - you guessed it - Trump. Thinking Trumpy is an infantile, saber rattling cowardly child - one way or another he will continue with his desire for a huge military parade.
3
You can't make a silk purse out of a sow's ear. You can make a purse, but it won't be something you'd want to take to the prom. You can't make a good leader out of a horrible human bring...
3
Speak for yourself. Who's "we?" I am absolutely thrilled with Mr. Trump's presidency.
He is methodically carrying out his campaign promises, one by one. And he is systematically dismantling the perverse "legacy" of the Boy Wonder, Obama. All the outrageous executive branch overreach of the most divisive administration in history, the only so-called President who was actively working against our interests and playing for the other side.
Instead of coddling middle eastern terrorists, Trump is obliterating them. Instead of ignoring his constitutional duty to faithfull execute the law by allowing illegal aliens to flood our borders, Trump is doing all he can to see that those laws are faithfully carried out - despite the ferocious efforts of Democrats to ignore the rule of law in their sick quest for cheap votes.
Now we are friendly again to our only democratic ally in the middle east, Israel, instead of shamefully backhanding them and furthering the interests of the Muslim Brotherhood. Three bathrooms at every school and public facility? I think not! Teachers unions shutting out the choice of Americans to teach their children true American values, instead of indoctrinating them with liberal lies? Not with Betsy de Vos!
Throwing trillions at the spurious wealth-transfer scheme of AGCC? NOT ANYMORE! I'd say he has done a wonderful job, despite the sedition and treason being fomented daily by such organs as the Times and other lib media.
MAGA!
6
Maureen hated Hillary and was pleased that Donald Trump won.
8
CORRECTION: “... indisputable truths.”
2
Well written Maureen Dowd, but you only learned half of what history taught us.
Here is the other side, we did not learn what helped put the bigot, rabble rouser, admitted sexual predator, philanderer, pathological liar, ego maniac Trump in the WH.
America does not need people, yes many women who are enablers and co dependents of predators like Anita Hill, NOW, M. Streep and countless other women.
America does not need leaders who are against legit deals with Russia because they are our enemy.
America does not need leaders who are totally PC and every now and then do not say, do, or write something that is not PC.
America does not need somebody who is a genus and fully understands intelligence reports but has enough good judgement to rule on them.
We don't need a president who redecorates the Oval as an infinity mirror, but do need one who listens to Lincoln, our greatest teacher.
And last but not least, the reasons the demagogue won, we don't need an opponent of Trump like Hillary who ran a identity obsessed, never met a war, trade agreement, Wall Street banker I did not like, ie Hillary.
Remember Maureen, 90% of Trump supporters are not anti American, they just didn't like Hillary, who in her own PC way was as anti American as Trump.
It is a delicate balance Maureen.
Learn from history as Lincoln taught us or forever be condemned to repeat its worst mistakes Maureen.
4
I would add we do not any more of your Clinton hatred, especially as I wonder if it made the difference in all or even just a few red states
6
Don't want to be smart alecy, but that should read "who" we want to be....no m.
Are you trying to make yourself feel better Maureen? You ripped Hillary constantly when instead you should have realized that while she was miles beyond smarter than Trump she was a woman and the Woman Haters would
come out in force to do her in. And that included lots of white women. They
should have turned into salt on Election Night so they could never vote again.
I just hope we can survive the "Worst Presidency in the History of America".
Thank You Maureen.
11
We want a great economy, opportunities for our American children, pay raises, lower crime, and a better overall quality if living. We also want businesses choosing to remain in the US and giving the WH a thumbs up.
Lip service from the sexual marauders and their accomplices in Hollywood and the newsroom, not so much.
3
Ms. Down, in her smug, sanctimonious cutting fashion, helped destroy Hilary Clinton, making Donald Trump President. Dowd should write a future column on how character assassination works and how it can backfire.
10
Maureen,
Finally feel bad about all of the abuse you heaped on Hillary Clinton? Yes, she was not the perfect candidate and had some real shortcomings.
7
You finally warmed to the task at hand, Ms Dowd. Many thanks.
No, we don't want that President.
And Maureen Dowd has yet to apologize for doing her damndest to get him elected by harping on Obama and Hillary while soft-pedaling all these flaws she and the rest of us who voted against KNEW. were there.
You did your part, Maureen. Now stop acting like Trump and take responsibility for it. Own it, because everything you said in this piece is 100% correct and he is taking us to an autocratic dictatorship if we let him.
11
And ..... we don't want a columnist who spent years relentlessly attacking Hilary Clinton and then wrote some "valentines" for Donald Trump and helped him get elected. And we don't want a columnist who then goes after Trump to try to cover her tracks.
9
Maureen was one of those who held open the door that let him slip into office. Her unremitting attacks on Clinton was her personal version of the endless and fruitless Benghazi hearings. I will not forget you! Nor let you forget.
5
Maureen dowd in a column defended her brother or was it sister for voting for Trump! Are the regrets popping up? She was the one who seemed to refer to her 'friendship' with Donald in the 90s New York city. People like Maureen 'normalized' Trump during the campaign and indulged in catty remarks about Mrs Clinton. Now repent by putting proverbial ashes in your hair!
6
Very cute and left serving as the comments vindicate your prose. A close circle of colorful verbiage to stoke the never Trumpers. You could have more easily turned your subjective guns to Obama and the endless scams of his Administration, but biases will be biases. Nice choir but the truth will prevail or Democracy will truly die in darkness.
1
But the last time I checked, you, Maureen Dowd, was brown-nosing Donald Trump the candidate, even chaperoning him on how to be disciplined and self-controlled just so he could win the last presidential election. All that you did while viciously attacking Hillary Clinton and conniving with her army of detractors and haters to drive up her negatives. And it worked, didn't it, Maureen? You, Joe Scarborough and Mika have been carrying on since after the election as if Americans have such atrociously short memories. You have been criticizing Trump with so much righteous indignation anyone might be forgiven to think you didn't enable his election in the first place with your mindless anti-Hillary posture. No, Maureen, you can't have it both ways. And it's a testament, not to the short memories you think Americans have, but to your shamelessness and guile and abject thoughtlessness. I often wonder if those of you who played so odious and infamous a role in birthing the current order of things ever contemplate in your moments of solitude that an apology to the entire nation ( and to Hillary) is worth its while at all. I don't know about the millions of other Americans, but certainly I'm nobody's fool.
13
Any woman who finds herself alone with a man who yearns for the days when women were “put on pedestals” should run—-fast! That kind of hyperbole is the refuge of a man who is more likely to punch his wife when she doesn’t have dinner on the table on time than worship her at the base of the pedestal. Kelly is a dangerous troglodyte.
1
Ugh, not again Maureen. Yes, we get it. Trump is a loathsome, boorish swine. Al true. But please stop gaslighting us as to why we have him. We have him not because of angry white people afraid of brown people ( recall, please, that many of these same white people were Obama voters) but because the hope and change they were promised for eight years never materialized and in fact got worse. We got Trump because the candidate he was running against never asked for their vote and supported the TPP, a trade deal that is a NAFTA on steroids, and picked a running mate who was a right-to-work supporter. We got Trump because he ran as a populist in an anti-establishment time, just the opposite of his rival who knew she would be running and went to Wall Street anyway to give secret speeches to bankers for $400,000 a pop. So, please just stop telling us about how bad Trump is, we know, and focus on the real reason we have Trump so that we may never get someone like him again.
2
No, I did not want him but you and your brother and many at the NYT certainly wanted him. You could not get through a column without a disparaging remark about Mrs. Clinton or "Barry". You were on a mission and I must say you managed to accomplish it. Now we all have to live with it thanks to the likes of the NYT - the press in general and the Russians. But unlike him I still want to live in a country with a "free press" even if they do make mistakes because at this point you are our only hope until the next election because the GOP is useless.
3
yes a feature for American History Books Don't let this happen
to you.
Amazingly Dowd did not attack Mrs. Clinton
will wonders never cease?
2
Mareen Dowd now says she does not want the President she helped elect. When you decided to relentlessly attack Hillary you forgot that elections in The USA are a binary game. Tearing down Hillary only convinced those who should have known better that they could sit,out the election or throw away their vote on Jill Stein and there would not be consequences. To quote Field Marshall Harris, you sowed the wind and now you find you have reaped the (orange) whirlwind.
6
In short, WE DO NOT WANT A DONALD TRUMP AS PRESIDENT!
3
We don't want, we don't want, we don't want...... And we wanted hillary even less.
4
Dowd's assessment of trends in contemporary America are correct:
"We were moving from a white-majority, male-dominated country and manufacturing base to a multicultural, multilateral, globalized, P.C., new energy, new technology world, without taking account of the confusion and anger of older Americans who felt like strangers in a strange land."
While I am all for diversity and brotherhood, I somehow wonder if the society we are becoming (and in large part have already become) is too namby pamby, affirmative action riddled, intellectually debased and emasculated to have the grit and guts to defeat Nazi Germany
For example, I knew of a law student (white) who demaned extra time on his exams because he claimed he had a "knowledge processing" problem. (In less PC times, we would have called him slow.) Do you think the Nazis would have let us replay a battle that we had lost on the grounds that our soldiers had a psychologial problem getting mobilized on time.
If our female to male transgendered soldiers lose their muscle mass because the enemy 's siege has aborted the shipment of testosterone, do you think our adversary will let us ship in testosterone so our female to male soldiers will be able to function.
Yes, Trump is repulsive. But so much of allegedly progressive politics (which, with the exception of Bernie Sanders, has forgotten about economics and is enthrall to the goddess of Identity politics) seems repulsive too.
4
And so - now what?
2
Maureen dowd is always very perceptive. In short, we don't want donnie baby.
We would prefer donald duck!
2
Maureen, thanks for your consistent presentation of balanced debate. It's been difficult to discern your political leanings until now. Thanks v much for making them clear. You continue to sound like you actually believe you speak for the "we" in all of us. Confusing then why 63 million Americans elected President Trump. Far from perfect... for sure... but you, and other narrow minded writers like you, demean and degrade the value of your own opinions and writings by playing so loosely with non facts. You had enough to work with before leaning on innuendo and unproven assertions. I usually avoid your op-ed pieces given their close mindedness, but I thought I'd give you another try. Shame on me. Wasted time.
