New York Times columnist David Brooks argued Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump has “a consistent misogynistic view of women” which is “the stuff of a diseased adolescent” and that “you get a sense of a man who received no love, can give no love” on Friday’s “PBS NewsHour.”
Brooks stated, “Are we really here? Is this really happening? Is this America? Are we a great country talking about trying to straddle the world and create opportunity in this country? It’s just mind-boggling. And we’ve sort of become acculturated, because this campaign has been so ugly. We’ve become acculturated to sleaze and unhappiness that you just want to shower from every 15 minutes. The Trump comparison of the looks of the wives, I mean, he does have, over the course of his life, a consistent misogynistic view of women as arm candy, as pieces of meat. It’s a consistent attitude toward women, which is the stuff of a diseased adolescent. And so we’ve seen a bit of that show up again. But if you go back over his past, calling into radio shows, bragging about his affairs, talking about his sex life in public, he’s childish in his immaturity. And his — even his misogyny is a childish misogyny. And that’s why I do not think Republicans, standard Republicans, can say, yeah, I’m going to vote for this guy, because he’s our nominee. He is of a different order than your normal candidate. And this whole week is just another reminder of that.”
Brooks later added, “The odd thing about his whole career and his whole language, his whole world view, is there’s no room for love in it. There’s — you get a sense of a man who received no love, can give no love, so his relationship with women, it has no love in it. It’s trophy. And his relationship toward the world is one of competition and beating, and as if he’s going to win by competition what other people get by love. And so you really are seeing someone who just has an odd psychology unleavened by kindness and charity, but where it’s all winners and losers, beating and being beat. And that’s part of the authoritarian personality, but it comes out in his attitudes towards women.”
Follow Ian Hanchett on Twitter @IanHanchett
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