Trump Self-Destructing?

Caption: The author rides Ole the bull in Humeston, Iowa during RAGBRAI (the Register's Annual Great Bicycle Ride Across Iowa). Ole is Jason's pet. Jason poses in green shirt and clown makeup next to author and Ole.

Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump is beginning to self-destruct, and I couldn’t be more pleased. One would have thought he’d do so sooner. He’s certainly been working at it. However, as he said himself earlier in his campaign, “I could stand in the middle of Fifth Avenue and shoot somebody and I wouldn't lose voters."

Apparently, going after Gold Star families the way he went after the Khans was a step too far. Republican Meg Whitman of California stepped away from Trump and said she would donate to, work for, and vote for Hillary Clinton. She’s not the only woman unhappy with Trump. Last time I checked, Trump’s unfavorable rating with women was 73%. Surely that rating is higher now.

Recently, Trump collected a gaggle of what he imagined to be an impressive group of economists, all male. He’s clearly tone deaf when it comes to women. After all, Mike Pence is his vice presidential nominee. Mike Pence is a strong member of the Christian Taliban that longs to control every aspect of women’s bodies and ability to move upward in society.

Eric Trump, Trump’s son, engaged in victim-blaming when he said that his sister Ivanka Trump wouldn’t put up with sexual harassment.

Hell, she wouldn’t have to! Rich daddy Trump would have her back! Not every woman is in such an enviable (?) position.

The famous and sadly, no longer living columnist Molly Ivins said she cut her teeth arguing with her conservative oil man father while growing up in Texas. It’s lucky he didn’t beat her half to death when she disagreed with him. Not all feisty girls and women with independent spirits have been as lucky with their fathers.

Trump is losing ground in a nearly all-white state, New Hampshire. He’s losing ground in Pennsylvania and Michigan. Word has it though that there’s an island of right-wing, misogynistic folks who strongly support bigoted, misogynistic, Confederate-flag supporting Republican Congressman Steve King (National Public Radio/Iowa Public Radio) and his national counterpart, Donald Trump. Yes, folks. Northwest Iowa is still lost in a time warp of the 1950s and they love their bigots as much as ever.

Once, when I served coffee in my bike skirt to a tableful of farmers at Misty’s Café in Moville, Iowa on RAGBRAI, I asked them all about Steve King.

“Why, he just says what we all think, don’t he?” the tallest farmer asked rhetorically.

Only one man at the table looked uncomfortable, but he said nothing.

Alarmingly, whether northwestern Iowans were for or against Steve King, neither group knew that anyone was running against him. I forget the name of the man who ran against him then. Hopefully, more people know that now Democrat Kim Weaver is running against him, but King’s numbers (84% per Iowa Public Radio) look bullet proof.

My dream is that the train wreck that the Donald has become will have a down-ballot effect will sweep obstructionist Republicans out of the House of Representatives, with the exception of northwestern Iowa, still locked in the fifties. Of course, gerrymandering will probably keep many Republican House members where they are, but I can dream, can’t I?