1
Comment posters here, for the most part, live in a delusional paradigm where reality is nowhere to be seen. The stench of pseudo-superiority and a common thread of (we are smart and they are not) is quite revolting. A sad state for you people who are just whiny little couch politicians, which is exponentially sad as politicians are not all that admirable. Hive city dwellers who exhibit peculiar collective-think expressions, none of which are original, but merely parroted repeatedly. A rational mind would not, could not embrace a globalist/socialist government as history has pointedly demonstrated that they fail. Unless you are a part of the oligarchy that is the head of such governments (most of you think you are by your self-righteous sniveling) you will find yourselves in line with everyone else for your handouts. Hillary, you say? No qualifications, just corrupt and basically evil, damaged and power hungry, which also applies to the platform you people seem to be so rabidly eager to sell you souls. I pity you, you who choose ignorance over truth, who have a hubris that will not allow you to find an identity that isn't governed by emotionalism and a false-altruism that is a shadow of anything of substance. So lost, so deceived and so fearful of seeing that which would cause you to redefine who you should be and not who you continue to be.
3
Excellent , Ms.Dowd.
1
I guess Hillary wouldn’t have been that bad after all. Pity that you and the NYT vilified her to the point that the man you now condemn so much got elected.
Unfortunately, you went missing in action when most needed.
6
I agree with your list, Maureen, but would like to point out that those softball columns you wrote about Trump contributed to getting him elected. You didn’t have to like Hillary, but you didn’t need to give that piece of garbage such a pass.
I’m curious, how does your brother like him now?
49
“We don’t want....”
“We don’t want....”
Yada yada
Hey ms dowd - who exactly is “we”?
Guess we all gonna find out next Election Day
Enlightened humans going down in flames.
Again
History repeatedly shows majority mass fearful tribalism is ripe to be exploited sooner or later.
Always.
Nice article though.
3
How do I NOT love thee. Let me count the ways...
1
Ah, you say that now, Maureen. Where were those sentiments when he was running for office? I've read you long enough to believe you were not so naive as to think the office would change him. Perhaps if you'd said more in 2016 to keep him out of office?
17
Thank you, Maureen--a great article
3
"Among many, the allure of Barack Obama’s brainy nuance had given way to a longing for a more muscular certainty." -- You mean a longing for a more white, male certainty.
11
Mo, I've loved reading you for years, but frankly, your shtick is getting as old as Trump. If you'd been able to lose your endless snark and dislike of simply everyone who's ever been in office, or rather your snark and dislike of essentially everyone, and raised these issues instead of snarky attacks, perhaps we wouldn't have the monster you helped elect.
15
What we want is a President. A REAL President.
8
Buttery Males, tho
We don’t want him—but we got him. And if the Democrats can’t get it together we’ll have him until 2024.
Lord have mercy on the US of A.
11
You in the Left Supremacist bubble didn't want this president. The rest of us who hold the collective consciousness of America elected him and have no regrets.
7
Who is this “we” you’re talking about or speaking for, Maureen? 35-40% of “we” still approve of the job he’s doing. That’s the utterly scary part.
7
I just read your article and found it just like all of your other ones, ugly! You must live your life in the "Glass is half empty" mood! I also read the comments of some of your NYT readers, WOW, New York sure is the center of the "HATE TRUMP" Universe!, I voted for Trump, and he is doing what I wanted him to do, I don't care if he is rude, brash, or whatever else you all don't like, he is doing things to uncover crime by the Obama Administration, serious crime! I could go on with what I like about Donald Trump and it won't impress you, only anger you, I really hope you DO NOT GET YOUR POLITICAL WISHES !!!
5
Dotard will get crushed by the women vote alone. He is in for a rude awakening in 2020. This guy just doesn't get it.
3
Will "we the people" snap out of their zombie trance before the next election? It could be that with democracy, voters can always muff up and it somehow still functions.
The qualities on display from the White House may be found in every sub heading of American life. They are now being displayed to the World 24/7. Out leaders may be ignored and made fun of with impunity. It's now a duty. The Ugly American is no longer a farce. It's a fact.
3
Spot on Maureen! So happy to see you contributing again!
2
We don’t want to countenance abusive behavior. And we certainly don’t want men like Rob Porter who have punched, kicked, choked and terrorized their wives to be in the president’s inner circle, helping decide which policies, including those that affect women, get emphasized.
-----------------------------------------------
Rob Porter PUNCHED, KICKED, CHOKED, etc. or ALLEGEDY PUNCHED, KICKED, CHOKED, etc.?
How come these ex-wives did not file criminal complaints if they were so subjected to abuse by their ex-husband?
The woke police is turning out to be the judge, jury, and executioner here.
Et tu, Mo? You make your brother uneasy.
3
"We" don't want this. "We" don't want that. "We" don't want something else. The presumptuousness of the liberal elite, no more so than at the New York Times.
Speak for yourself Charlie. "We" had an election in 2016. The Times backed Democratic candidate was the ultimate in lying, corruption and overall sleaze. That is from what we knew then. We have learned far more since then, e.g., the Steele dossier bought by the DNC through Fusion. Enough voters in enough states saw through the Democratic fake, phony, fraud candidate to elect the Republican in the electoral college, part of the Constitution from the beginning, and for good reason, the only place where the ultimate outcome is determined.
I am no great fan of Donald Trump. When Trump dissed John McCain's six years at the Hanoi Hilton, the Times published my letter comparing Trump to Joseph McCarthy at the Army-McCarthy hearings and predicting that was the beginning of the end for Trump, as had happened with McCarthy. So much for my prediction.
Donald Trump is president. Some things he does, I do not like. What I like even less is the concerted effort to oust him from the presidency by any means necessary, each one on the left trying to outdo the other in focusing on matters for Trump condemnation. A part of that effort is the daily anti-Trump drumbeat in the Times, in opinion and reporting. This Dowd column is simply Ms. Dowd's latest contribution to that drumbeat.
8
(Clapping) YOU'RE BAAAACK!
1
"We don't want this and we don't want that" Maureen the best you can do is search your soul for the rest of your life to try to understand how you so proudly voted for this swine, how you were so clueless.
So much damage has been done and so much more on the way. If Teu,p resigned today, the alt right now has a foothold in our country and who knows what could come after Trump.
Thanks,
Maureen
4
Right on...in all respects. But the Dems ain't yet out of the woods, inasmuch as the distaste for Trump might still not be enough to outweigh the disgust with the ultra-libs. Th pig-headed P.C. ...their determination to give away a Nation that's in no way theirs to give...etc.
They - the Dems - still got a lot of restructuring to do.
I'm pushing 88.
5
Wow. There is nothing else to say. Other than thank you.
1
You supported him. Remember. I would be ashamed.
7
Maureen Dowd has definite ideas on who we don't want to be. So perhaps in a future column she can tell us who we do want to be. Or can she? (Or is there a "we" in the new globalized, multicultural, multi-ethnic, world order of identity politics that she seems to readily accept if not celebrate?)
3
I hope Ms. Dowd's first person plural "we" resonates with most women. There are more women than men in the US. In my lifetime women have shown clearly they can do anything, including fight. The vile fraud masquerading as president is leading a war on women. Women please take the lead; I'll have your backs.
1
Maureen, you are right
but we remember that your false equivalence, for which you have yet to apologize, as well as your hatred of all things Clinton, helped get Trump elected.
3
Maureen, you should have thought of all these "we don't wants" when you were bashing Hillary Clinton. Granted, she wasn't the glamorous, media savvy choice we had, but she was certainly better than the buffoon in chief that we have today. So for me, your critique of President Trump, is a bit late and hollow.
3
Yeah we can't have an accused abuser be an advisor. When did innocent until proven guilty go away? Not like they don't have an axe to grind against an ex.
However, I notice not one comment about the rapist in the white house. Yeah, not proven but far likelier. Plus multiple women have accused him.
Obama is a brainiac? What did he accomplish? He had nothing to do with Obamacare. Couldn't bother to put in the time. Had 2 years he could have pushed through EVERYTHING he wanted. Republicans couldn't have stopped a single thing. Yeah he have great speeches WHEN he was on a teleprompter. If he wasn't he sounded far worse than Bush at his worst.....
2
It is almost impossible to keep up with all the people who are defining the responses to our society. It is very difficult to understand what is being suggested to boot.
--------------------------------
U.S. Citizens know we are strong. U.S. Citizens know we are winning wars pretty much anyplace we want to. We know with absolute certainty that Donald Trump did not slip through a wormhole of confusion about the American Identity.
Mr. Trump basically told us he was going to enforce the Immigration Law. We had been asking for that very thing for a very long time, and he brought it to the Presidency along with many other elements that looked pretty good to us.
Most people don't know this, but if we deport all the illegal aliens from the United States, and there are a lot of bad apples in that crowd, the the traditional balance of races will return to something far more normal per 1965. That happens to be exactly what Teddy Kennedy promised us when he got his immigration bill passed, and we expected that for a lot of years before we realized we had been shafted. And now? Now we will see what happens, but those who suggest a civil war may occur as a reflection of the intense perfidy and manipulation by MSM on the matter of race, riots, criminal laws, and discriminatory administrative procedures directed at 'White America', are remarkably correct.
Maureen, you're very seriously mistaken when you write, "We don't want to countenance abusive behavior".
You were all for condoning abusive behavior directed towards Hillary Clinton. Your words abused Hillary Clinton. You NEVER expressed any regret about that abuse. You have been proud of that abuse.
You share a lot in common with President Trump. He has NEVER publicly said "I'm Sorry". Neither have you.
3
Trump the way to Democracy’s death and ours.
All his cabinet picks are showing how to destroy what we valued before he
Arrived.The all Time worst is the environmental wrecking ball.I won’t say his name.Fossil fuel spills,bring them on.,dirty coal water seeping into the earth,
Air filth encouraged through killing regulations,taxes on solar panels,clean fuel discouraged ,food smothered in chemicals ,all poisonous,and climate change ignored,and blamed on the Chinese, water ,everywhere threatened with toxic waste.
This ignorant human could be anywhere except the White House.He will kill the things that keep humanity alive.WATER,AIR,FOOD.Live without these things,
No one can.peoples
Ives are being shattered,yes they are byTRUMP and cabinet of murderers.
