President Trump and the age of the grumpy old white man

By Helaine Olen
June 13 at 12:13 PM

The United States is a country dominated by grumpy old white men. Instead of yelling at kids to get off their lawn or to turn down the music, they yell at women, immigrants, foreign leaders and anyone else who wants a place at the table. The motivation: to keep the world as it was, when white American men were on top, and everyone else was just grateful for any consideration at all.

Consider the past month, starting with grumpy old white man in chief Donald Trump. Over the past week alone, he raged at Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, calling him “meek” and “very dishonest and weak” when Trudeau politely (given the circumstances) disagreed with Americans about trade policy.

This followed Trump’s suggestion that National Football League players who kneel when the national anthem is played should possibly be deported. You wouldn’t want those African Americans to get any ideas that they shouldn’t get beaten up and shot by the cops, would you?

Then there is Attorney General Jeff Sessions, who on Monday signaled that victims of domestic abuse and gang violence generally will not qualify for asylum in the United States. The previous way of doing things, he said, resulted in “powerful incentives” to “come here illegally and claim a fear of return.” In other words, the ladies just might be making it up. And for all we know, they could be! Last week, Trump attorney Rudy Giuliani went on television to declare that no one should trust porn star Stormy Daniels. Daniels had “no reputation,” he declared. Giuliani later doubled down. “If you’re going to sell your body for money, you just don’t have a reputation. I may be old-fashioned, I dunno,” Giuliani declared the following day.

Old-fashioned! That’s a term Bill Clinton used last week, too. Fresh off his apology tour for coming across as a grumpy old man when asked to discuss Monica Lewinsky, he came forward to declare that Sen. Al Franken (D-Minn.) had been wronged when pushed to resign after multiple charges of groping unwilling women. “I’m just an old-fashioned person,” he declared on “PBS NewsHour.”

more
https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/post-partisan/wp/2018/06/13/president-trump-and-the-age-of-the-grumpy-old-white-man