Read On: Thought of Trump as president is ‘unfathomable’

So it’s Oct. 8, and because I don’t have to worry about hurricanes here on the West Coast, the thing that’s consuming me most right now is naturally the presidential election.

Let me preface what I’m about to say by pointing out the obvious. A two-year campaign season is roughly 21 months too long. Not only am I sick to death of everyone associated with the candidates; I’m sick of even the sound of their names.

So naturally, I’ll be watching the second debate Sunday night because that which repulses me simultaneously fascinates me. I admit that it’s rather like an addiction at this point.

Not that there is anything close to equivalency in my disdain for what’s passed this election cycle for oppositional discussion and debate. Let me just say it clearly and succinctly: Donald Trump is an embarrassment not just to himself, not just to his party, but to the entire country.

That this race between him and Hillary Clinton remains even semi-close is astonishing. That four in 10 voting citizens of the United States can still support such a racist, misogynist, hypocritical, lying, self-serving, egomaniacal, bullying and singularly vulgar human being is more than merely perplexing — it’s unfathomable.

Were your children to behave as Trump does on a daily basis, you would disown them. Were your parents to act like him, you would cut off all contact. And yet to most of the Republican Party brain trust, this man is considered worthy of their support. It’s what is known as selling one’s soul to the devil and placing party loyalty over country.

I have continued to believe up until pretty much this week that something would happen to derail Trump’s nomination, that sanity would somehow prevail. But now that we’re precisely a month away from election day, it’s officially too late. Voting already has begun in many states.

Upon receiving my sample ballot in the mail recently, I was still shocked to read the name “Donald J. Trump” on the page for president, as if it had all just been a drawn-out nightmare from which I would invariably awaken.

The possibility that this man could still win tells me that our system of checks and balances is completely broken. When a man shamelessly plays up his business credentials after reportedly taking a nearly billion-dollar loss and boasts with pride of his ability to avoid paying taxes — selling it as proof of his being a maverick genius — I genuinely fear for our nation’s future.

I no longer simply blame the media. This goes far deeper than that. This is about mistrusting what our eyes and ears are telling us, that everything we know about how scam artists operate is incorrect and Trump is the answer to all of America’s woes.

Instead, it’s the precise opposite that is true. There is no end to the damage this man could do to the country and the world if he were to gain access to the Oval Office and treat our land as his own personal dummy corporation.

I implore anyone who is seriously planning to vote for Trump in next month’s election to reconsider the potential consequences of this defiant, foolhardy act.

You can base this reassessment solely on what emerged Friday in Trump’s own words, captured on live video during a conversation with Billy Bush of “Access Hollywood” in 2005 and obtained by the Washington Post.

The audio finds Trump speaking in the lewdest terms imaginable while sharing an anecdote with Bush about a potential female conquest.

Said Trump in part: “I moved on her and I failed. I’ll admit it. I did try and [expletive] her. She was married. And I moved on her very heavily… You know, I’m automatically attracted to beautiful... I just start kissing them. It’s like a magnet. Just kiss. I don’t even wait. And when you’re a star, they let you do it. You can do anything. Grab them by the [expletive]. You can do anything.”

Now close your eyes and try to imagine this individual being in charge of the country. How does that feel?

--

RAY RICHMOND has covered Hollywood and the entertainment business since 1984. He can be reached via email at ray@rayrichco.com and Twitter at @MeGoodWriter.