Thanks Maureen, for seeing the light, but it was 18 months too late.
In hopes that DT would call you his fair muse, you compared HRC with DT, and saw no difference. Now that he calls you "fake news", you see the danger.
It may well be too late. We are simply an "Enabling Act" from a dictatorship.
Shame on you. When we needed you, you were AWOL.
2
Thank you, thank you, thank you. For your last point re: that war criminal.
Apparently, just enough Americans do want all those things "we don't want," or at least were willing to put up with them, because they actually voted for this ignorant, abusive, ratings-obsessed, lying sex pest. They got exactly what they voted for. Trump's anti-virtues were lavishly on display during his appalling electoral campaign, and Republicans denounced him as fraud, phony, unfit-for-office kook that he is.
And again, the facts seems out of reach for progressives in America.
You're in a bubble. You're not representative of America. You keep mistaking the synchronized swim of what passes for discourse in liberal strongholds like large cities, the media, and the education establishment, for what most folks believe. So you continue to indulge in the fever dreams of an election rigged by the Russians. Instead of listening to the real concerns of the middle and lower classes, you continue to barely shield your contempt for them, waiting for the time when you believe you can reassert power and cram down your worldview.
Well, here's an insescapable fact for you. At his absolute worst behavior, Trumps floor approval rating hovers around 33%. That is enough people to render this country ungovernable, if you don't stop snarking and start trying to understand.
99
Ok, Mark, what is it that we’re supposed to understand?
13
Mark 6:4 - you're seriously going to compare Trump with Jesus?
And your 33% is going to threaten to render the country ungovernable if you don't get your way? What happened to turn the other cheek? Can't remember who said that ...
14
Mark6:4, you say that the facts seem out of reach for progressives in America, and that liberals are not listening to the real concerns of middle and lower classes. I for one am interested and want to understand. What is it we are missing? I really would like to understand.
I think, though I may be wrong, what you are getting at is that there is a large portion of the population that feels (justifiably so) their voice is not being heard. Trump is their voice. If this is the case, is Maureen Dowd wrong in pointing out that this group is largely white, largely though not entirely male, and feeling the very real socio-economic and demographic changes taking place. Here is a follow up question: for those who feel their concerns have not been heard, is Trump actually their true champion? He says he is, but are his policies really going to help his supporters.
A final thought— the world is changing, it isn’t going to backwards, it’s only going to go forwards.
Sometimes the best leaders aren’t the ones who tell us what we want to hear, they tell us what we need to hear. We’re moving from an industrial economy to an information economy, and to make that change is going to be painful. (It was also terribly painful moving from an agricultural economy to an industrial economy.) We need leaders to tell us the truth, so as how hard it is going to be to navigate a time period of major change, and show us a way forward.
26
We don’t want a president more enthralled by Putin’s pulverization of American democracy than one who is loyal to our Constitution.
10
Simply excellent!
5
If only he could read this
Bravo!!
7
so you need more wes to get the president you want.
2
We also don't want a president who allegedly raped his ex-wife and sexually assaulted the 22 women who have come forward and the unknown number of women who are too afraid to go public or have been paid off to keep silent. In the good old days when John Kelley was growing up, we used to revere women.
4
As disgusting and unfit as he is, the problem with Trump isn't really Trump himself...America's problem with Trump is with the people who support him.
Those who opposed ending slavery fought the Civil War for the South - committed treason - and their philosophical descendants have been holding America back for over 150 years. They are the Trumpen. How long with those of us who represent the better future of America continue to let them hold us back?
10
No we don't want trump et al....
3
You forgot the "grab um by the pxxxxy" part. We don't want that, either.
2
Thank you Ms Dowd!
That's this administration:
An etude in dreckitude!
It's right up there with an invention of yours from long ago:
Quelle windbaguette!
Long ago, but not forgotten! Thanks again!
2
And for all those American expats who were so proud when represented abroad by the grace, intelligence and dignity of Barack and Michelle Obama, we don’t want a president who behaves like a crass dimwit heehaw when dealing with foreign leaders, and makes us want to “pass for Canadian” until he’s gone.
7
This is your most scathing. Could this signal a turn in not just yours but other GOPers’ attitudes to this presidency? I live in constant hope.
7
Dreckitude? All forgiven Mo' for the pandering to the Trump-hatin' editors on this one. Were you to have applied the same degree of focus on his predeseccor you would have described for us a far less savory character. The difference between the two dreckitudes is that the former never loved the country he was elected president of - he felt we needed "fundamental transformation" in the form of a weakened, chastened, guilt-ridden and beaten Uncle Sam leading from behind. At least the current office holder tells us how much he loves us and wants us to be great again, protect our borders, support our allies and defy our foes. I'll take that muscular drekitude over the former's any day.
1
I look at Trump a man who not only never served in Vietnam like so many of mine and his generation, but never spoke out on the other side against the war. I don't make excuses for my service in the Marines I joined and have my honorable discharge papers in a draw. But, at 72 when I look at US history as a historian he really is not that bad in the sense that since the countries founding it has had many Presidents who were racists, nasty and all in all the real history of the US is not nice. A democracy in name only. Yes, the Founding Fathers wrote a Constitution, but most of them were slave owners, women did not get the right to vote until well into the 20th Century. Jackson was a butcher, the US took what it wanted if a group did not give it up willingly we killed them or stuck them on rotten reservations. The Gilded Age where the wealthy took what they wanted and the government did nothing for the common person. Yes, in 2018 nothing has really changed. Wilson was a racist, who brought in the most severe sedition laws, when he was ill his wife ruled. Harding had a teenage lover and child and was killed by his wife. Kennedy was not the Golden Boy and Johnson and Nixon allowed the slaughter of Vietnam to go on. Reagan was senile, Clinton was a sexual predator like Trump. Bush fabricated an endless war and his VP Chaney proudly told why should he have served in Vietnam he had a career to get going. The history of America is ugly. Jim Trautman
2
all of my exact sentiments!
Want to know what I don't want? These sorts of purity tests for everyone in the government from the president to the local dog catcher. Does a person really need the morality and ethos of St. Francis of Assisi to work a government job nowadays? And does Ms. Dowd really think that Rob Porter would use his position to covertly advance the cause of SPOUSAL ABUSE?
People are sick of this kind of hyperbole.
I am an atheist, but there is one Bible verse that I kind of like. "Let he who is without sin cast the first stone." Ms. Dowd cast a lot of stones in this article, and it seems to be the only thing the anti-Trumpers know how to do.
Simply casting stones didn't work for Republicans in 2012, and it likely won't work for Democrats in 2020, either.
3
Along with many commenters, I won't ever forget the disdain you heaped upon Hillary Clinton during her campaign. You were merciless and contemptuous of a gifted, hardworking and decent woman who was infinitely preferable to Trump. It's obviously too late for your avowed change of heart to make a tiny bit of difference to our country. You might consider apologizing to Mrs. Clinton in this newspaper.
18
Well, I don't want him, Maureen. And it appears you don't want him, even though you use to think he was pretty cool, compared to Hillary. I guess he won't give you interviews anymore, after you say such bad things about him. But, are you sure his base doesn't want him anymore. Are you sure his base is not strong enough to reelect him? Can you help counteract that?
8
"Donald Trump slipped into the Oval Office through a wormhole of confusion about the American identity."
There was nothing confusing about Hillary. We were never going to know who she was, what she stood for nor why she was running.
"With the Russians sowing confusion,..." Really? Half the country didn't vote. Did the Russians confuse them? Or were they like those day dreamers General Kelly identified?
"We don’t want to countenance abusive behavior." Didn't Hillary throw an ash tray at Bill? Well, he had it coming. Things like this are hard to talk about and be PC. Wait!! We won't talk about THAT.
"... and dishonor the F.B.I." Really? The four chuckle-heads in question, certainly deserve the "More Stupider" award of the quarter.
And, blah, blah, blah.
"We don’t want a president who treats the presidency as just another personal business franchise or family employment program."
You do know, Hillary has NOT taken herself out of the running for 2020? Right?
2
Re: Par. 7: “. . . “who we are and whom we want to be.” Perhaps it is Trump’s own failures with English grammar and spelling, or maybe it’s just the general sense of all sorts of norms crashing down around us, but I’m more sensitive than usual to minor grammatical miscues by good writers, especially when they also elude the blue-pencilling of the Gray Lady’s sharp-eyed editors. But WHOM should be “who” in the quotation above, for the same reason that the first “who” is correct. They are both predicate nominatives following a linking verb, and in English that means pronouns should be in the nominative (subject) case. “Whom” is an objective case pronoun.
2
The best piece you have ever written.
2
“We don’t want” ... “unless he’s a Democrat”.
That last line is important Maureen. I’m all for holding Republican feet to the fire but what bothers the New York Times about a Republican becomes perfectly acceptable when it’s a Democrat. For crying out loud, how many times has this paper endorsed a Clinton for this nation’s highest office?
2
Apparently what America actually didn't want was a president under investigation by the FBI as was Hillary according to FBI Director Comey's announcement 11 days prior to the election.
Face it, the DNC fixed it for Hillary and that plan backfired, big time. Seems the DNC forgot the old adage...cheaters never win!
2
Consulting Kissinger is yet more proof that The Donald is frozen in the 1970s.
During the 2016 campaign, Mo you were “enchanted” with Trump. I have told friends as an amateur American historian, I believe Trump is the worst American president in our history and second place is not even close! I guess it is better late than never that you have woken up about Trump!
2
Sounds like you are confusing the Clintons with Trump in much of the article
Sorry, lots of people do want that President,. . The question: How do they come to recognize their mistake?
You would think, in bullfighter terminology, that Trump just dealt himself an estocada (the final, killing thrust from the matador) with women voters by his repeated defense of Porter and all the Mr. Hydes, like Bill O'Reilly, Harvey Weinstein and assorted wife beaters, who had "their lives destroyed" over abusing women who unfortunately trusted them, at home or in the workplace.
The evidence that Trump is a woman hater, except for his daughters, is so overwhelming that even evangelical women may have the scales removed from their eyes. While most women "get" that Trump, self-indicted sexual predator in the Access Hollywood tape and enabler of a wife beater on his staff, views women as disposable, I wonder whether other groups catch on.
On CNN, there is a "Stage Hispanic" (akin to "Stage Irish" of my youth) who argues that if Congress does nothing for the Dreamers, it will be the Democrats fault. The message is so incessantly repeated by the White House that I assume Trump's plan is to do just that, sabotage a Dreamer deal, expel many before November and blame Democrats for ethnic cleansing.
A small but significant number of Hispanics will swallow the "official story" and vote Republican. Hispanic leaders won't buy the propaganda, but evangelical pastors, who have outsized influence, are likely to keep on burnishing Trump's graven image.
What’s nice about the Times’ opinion writers is they always say the same thing so I don’t have to read them , but there’s always a place to leave a comment. So they are good for something.
1
Sounds like we want Bernie to me.
1
We don't want a president who couldn't pass a security clearance himself.
1
We also don’t want a New York Times columnist who spent decades villifying the Clintons. Who only now sees the difference between normal personal failings of politicians and the alternative she helped bring about by buying into and promoting the Right’s war on Democrats. But rest assured next week she’ll be treating Democrats as if they are just as bad as the nightmare in the White House. It’s all just column fodder.
1
What did your “we don’t want” litany prove? Of course we don’t want these unending assaults on our nation. So why don’t you try doing some actual reporting rather than just reciting a list those of who are horrified about what’s going on know all too well?
We also want grammatically correct commentators. It’s “who we want to be,” not “whom we want to be.” The verb to be takes the subjective pronoun, not the objective.
1
So tired of left-wing whining. You started off the article with a perfectly good premise, then right down the litany of grievances. This is exactly why President Trump will be re-elected in 2020.
3
Maureen,
Welcome back.
Now.
Get back to the important business of helping your colleagues, most of whom did not take leave, in bringing this monster down.
1
Maybe we’re actually all in a video game where the monsters are winning.
1
Not sure what-all this rant accomplished, Dowd. I do like the last line quite a bit, though, "And, finally, we surely don’t want a president who seeks advice on foreign affairs from Henry Kissinger. Ever. Again."
Anyone who seeks Kissinger's advice is cravenly in furtherance of corporatist, warmongering neo-imperialism, American or otherwise. (Chinese and Russian come to mind, but nations are just tools - Kissinger has followed the money trend and become generically oligarchical in his affinities, just like everyone else. He's always been an unscrupulous opportunist. And would probably be pleased as punch to be termed such. He doesn't deserve the time of day.) And here's looking at you, Hillary Clinton, in such regard. "Democratic" neoliberals don't get a pass in this.
1
And, we certainly don't want this President.
6
All the things you say about trump are true, the problem is some Americans like those traits, in fact enough to get him elected. On a different issue, I am really tired of hearing about what a hero and patriot John Kelly is. He was a general in the marines, so what. Its very sad his son or anyone's son or daughter got killed serving our country however that has nothing to do with him, it makes his son a hero! The man is despicable, he serves the dear leader, stands up for morally bankrupted people and , I believe, is doing his best to steer the debate on immigration to the extreme right.
8
An indictment worthy of a monster. Who has 40% support! Which is why America must awake and fight for the promise of democracy, for its soul!
5
Overuse and gross misuse of the word "we".
So, under the banner of it's OK to overuse a word to make a point, I offer the following:
We don't believe in media that lie to us, and elect to not cover topics that don't fit the political narrative that they subscribe to.
We don't want a country that has willingly given up its sovereignty to prove its political correctness to the leftist lunatic fringe.
We don't care what the political opinions of the talking heads in the MSM are.
We don't care about opinions that are spouted over and over again that are so unbalanced, and tainted by the spouters personal biases.
The list could go on forever, but I'll conclude with the following:
We don't care what Maureen Dowd thinks.
2
This is nothing more than one more liberal throwing yet another tamper tantrum. America is doing better in one year than the democrats could do in a lifetime.
1
At a minimum we want a President who can pass a background test.
11
Trump didn't worm his way into anything. He won the election and took both houses with him. That was supose to be Hillary's claim to fame. What he also did is win the war against ISIS. That is what none other than Ross Douthat of the NYT declared. in one of his op-eds. Trump is also the president when the unemployment rate is the lowest in 45 years. he said he would bring jobs if elected. Maybe it is time to give up ranting about what we don't want to be and start looking toward what we do want to be.
3
Thank you, Maureen Dowd, for capturing, so succinctly, DT’s despicableness. It’s been a minute since you weighed in on the horrors of what’s happening in the WH, but you have presented readers within disputable truths that we all see, whether some may believe them to be a bit uncomfortable.
DT is the most un-civil person who has ever occupied the WH. One cannot buy class or dignity or morality or common sense. And that goes for all of DT’s rogue minions. He’s committed every egregious action that can made and speeed the most hateful words that have ever been uttered. I don’t know what else is left for him to do, offensively, except stand in the middle of a NYC street and do what he said he could do and still garner votes. He has covered, said and done everything else. Its only been a mere thirteen months since he plopped himself in the Oval Office. I shudder to think what the next thirteen months might bring.
5
These words of Primo Levi are as apposite now as they were 60 years ago: In an authoritarian state it is considered permissible to alter the truth; to rewrite history retrospectively; to distort the news, suppress the true, add the false. Propaganda is substituted for information. In fact, in such a country you are not a citizen possessor of rights but a subject, and as such you owe to the State (and to the dictator who represents it) fanatical loyalty and supine obedience.
It is clear that under these conditions it becomes possible (though not always easy; it is never easy to deeply violate human nature) to erase great chunks of reality.
Primo Levi, 'Afterword', If this is a man (1947)
7
And if you don't want this president to be reelected have a go at with an honest selection process to pick an opponent who doesn't have the number of character flaws the previous democrat nominee possessed.
3
“We” is the trickiest of words. A lot of people want exactly the sort of President you say “we” don’t want. We will see in November what sorts of leaders the American people prefer. I am not sure that the voters will opt for decency and civility.
3
Finally, Ms. Dowd is expressing her "J'Accuse" moment before all things Trump. It is about time. Tell us, did you just now figure out the type of person Trump is or did you notice any of these short-comings over how long you have known him?
Trump just didn't suddenly develop these flaws but exhibited them all his life. Now we all have to worry about how much damage he will do while he occupies the White House. What an outlook for citizens to face.
A majority of the citizens of this country consider Trump to be a danger by a landslide. Republicans are enabling his hold on power. Any other party with the interests of the entire country hold him in complete contempt. Nice of you to join the party. We could have used your analysis in 2016.
5
In life, some things, and some choices, at times, are binary.
Hillary Clinton. Donald Trump.
Hillary Clinton. Donald Trump.
Hillary Clinton. Donald Trump.
1
Gee, "we" seemed quite able to put up with consistent, longstanding, and credible accusers against Clinton--how many of them? For how many years? Which ones were paid off? And I hear from some who know the Clintons that it was people like Blumenthal and Shear who did the hatchet work for the Clintons on the accusers--two henchmen who now seem implicated in feeding nonsense to the FBI for the sake of derailing a presidential election. We sure wouldn't want them in the White House either.
I don't think that those who voted for Trump wanted a moral beacon. He mocked your colleague Serge Kovaleski during the campaign. The evidence was all there out in the open. They wanted an unvarnished blowhard and that is exactly what they got.
2
That Hillary rigged the primaries in order to defeat Sanders doesn't seem to bother most of the commenters, though it should. Dowd's comments are rather less than half true (e.g., Trump doesn't trash Gold Star parents; he honors them) and, on the whole, her commenters write as if the portion of the electorate which supports Trump doesn't exist. Certainly some of the accomplishments Trump mentioned in his State of the Union speech were worth clapping for ... and his Democrat opponents clapped for none. A bit of political acumen seems to be advisable. But at this juncture, neither the NYT, its readers or Democrats in general seem to be in a mood to compromise on anything. It doesn't seem to me to bode well for either the 2018 or 2020 election.
1
Thank you, Ms Dowd. As a regular reader of your columns, I have been waiting for you to not only share but also articulate so well, in one writing, the angst, fear, outrage, and, at times, feelings of hopelessness which millions of us are now experiencing.
What I would like to add is that Trump is becoming not unlike a dictator, with nary a sound from an equally unethical Republican Congress. It seems as if daily we find ourselves bumping into another wall because of this disgraceful president's lies and spins. Just today, he impugns the Schiff rebuttal of the Infamous Nunes Memo, as well as the #MeToo Movement, alluding that the victims are the Porter's of this world. Unconscionable! And his so-called Christian supporters, along with the bigots, racists, and filthy rich are just hunky-dory with this nut-job in the Oval Office.
Keep it up, Maureen Dowd. Rally the troops. So many, many of us are right behind you.
2
Democrats should run on the following message: We are going to represent the middle class which means we represent capitalism and fight against the crony national socialists who promote oligarchy here -- all the real money and power for the rich, parades and hate speech for the poor. We are against these national socialists. Period. Brand them with what the are.
3
Oh but we do want a Congress that works for us instead of K Street. We do want civil servants who work for us instead of their own partisan self interests. We do want reporters that tell the whole story and journalists that verify their facts and put their sources on the record. But most of all we want our bi-coastal elitists AND our Maureen Dowd's to quit telling us what we want, what we need and how we should live. Trump's president for a lot of reasons. Focus on addressing and fixing those.
Without the Republican Party, Koch Bros. and Mercers there would be no Trump..............That's what we don't need. They have been laying the groundwork State by State for 40yrs. You have such a powerful platform with which to defend our Democracy, for your own piece of mind use it to do some good.
3
There are no perfect people, particularly in politics. Not in business, either. Everyone has their strengths and their flaws. Everyone. You have to weigh strengths against flaws to judge.
Maureen Dowd doesn't do that. She should. Take Barack Obama, for example. Good speaker. Good family man. Nice smile. But a mediocre president. Why? As Steve Jobs put it, “The president is very smart, but he kept explaining to us reasons why things can’t get done. It infuriates me.”
And “I’m disappointed in Obama, he’s having trouble leading because he’s reluctant to offend people or [tick] them off.”
[Steve Jobs added, “Yes, that’s not a problem I ever had.” Because though a genius he too had his flaws. One called him "a deeply selfish man with a mean streak that bordered on pathological." My feeling too.]
I know Donald Trump has flaws, and many of them (though blown out of proportion) are laid out here. But what of his strengths? No mention of those?
Donald Trump, alone among the presidents I have seen, decides things on their merits rather than on politics. Correctness instead of political correctness. He decides what to do and does it. He leads. He fights.
Abraham Lincoln had to decide what to do about General Ulysses S. Grant, accused of alcoholism and other faults. Troubled, Lincoln finally decided, "I cannot spare this man. He fights."
My feelings about Donald Trump.
2
I am not a partisan of either party and I have no interest in protecting or harming anyone based on them being aligned with or opposed to my politics. But there are still a few of us in America who know that it is a threat to the freedom of all of us when punishment is inflicted upon people based upon unproven accusations. The entire feminist movement seems now determined to make that injustice a standard practice. And the spineless, driveling media is now dedicated to assisting them in the perpetration of such injustice.
1
3500 lawsuits means the man is lawless. To him, contracts are meaningless. Paris agreement. TPP. Soon NAFTA. Sanctions against Russia. Regulations to protect the planet. Diplomacy. Obamacare. Trump violates everything. He hurts people and doesn't care. All of this was clear to see by any rational person. And,yet Maureen, you failed to see this. Sorry. Your column is too little, too late.
4
On the upside, this disaster provides opportunity to detect weaknesses in our constitution, and propose improvements.
1/ It is clear we can expect no help from Congress, because partisanship over patriotism, perhaps the pres should run against the vice pres in the mid terms. Buh-bye!
2/ In that the republicans stole an Obama SCOTUS pick, maybe the people should remove one Justice every time a new Pres is elected. Call it Ostracism. First on the chopping block : probably Thomas.
We don't want a Republican president. It's as simple as that.
2
Despite the obvious disdain of Ms. Dowd, Hillary Clinton would have been a more qualified, more intelligent, more dignified, more appropriate, more caring choice for president as evidenced by nearly three million more voters.
7
"Donald Trump slipped into the Oval Office through a wormhole of confusion about the American identity."
Which you shamelessly aided and abetted in your quest to "get" the Clintons, no matter how absolutely horrible and unqualified Trump clearly was, and reminds us every day, still is. Thanks
4
Thank you, Ms. Dowd. Your column is a contribution of unusual clarity and directness in disturbing times.
You say “we” don’t want this Presidunce, and you are right if you mean you and me. But he still has nearly 40% of the voters approving of him.
Now what do we do?
Who's this 'we,' Maureen? Certainly you and me and a good many NYT readers; but unfortunately not enough of us. I wish it were a world where we could assume that 95% of the electorate want, and will only accept, these simple criteria. Unfortunately Trump's approval ratings even when he boasts of these 'attributes' is 35% at worst; and like all potential dictators he always has the common-foreign-enemy card ready to play at any time.
Maureen, you are basically saying Trump is unfit to hold the office of the POTUS which I agree wholeheartedly.
Until the House switches to democratic majority (if it does in 2018), and/or Robert Mueller III investigation shows conspiracy and/or obstruction of justice, and the current spineless GOP majority in the House actually upholds the Constitution they swore to uphold, impeachment might actually drive T from office. Shamed on the 60 million who voted for this cretin. This is not the country in which I grew up, worked for 45 years and retired. What happened?
2
It would seem from the reports in The Dailybeast that Corey Lewandowski, who dated Hope for a while before she latched on to Rob Porter, is behind this smear campaign. Apparently, it is about "stealing" his girlfriend.
There are lots of questions about these allegations that remain unanswered. If Porter took pictures of the eye injury and gave it to his ex-wife, why would he have done so were he guilty? Why was no criminal charge or arrest record created about is abusive behavior toward two women?
Trump's point about due process is a serious one and a valid one. Ryan Seacrest was almost destroyed before he preemptively challenged reports of sexual abuse and got himself absolved.
Trump's point about men getting due process when charged with these accusations is consistent with how our system of justice works. Apparently, the crazy liberals do not like the rule of law and due process except when it comes to African Americans.
2
I remember during the campaign the columns were sort of funny, light-hearted. And every now and then, Donald would reach out to you and give you an exclusive interview. Remember the column where you shot questions at him and he gave glib, quick answers? It was called something like "shotgun." Maybe someone can refresh my memory which and when that was. Not so funny now, is it Maureen? You were skeptical from the start, but not forceful enough in your opposition, which is really only just coming out now. Too little, too late, my darling. But keep it up. We can use all the help we can get, and your voice is one of the clearest I know.
1
Employed.
Economically successful.
Socially conservative.
Noncriminal.
White male veterans.
Patriots.
1
I do not know who she is talking about. That description does not fit our president. #TDS
2
After real estate, steaks, casinos and beauty queens, vodka and a “university”, airlines and professional football, it was abundantly clear that “America” was yet just another "chase", another business venture, an “acquisition” for Trump Inc. Or in the current state of Trump businesses, a branding arrangement. The Trump name would be put on America in gold letters. As any other Trump ventures, the family plays a key role, and key advisors are brought in and dismissed with lightning speed, and transparency is absent. In the end, it’s never been about the businesses… it’s been about Trump and how he tries to save face when it fails. Collateral damage is of no relevance.
Evidence of Trump failing at running complex businesses (airlines, casinos etc..) should have been a cautionary tale.
“America by Donald Trump *TM” is yet another failed venture. But Trump doesn’t care.
“The same assets that excite me in the chase, often, once they are acquired, leave me bored,” he famously wrote.
108
The president we don't want anymore is thankfully gone and Trump replaced him. Very astute Maureen.
14
But yet, we voted for one.
8
"We" may be you and I as well as many readers of the Times, but 80% of Republicans DO want a President who does all of these things. They like his racism, sexism, anti-semitism, anti-immigrant stances and his vulgar mouth. They think it's "manly" and anti-PC. They don't even mind his incompetence. And they refuse to believe anything you've written about him because they live in denial anyway. And Trump has plenty of female supporters. Post something about him on social media and watch all his supporters attack you,
104
Maureen,
We don't want the President that you describe but that's exactly the one we've got. We have a President that doesn't have the cognitive ability to even read your column, let alone recognize any nuance required for the office.
God help us all.
What a sad, sad man.
90
"We don't want."
Yes "we" don't want such a president, but we have one. Believe it or not there are some people that WANT this president.
We also don't want a Republican congress that follows this president like the lemmings do that follow one another off the cliff. Those congressmen/women are a major part of the problem.
Now tell us how we get what we want.
65
During the campaign I often told people that there have been many candidates with whom I disagreed but never one of whom I was so afraid. I would pull my hair out as I read article after article in the Times using euphemisms for the words “lie” and “liar” which only begin to describe his faults.
You (and the Times) enabled this unstable, authoritarian bully all along because you thought he had no real chance. Well, he did and here we are. It’s a little late but those concerned with the survival of our form of government, like you, are finally doing something to protect it. I am not certain it will succeed.
71
i think Trump is the greatest genius of our time. Many others agree. So, some of us DO want a president like this. Maybe you'll come around..?
8
I kinda like Henry. He's more respectable than ANY Republican still living! I never heard that he invited Donald to his dinner parties (I know for a fact that he NEVER invited Mayor Mike, at least according to Mike!). Why end a perfectly good rant by ranting about Henry?
5
How was Trump a moral beacon before he entered office?
9
The important issue in Ms. Dowd ‘s piece is the brilliant content, the result of much reflection on the dangerous state of our democracy, the ineptitude of this administration and the sociological and identity turmoil of our country.
Like many readers , I also hurt with Ms. Dowd’s negative writings about Mrs. Clinton. But unlike many, I don’t find ms. Dowd’s thinking inconsequential, or untimely. All the opposite the clarity and consistency of Ms. Dowd’s ideas about the big picture is what mattered perhaps to her before and now. I celebrate the clear presentation of the big picture in which MsDowd addresses the values we NEED to rescue. Curiously the complains against Ms. Dowd relative to this OP-ED, are not disimilar to the ones against Mrs. Clinton. This is a time for renewed reflections and commitment to understanding what really matters. Let’s focus on the forest not on a few trees.
8
It is very clear that many elected officials have lost touch with the voters. In the case of POTUS, many voters lost touch with the truth, and with their disdain for HRC so they chose the most unfit, least qualified person to be their Dear Leader. The GOP has disintegrated into a cabal driving out moderates and principled conservatives.
22
Nope.
This is much bigger than just a bunch of older white males being afraid, but even if it was, what does the NYT have against older white males?
There's racism at the top, there some racism at the bottom, but at this point in our development as a nation there should be some unifying theme to the country besides money. Most everyone hates the idea of unifying around money except for the rich people.
The rich people think that being in favor of workers is being for communism, because in theory Marxism was a worker's movement. The fact of the matter is that Marxism was DOA, but on top of that, nobody every even tried true Marxism. Everyone is just confused.
When our airlines shut down because of an Air Traffic Controller strike, Reagan decided that flying rich people around was more important than worker's rights.
Labor unions and strikes are a terrible way to run a nation, but crushing labor is not the solution. Strangely, the country of Marx is the country that balances labor and profit best now: Germany. Germany was never Marxist, however. Nor was the Soviet Union.
Oh how long philosophical ideas can scare people into stupidity.
Pragmatic concern for working people will fix this. Racism will fade if we take care of workers.
We have huge problems, but white males are not the problem. People who talk all of the time about gender and race are the problem.
10
Without wishing to rehabilitate Henry Kissinger, let’s note the effort he did make in the cause of sane foreign policy before the invasion of Iraq. (Afterward, of course, he earned the swipe you took at him today.) On Sept. 26, 2002, he and Madeleine Albright appeared before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. What follows is my summary of a long transcript in the Congressional Record.
Senator Russell Feingold asked the two for their advice about managing the aftermath of an invasion. Albright attempted a cautiously analytical reply that deteriorated into incoherence and barely left her committed to the opinion that many factors remained unknown. Kissinger replied, in part, as follows:
"I am bitterly opposed to a prolonged occupation of a Muslim country at the heart of the Muslim world by Western nations who proclaim the right to re-educate that country. That seems to me essentially a very difficult undertaking and therefore I would believe that that should be turned over to some kind of an international group that can be formed in which we would have a very major role."
To appreciate those words fully, you need to have seen Kissinger speaking. The latter words straggled out in that slow, circumspect way of his when he's straining to let only his eyes speak of idiocy. He might have earned more credit if he'd simply stopped talking sooner. But in the darkness of a reputation such as his, even a little credit gleams like gold.
http://thefamilyproperty.blogspot.jp/
2
Excellent article. Thank you.
8
Am I a voice in the wilderness out here? I mean I’m still stuck on the fact the FBI did nothing to bring Trump down before he became a candidate, even though the lying, and the fraud, and the money laundering were there in sufficient quantity to be discovered. Which also means that standards for the presidency are none existent. How did this guy get security clearance? Oh, he got elected; that’s all it takes and we don’t get to ask? It’s a little late now any way. Damage done. But the burning question for me is: why didn’t they bring him down? What was all that smoke about Hillary's emails? Certainly deserves investigation. Anyhow, sewage under the bridge now, but the Dems had better have a solid plan in place to capitalize on the firing of Mueller because it’s going to happen. Acting shocked and appalled while being outmaneuvered by low rodent cunning isn’t going to cut it. It’s time to bring out the razors to counter the biggest con ever run in America; Trump makes Bernie Madoff look like Mother Theresa. And it won’t be enough to beat the GOP at the polls; they must be thoroughly and permanently discredited. It would be a service to the nation. Stately decorum in the face of this malevolent freak-show is a waste of decency. The good news is that Mueller is shaping up as perfectly irresistible bait for the sting of the century: to catch the crooked President and to sink his party, exposing them as the vicious, corrupt mob they are.
63
Trump is certainly no Christian, but at least he is a monotheist. He believes in one God--himself. So "we don't want a president who" thinks he is God.
But I am surprised that you ended your excellent litany of Trump's failings/crimes by mentioning Kissinger. Long after Tricky Dick resigned, Henry, widely regarded as a war criminal, somehow kept his standing among ALL subsequent administrations (Democrat as well as Republican).
Trump's temporary/photo-op connection to Kissinger is the least of Trump's offenses. (Does Trump actually listen to him or to anyone else? I doubt it)
By mentioning Henry at the climax of your article you deflate your rhetorical build-up. (This has a semi-comic effect, but I don't think that is your intent)
14
"surrounds himself with dreckitude" - Drekitude! Fabulous Maureen. I've never seen it used before, but the word does actually exist, I've discovered and is most appropriately applied to the disastrous "team" in the WH.
21
And we don't want a president whose first and foremost decision criteria is always "What does this mean for Trump?"
16
Is there anyone, anyone! Who can stop this madman? My country is unlikely to recover from this onslaught in my lifetime.
26
What is most perplexing about the cult of personality that has festered around Donald J. Trump is that in a work of imaginative fiction, an author worth his or her salt would have conjured a demagogue of Machiavellian intelligence and seductive eloquence. He or she could have imagined only a brilliant, towering figure that would be required to subvert America's great democracy into a nascent authoritarianism. The humbling reality has proven to be a pedestrian, semiliterate ignoramus, crass, vain and unsubtle, about as banal as evil can be.
27
Thoughtful, reasoned writing overall. But, it seems to me that the GOP does want these features from the WH. My suggestion to you is to try to analyze the GOP voters and ask yourself, would I invite them to my house for dinner.
9
Well, the bicoastal elites don’t. The rest of the country clearly preferred to go with this bozo rather than trust the most venal and corrupt women in history leading a party that had no ideas and planned to double down on 8 years of policies that gave us sub 2% growth and not a single policy that encouraged private sector job growth or new business formation.
4
In reference to all the don't wants, it's obvious that millions upon millions of Americans, do want President Trump to be in the White House! It's also obvious that all his deficits seem irrelevant to them! Moral compass?! Who really cares?
And if this economy stays good, we are going to have him for seven more years!!!
8
I like Maureen Dowd's style but here she has embarked on a very problematic crusade fostered by liberals: loving the FBI as if the FBI were not known for its lies, dirty tricks and as a part of the surveillance state. Like her I feel Trump is terrible and dangerous but he is also the image of one America. Those opposing him, let's say decent America, should not vote for his huge increase of the defense budget not for more surveillance, the many many Dems did. The CIA, FBI and NSA are not bulwarks of democracy but often its perverters. Remember the lies of Clapper and Brennan, the bugging of Senate computers? The FBI cannot be dishonored for it has no honor (the same goes for the CIA or the NSA which bugs absolutely everyone including Ms Merkel this "dangerous terrorist" (irony here).
Liberals who hope and prey for the secret services to save them and democracy are clueless about history. It seems the NY Times has forgotten Snowden and the revelations it published not so long ago and forgotten the way it was tricked over WMDs in Iraq.
Liberals should fight against Trump but also against Trumpism so stop bolstering the National Security State and the military-industrial complex.
4
I don't know if you noticed but there was only two choices and the President of your dreams was not in the mix.
Obama, like a good salesman, knew the right words to say, the right expression to use, the calculated pause but beneath the facade of perfection lay a dud, a counterfeit.
7
Hard to accept this measly list you create; you were always wavering; you supported the GOP, hated Hillary and Barack, said supportive things about trump;you keep jumping the fence, why? Just want to be on the side you think might be winning. Many called for your removal in the past. I'm with them.
9
I still think that the election itself was hacked.
8
Outsourcing hasnt only hurt older, white Americans. It has hurt ALL Americans! Do you really think when those thousands of factories closed and left that it was only Straight White Men who lost their jobs? What about the acountants and managers who worked there? What about the people working in the diners and delis who made their living off of the lunch crowd?
The Fact is AMerica still needs and uses all of the stuff those factories made: clothing, toasters, refrigerators, hammers & screwdrivers and televisions, etc, etc, etc. The only thing this new economy did was shift production away from America, where Labor and Environmental laws are higher and enforced, to places where labor unions are outlawed and factories can pollute in ways they would never get away with in America. It is suicide to have Free Trade with such countries.
8
If only Manhattan high society had embraced Trump rather than looking down its collective noses at the kid from Queens, none of this would have happened.
2
I am very appreciative of this column and would add: and we don't need a president who would need a dictionary to understand some of the 'big' words in the column should he try to read it. Sad.
6
President Trump is reflection of the USA,uninformed,a believer in american exceptionism,a racist and a successful capitalist with a history of not paying his creditors.The president and america deserve each other,america will soon be beyond redemption.Good Luck
8
I'd thought your last line "we surely don’t want a president who seeks advice on foreign affairs from Henry Kissinger. Ever. Again." was a zinger against Hillary. She is the one who called him her mentor in foreign policy. I thought Trump didn't even know who Kissinger was. My mistake. It turns out that K is a Putin fan and has been waiting for an American version. “There are two kinds of realists,” Kissinger wrote in 1963, “those who manipulate facts and those who create them. The West requires nothing so much as men able to create their own reality.” Trump fills the bill. Kissinger thinks he (K) can be instrumental in creating a new world order combining Russia and the US. https://www.thenation.com/article/what-kissinger-can-teach-trump-about-s...
Not to be a too wacko conspiracy theorist, but has Mueller investigated K's involvement as a Russian-Trump go between? Spending the rest of his life in jail? Couldn't happen to a nicer war criminal.
4
The rhetorical device that Ms. Dowd uses -- "we want" this and "we don't want" that (she uses "we" 28 times by my count, compared with zero uses of "I") is indicative of the same problem that Ms. Dowd complains of in the president -- a vague autocracy. Who is "we"? Is Ms. Dowd running for president? Fine, get the votes and she can more plausibly use "we." In the meantime, Ms. Dowd is strongest in this piece when she does not pretend to speak for an ill-defined class, but when she makes specific observations.
That said, maybe Ms. Dowd is really saying that the "we" are all the women and others who are especially peaved, to put it mildly, about Porter, Weinstein and Trump's own behavior with women. I tend to agree that Kelly cannot stay because of the Porter gloss-over, especially because Porter could not get simple FBI clearance yet was handling many sensitive documents. On the other hand, overstating the size of the "we" was a problem that HRC and the pollsters made in evaluating the degree of kickback on the Access Hollywood tape.
3
I'M not sure anymore where you stand Maureen. It appears that you don't like Trump now but we don't really want to hear another litany of Trump's shortcomings. I do not understand why liberals are blaming you for anything. What you said then had no effect and what you saying now will have no effect in November. However, fear not. You and your ambivalent commentators will have a chance in November to put Trump in the same place Obama was placed after two years. That is impotent and unable to get anything done in Congress.
There are many people who were very happy to see the Republicans take over the House and immobilize Obama after two years and then completely render him ineffective after 4 years when Republicans took over the Senate. Surely readers cannot blame you Maureen for those losses . Trump was not even on the scene then but he was on the horizon. You were trying to speak the truth about Hillary and nobody should blame you for speaking your mind.
1
We also do not a President who has used the powers of government to criminalize their opponent. And sure enough we do not have that person as President. Hopefully our President will clean up the “top state” problem people so that can have the clean government we voted for. Progress is being made. I wonder if NYT will inquire into why our previous President did not appoint an Inspector General for State Department during the years the one wanted to be President was in office. When the cat is away the mouse will play and boy did she. So let’s see what IG says about DOJ and FBI. And then see what the President we did want and get does about it.
There is work to be done so let’s get started.
2
We had to suffer through the malaise of Carter to get Reagan. We had to suffer through the incompetence and malignancy of Obama to get Trump. America leads the world once more.
3
Let Trump have his parade but make him pay for it out of his own pocket.
5
What we want and what we have are two very different things.... It’s the old, “is and ought” dichotomy come full circle.
1
The more fault we find with our president, the more his base loves him. It is paradoxical that our vehement condemnation of this aberrant presidency has the effect of bolstering his support among people who just love to see liberals' hair on fire.
2
I don't know how anyone could disagree with Ms. Dowd. Yet they do. We seem headed for class warfare--or a nationwide psychotic break. Every day I promise myself not to read or watch the news. But like slowing to see a car wreck, I can't seem to stop myself. Help. Please. End this nightmare.
6
I do believe that Ms Dowd is back.
9
There is one important "we don't want ..." that is missing from Ms. Dowd's long list. The missing item is:
We don't want our president to start a war because he thinks that will make him "war president", thus increasing his chances for re-election.
I am afraid that will be the wormhole through which once more Mr. Trump will be "slipping into the Oval Office". And since I predicted Mr. Trump's election victory six months before it happened, I sincerely hope that I don't get the chance to say "I told you so" again!
May be the fact that this very item is missing from Ms. Dowd list tells something about how the US public views wars and how for many it is seldom a burning issue.
It is a simple fact that US wars are always fought on other people's lands. Therefore, bombs are always dropped on someone else's innocent civilians; it is someone else's cities/villages that are leveled; it is someone else's country that is partitioned; etc. The only aspect of military adventurism that is questioned by the US public is the money spent on the war or on the military. And even that question, like many others, gets discussed as long as the media keeps harpooning it.
494
Sorry, but Trump IS a war president. Ever heard of ISIS? Maybe not, because the main stream media isn't being fed leaks about this war. But come the relentless pressure on the terroists will come victory as too - President Trumps re-election. Sadly much to the dismay of many.
Eddie B how I wish you were wrong, but I am forced to agree with you. The ratings of presidents here always seem to go up here when they get us into another war. Some of us know that and are wondering how long it is before our sociopathic president can't stop himself from calling for nuclear disaster.
2
This is name calling East Hampton style. It must read like the greatest put down in history if you think Barrack is "brainy." And Tump is "barmy." The writer hasn't noticed that since Trump took office jobs are easy to get and the persecution against the church is easing off. The working class and the Christians have noticed.
5
Seeing that list makes me depressed. It's all frighteningly true.
We saw the future while Trump was campaigning with his 1950's mindset and knew that it would only get worse.
Together with the Republican majority, they are the country's worst nightmare.
Now what do we do?
We can make list of Trump's horrendousness and mock him endlessly but the big question is...
How to get rid of him and all of his enablers, including the Russian ones?
10
A little too repetitive in the "we don't want a president." Could have just listed the issues without it sounding like a stern lecture.
2
Without Scalia and Citizens United none of this would have been possible. The corporations and the oligarchs, especially Putin's oligarchs, have stolen our democracy. Personally I can't see how we are going to get it back. Even if we vote out the GOP in 2018 and 2020, the corporations and oligarchs and Citizens United will continue to ruin the lives of the poor and the middle class.
Politics in America seems to attract the vain, the morally corruptible, and the greedy no matter the what party they come from.
13
Reading through these comments the city vs rural divide is real. Geographically, dismissing us, isn't wise.
When Progressives want a real conversation, only then will one take place. The labels you reach for because of difference of opinion, isn't convincing us to moderate.
This country is in the middle of a Cold Civil War. Despite Republican party lawmakers being targeted and surviving a mass assassination attempt. Want to understand how this country has come so far? A none armed retaliation response, never came. We are not your enemy. We just believe differently in the direction of this GREAT COUNTRY.
4
And we don’t want a GOP that leaves our electoral system vulnerable because they think a corrupted system will work in their favor, like it did in 2016.
11
"We don't want..."? OK, what are we going to do about it, write columns? Our so-called leaders, if they are Democrats, wring their hands and hope someone else will do the job, and if they are Republicans, ignore impending disaster while they conduct a smash-and-garb for their obscenely greedy owners. The bottom line is that if Trump and his gang of miscreants isn't removed from power and fast, there will be real consequences, like people dying. Waiting for his supporters to change their minds is pointless, they have long ago stopped using their minds. 15-20% of Americans will vote for the most outrageous racist in the game every time, with complete disregard for any other factor. Who cares what they think? If our leaders won't do the job, they are responsible when it happens the way it does elsewhere.
1
Perfect summation of the Trump presidency, thank you Ms Dowd, for clarifying!
2
We don't want an amoral press, both 'liberal' and conservative, that gave Trump billions of dollars worth of free publicity and a joy ride to the White House.
We don't want a media that criticized Trump in the editorial pages during the campaign while simultaneously giving him unlimited front page coverage when he was far from a front-runner.
Newspaper subscriptions have gone through the roof because of Trump, as he is quick to remind the media for whom Trump always delivered lively visuals and and outrageous statements just as they desired. The media got the candidate they really wanted.
11
From far away from home, here in Shanghai, it all appears to be a twisted horror movie where we have fallen into the nadir of our society. The red-blue divisions of voting districts appear like battle lines on military maps, perhaps that is what they are.
How did we get here? Well, by not paying attention to those who have felt left out, left out of 1950's manufacturing jobs, left behind in the age of AI, left behind with broken dreams of another time.
It makes on think of the Buddhist sutra on impermanence, that nothing is permanent. All is changing and ever will be. Our mistake as a society is not embracing change and reaching out to those that are challenged with adapting, challenged with our new technologies, challenged by a global economy, and challenged by becoming minorities as we continue to evolve into a truly multicultural nation.
As we go forward, let us not forget, or fail to serve, those left behind those who felt they had no voice until an orange haired demagogue came to town.
6
Who is 'we'? ALL AMERICANS? SOME AMERICANS? THE MAJORITY OF AMERICANS? THE MINORITY OF AMERICANS?
But whoever is meant to be this 'we' in America at this moment in time, where are the power and the action that follow up on these thoughts and these statements?
Making them to the converted is easy, trying to convince those who are not is the real challenge.
Trump's American base will follow him as long as he - as the American President - is the leading exponent of their own racism, religious and human prejudice, general ignorance, narrow-mindedness, opportunism, nepotism, monetary greed and lack of core moral values.
And there must be a lot of those 'non-wes' around to allow a man like Trump and his entire entourage to stay where he is for so long.
4
Maureen Dowd's cutting and critical piece against de jure President Trump and his courtiers is her trademark inventive and witty wordsmithing that always makes for an interesting and humorous read. But this writing leads to a series of very clear-eyed and declarative "We don't want" sentences making it also a concise, clarifying and serious read.
She may have been channeling Thomas Jefferson. Dowd's introductory writing portion of the article leads to a series of several anti-President Trump declarative statements of grievances.
This struck me as somewhat stylistic to Jefferson's preamble which lead to a series of several anti-King George declarative statements of grievance.
I hoping that the We Don't Want Trump people will increase much more than his base Loyalists. More importantly, these anti-Trump people will get out and vote against him becoming an even greater previous majority of people who voted against him-if he finishes his term and runs again.
2
And we don't want a Republican Congress that enables all this bad behavior; that has become hypocritical in values; and has provided the fuel for rampant inflation and possible economic collapse.
10
Forgive this. Agreed, we don't want this president! It is difficult to explain how his short tenure has so easily subverted the institutions that protect. The press, in my opinion, must reach one step below to understand the support for Trump.
This is what I have asked to forgive. I have never been abused, but feel that this country must establish criteria for abuse. Regarding the recent incidents it seems the FBI and perhaps others did their research. However this is now a seemingly new, but long needed issue to acknowledge, and the complexity needs to be addressed.
In most every way this president has insulted this country from his unkind and astoundingly unacceptable "nick names" of his opponents in the primaries to his absolutely complete non understanding of the issues and policy!
3
We’re witnessing the end of the great experiment established by our Founding Fathers ~250 years ago. DJT will never leave office willingly. Never. The length of his rule will be determined by the loyalty he engenders from his military. If they remain loyal, he’ll be able to pass his power to DJTJr or to JK. If they don’t, he’ll be swept away. So far he seems to be off to a good start.
3
In contrast to Dowd's growing disappointment with Obama, her Trump litany is prompt, precisely focused, and clear in not only what is wrong, but why. Trump is no accident, but generated by an aging, indifferent and undemocratic government, one comatose with patronage by a financial elite-- the new Gilded Age.
As if on cue, Trump naively brags about his election by the hoary but constitutional artifact of an "electoral college", created to protect slave-owning colonies from election of a popular president who might outlaw slavery in the new American republic.
By no accident, Trump holds office today against the majority of American voters, and against about 60 percent of Americans recently polled. Trump is a creature which slipped through the gate by a political technicality counter to every phrase in our Declaration of Independence.
8
To each of the things Ms. Dowd says we don't want, she seems to assume that everyone knows why "we" don't want them. But for many, my guess is that they don't see what difference it makes. Perhaps that's the way some politicians, and those who fund their campaigns, want it.
It's a question of education, and of understanding. Never mind that Trump routinely and publicly insults and belittles not just immigrants and women, but also colleagues, key government agencies and institutions, longtime public servants, world leaders, and the media. The dots just don't connect for a lot of Americans that those actions by a President will ultimately do serious harm from which they themselves, along with each and every one of the rest of us, will suffer.
Until enough Americans have adequate education and sufficient information to understand and appreciate the serious consequences to them personally of the manner in which we elect our leaders (including how campaigns are financed), and the manner in which that president executes his or her public duties, only the most cynical will hold power and only our most superficial individual qualities (skin color, gender, economic class, etc.) will define us. But until then, there will be one Trump or another manipulating us for all this country's worth.
4
Trump speaks for white lower middle-class America about guns, gays, God,and race. His other attributes, including all of the ones you list, do not matter as far as they are concerned. Still, it is good to see these lists every now and then, they may impress suburban women. But going forward, the Dems will need to put up candidates with white lower middle-class appeal.
7
I like a president who wants to stop illegal immigration and wants to strengthen our borders.
I like a president who wants to control legal immigration like it used to be.
I like a president who wants immigration rules like Canada and Australia.
I like a president who supports lower taxes and de-regulation.
I like a president who leads foreign affairs form a position of military strength,
I like a president who supports free and FAIR trade.
I like a president whose focus is on jobs and the forgotten rural communities.
I like a president who will fight unfair press and medicine bias.
I like a present who will fight when he is attacked.
So on the big points, I support Trump's policies. The rest is noise.
8
I don't think this compensates for the early publicity and respectability given to to Trump in the early days — 2015-2016. I'm not sure anything can.
6
And we do have want a Republicans party that supports this excuse of a President over their mandate to rule by law and order and support the US Constitution above all else.
2
Define ‘we’ Maureen. Enough ‘we’ in enough states wanted all of it and I don’t think they believe what you say ‘we’ don’t want even exists, let alone care. Your colleague Mr. Cohen featured (for the 100th time) a profile of an Obama to Trump voter who thinks Trump is just dandy. Roger’s column reminded this ‘we’ just how tragic Trump’s presidency is. He has exposed a split in our country, not over tax policy, military intervention or even abortion, but common decency. I honestly do not know how to ‘listen’ to someone who ignores your list of Trump abominations. I just cannot get past it.
5
All true. But this, like much commentary, seems to assume that the problem is Trump, the individual. Not the fact that the rot has spread to infect the Republlcan party. And that the problems are more deep-seated in American society. For all the "we don't want" it is unclear who is the 'we' - since Trump still has 40% of Americans approving of him. The rot is deep.
4
Thank you for speaking for many whose voices are not heard.
1
Obviously some of us do want a president who has the qualities you mention. The voted for him and they continue to support him.
Many members of Congress also want him as they demonstrate every day with their words and votes.
We have to pray that enough people show up on November 6th to out vote those who support this president and return this country to sane leadership. Otherwise we will be truly lost.
2
All of what Maureen Dowd says and more is true. He's ignorant, amoral, indecent and corrupt.
But no one seems capable of explaining his supporters and defenders. Are they deaf, dumb and blind ? Are they all bigots without a moral compass ? How can anyone overlook his record ?
Those supporters and defenders are just as dangerous as the crook they voted for. They can't be impeached or voted out of office and they seem incapable of learning. What will we do with them when Trump is gone ?
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We also should not want a president that lost by 3 million votes just because of the ridiculous electoral college rules. Are we a democracy or not?
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Perhaps you should have considered these possibilities, thinking them impossible, when bashing Hillary. Yes, she was a very flawed candidate with all sorts of baggage, etc., but she was NOT this.
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Trump is the fault of Democrats. Obama came into power with majorities in both Houses and, over the eight years, Republicans steadily got stronger. Obama, and the Democrats, showed up to a knife fight with a chess board. Consequently, they were out maneuvered and appeared weak. Voters respond to strength.
As stupid as Trump is, he can sign his name to executive orders cancelling Obama's. Executive orders he had to use because Democrats couldn't keep their majorities in the legislature.
Now we are enamored with Biden. Good luck with that.
You have to beat the bully at his own game to win.
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What we do want is a President who will read Dowd's column and realize he would have much more to gain emotionally and politically from heeding her advice than he ever would by listening to the lesser angels at FOX, a President who's willing to change course for the sake of the country he's sworn to unite, not divide and weaken.
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Oh ,I wish people would stop with the Liberal/Conservative labels. We are both. What I would ask people to start identifying with is being for people. For conserving & liberating people. Not just conserving life during pregnancy,but also after a child is born. I want men to have a baby be implanted in them for a nine month pregnancy. I want men & women to vote or have their citizenship taken away ,even so far as being deported. I want a President who not only can read ,but will read. A President gives his ideas on TV ,rather than from a TV. The problem with America is not right or left , but laziness , denying they have a responsibility for what happens in Washington,DC. So ,no matter what our affiliation is, we created it. It is Trump . We have the mechanisms in our hands to change the channel. It's not you Trump ,it's us. We need to move on ,without you. Otherwise the image in the mirror wil be a reflection of us.
You lose me with all the constant use of we instead of I. But I agree with you on many, though not all, of your particulars.
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Nice Maureen. Too bad DJT either can not read (likely) or has great difficulty in doing so. In either case there is no evidence of compression of what actually is going on in the world. He doesn't belong in the White House.
However, for the republicans led by Ryan and McConnell, it is party above country. So there we are, stuck in the swamp.
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We don't want a president who attacks the free press, free speech, an independent judiciary, the FBI, the DOJ, and the opposition party. All of Trump's favorite targets are essential for a free democratic society without corruption.
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Yes, but you are complicit in this nightmare, along with Bernie and his ilk. Such a waste of a brilliant, seasoned, devoted, public servant. All those who belittled Hillary constantly and now complain of the obviousness of Trump's sheer vileness should regret their pettiness and part in the abject horror that America and the sane world lives everyday for the rest of their lives. And worse for the republicans in congress continuing their hypocrisy by supporting this maniac.
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One touchy point with me, Maureen, is your reference to Trump dishonoring the FBI. NOT TRUE. He cited the upper echelon. They brought shame on themselves and the rank and file should be angry with that fact.
Outside threats like the Russians don't scare me. But threats from within makes the hair on my neck stand. Reminiscent of the Hoover days and the multiple abuses of power. Reminds me of the movies like Star Chamber and Seven Days in May. Reminds me in black history month of an FBI that spied on MLK and urged him to commit suicide.
I rarely try to correct or criticize you, but you over stepped on that matter.
we have Trump because the majority of people are not concerned with a misogynistic personality running, and listened instead to a bunch of Republican legislators for the past 3 years. Hanging on mrs. Clinton and suggesting that she was a problem. sadly mrs. Clinton was actually apparently a fairly good Secretary of State . compare her to Tillerson. to suggest that Trump represents what someone like me would want as a role model for my grandchildren is disgusting. so, why did a majority of white Christian women and theoretically Christian men vote for this person who cannot fashion a straight story.?
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maureen, you keep us in the race - those of us who believe trump must be voted out of office. keep doing what you are doing. the man is so exhausting we need people like you who are determined to keep informed, focused, and on the attack.
We only need to win. yes, he has supporters. we just need more. writers like you help us keep focused on getting the more that is enough to remove him from office.
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And we don’t want to continue to be blind to the fact that 62 million Americans voted for this con man. We don’t want to ignore or deride and belittle his supporters. We don’t want to fail to really try to understand their support of this damaged and dangerous man
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The trouble is, Maureen, that roughly 35% of Americans want EXACTLY what Trump is selling. They are happy to invest in Trump's time-share "Bubble World".
If Fort Sumter, The Lusitania, Pearl Harbor, or The 9/11 Attacks ever happen on Trump's watch, he'll just say it never happened.....and 35% of America will cheer for The Great Trump!
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What we want is a president who improves our economic outlook, a president who reverses the trend of American companies manufacturing in foreign countries rather than our own. A president who wants to modernize our military, seal our borders, and take steps to reduce healthcare costs. We want a president who reduces unemployment, food stamp usage, welfare costs and puts more minorities into jobs. We want a president who isn't afraid to discuss the importance of our Judeo-Christian values in our society, and one who isn't afraid to thank Jesus Christ in our everyday life. A president who uses commonsense over political correctness. A president who isn't afraid to return attack against a hostile media that wouldn't even give him a honeymoon period as all other presidents have had. This is what we want from a president, and we finally have one, President Trump!
So Maureen, it seems you woke up on the right side of the bed and rediscovered your attitude. Just in time, I would add. In summation, Trump is everything we should never wish to see in a friend, neighbor, teacher or any other human being. To say he is dysfunctional is an insult to all the damaged people who never give up trying. The stock market just made a correction, the voters and the law are next. Donald, enjoy your due process, its probably going to sting.
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It’s been a long time since I liked one of Maureen’s columns but this one touched some of the really raw fears I have for our country right now. I’m really truly afraid that the systems in place to keep our government balanced are going to kick in later than needed to save us from years and years of recovery. I guess the serious tone here was right for me. I drank it in like water in the desert.
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We had a president who politicized the DoJ, the FBI, the CIA and other institutions which shouldn't have been touched. He was a crook and we are well rid of him. Donald Trump is our president and we have seen dramatic improvements in the economy and foreign policy. I am glad he is our president and not the corrupt Hillary Clinton.
American racism & bigotry was never a secret. In fact, it's been sown into the very fabric of the nation from it's inception. The backlash of anger from many white Americans was quite foreseeable. It was immediate after the election Barack Obama, a fine man who represented the country well, among the GOP and their supporters. Combined with modern day poll taxes in the form of voter id laws, blatant bigotry in the language of the GOP candidate, a tv network that supports white supremacy & parrots obvious falsehoods, and one presidential candidate's entire team helping a foreign adversary to sabotage our electoral system, this disaster was bound to happen. The system of checks & balances cannot work when the same party controls both branches of congress and refuses to hold a criminal regime accountable. In fact, that party continues to do all in its power to obstruct any and all entities attempting to discover the truth and bring the wrongdoers to justice. Only an informed majority of non-bigoted voters can turn the situation around. Sadly, America may be too racist a nation with a long tradition of oppression to overcome the current situation.
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Absolutely the BEST column EVER.
You speak the truth, and that’s why we love you.
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This poetic effort was not written about Trump. In fact, it was composed years ago before he was even a gnat in Hillary's eye. (I accept the prescience award, if offered.)
the creator
and the destroyer of worlds
who cannot help but set fire
to the very house his fathers once labored
to make on a safe distant hill
who knows the truth of his empty being
but will not answer the call
to whom lies are better than truth
and his own release the
only reason for grasping
at the body of another
who even now plans the dance of death
across continents he has never seen
among peoples too strange to his sight
to love or even befriend
who cannot find a hero in all of history's pages
who reduces all of those who came before
into insignificance the better to imagine
the vast importance of his own being
who sees himself as the victor in every moment
while imaging that everyone is always less
and unworthy
don't think you are immune
don't think the disease likes with others
more distant an less informed or
less charitable in their impulses
if you have paid this monster's bill
then you drink the same blood
and set the sky on fire in
the night of everlasting winter
PS: I offer these thoughts in the hope that the ultimate potential is not realized, even while the danger and threat are omni present.
4
Yes, we...whomever we are....surely don't want him/them.....but it surely looks as though we have him/them.
Now what to do, indeed that is the question...and the GOP does not seem inclined to do anything but acquiesce.
We live in very dangerous and perilous times for our children, our grandchildren
and for the future of this country which is being bought and sold to the highest bidders...
1
It is not possible to turn back the clock. White supremacy will not prevail, women will not slip back into unconscious acquiescence, coal will not last, the stock market will not remain up, the environment will demand its protection by disaster after disaster, the poor will not suffer forever and the entire reactionary last gasp of this short era will end. People will marry whomever they want, women will fight for their safety and security, solar and wind power will be adopted everywhere, the stock market will return to normal, the poor will be tortured by their suffering enough to awaken to its cause. We needed this dark mirror to see the light. We needed this astounding offense to regroup our defense. I believe in America. We are not dumb, just dumbstruck.
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