Let’s get it right out on the table. Trump is a buffoon. Virtually every other thing that comes out of his mouth is a lie. Just to give examples – it is hard to know where to even start. Early in the campaign he claimed he saw thousands of Muslims in New Jersey celebrating the attack on 9/11. Obviously not true and clearly proven untrue. Yet the Donald never backed down from that claim. Recently, at the 2nd Presidential Debate he claimed that Russia has beefed up its nuclear arsenal while the U.S. has done nothing – making Russia’s nuclear weapons much superior to ours. Every military and weapons expert alive has stated the claim is not only without merit; it is completely ridiculous.
False Equivalence Number One – Trump and Hillary Both Lie
So we can start with an early and a recent example of Trump’s falsehoods. But if you look at virtually everything the man has said in the last year and a half, at least 50% of his claims are blatantly false. Look at the fact check page on the second debate from Politico – Trump blurted out lie after lie after lie. Including denying that, in the wee hours of the morning, he Tweeted to check out the form
er Ms. Universe’s (non-existent) sex tape – when the Tweet is right there for everyone to see. What does it say about someone who would lie about a lie when everyone knows he did? It seems sick, almost sociopath like.
On the other hand, look at what they dinged Clinton on. Things like: she claimed the U.S. is energy independent when we still get 11% of our oil from foreign sources. Of course, that number was around 40% a decade or so ago. So she was technically not correct, but comparatively speaking we are fairly energy independent. All she was lacking was a simple qualifier like “almost” or “nearly”.
So Trump’s lies are blatant and obvious. Clinton’s are rather technically nit-picky.
Yet so many people, especially Trump supporters, respond automatically that they are both liars or even absurdly that Clinton is a bigger liar. A false equivalence.
False Equivalence Number Two – Both Foundations are Crooked
Let’s look at an another example. Their foundations. It has become obvious to anyone with an open mind that the Trump Foundation is just a PR tool for Trump, and he plays fast and loose with it – ignoring reporting laws, using it to buy things for himself and his business, making illegal campaign contributions (which he claims now was a simple mistake, but if you examine the paper trail and effort the foundation made to make it look like it was NOT a political contribution throws lots of doubt on that explanation), and to buy his way out of business lawsuits. These are not “allegations” or “suspicions” – these are proven factual things.
On the other hand, the Clinton Foundation is a completely above the board, professionally ran organization that gets high marks from non-profit watch dog groups and has a specific mission that, beyond a shadow of a doubt, it works hard to fulfill. Hillary Clinton has been accused of “selling access” to donors of the Clinton Foundation. There is no evidence of this other than some emails from contributors asking to meet with Clinton. The proof that she sold access is that she met with representatives of governments who made contributions. But she was Secretary of State at the time. She was constantly meeting with representatives of governments. There is no proof that she sold access and met with people because they contributed. We can only make that inference or assumption.
So once again, we have solid evidence of misuse of a foundation by Trump, and unproven accusations of misuse by Clinton. Yet once again, Trump supporters LOVE to throw out the Clinton Foundation as some kind of evidence of Hillary’s corrupt nature, when all the evidence shows that when examining both foundations, the Trump Foundation is proven beyond a doubt to be corrupt and operating illegally.
Another example of false equivalence.
False Equivalence Number Three – Trump and Hillary are Both Unfit to be President
So on one hand we have Trump – a compulsive liar with tons of shady dealings (stiffs contractors or uses litigation or threat of litigation to avoid paying for materials and services, claims America First while having his clothing line made in 3rd world countries and buys 2nd rate Chinese steel for construction projects, and a scam of a foundation), and someone who obviously has self-control issues since he cannot help himself from ridiculous middle of the night Tweets or starting fights with Republican party leaders or from bragging about sexually abusing because he is a celebrity and he can. None of these things are mere accusations or suspicions. They are known to be true beyond a shadow of a doubt.
And we have Clinton. Someone who through their intelligence and hard work got her into the best of schools, including Yale Law School. (She didn’t come from a rich family.) Someone whose earliest public service involved helping disabled and disadvantaged children have access to the education they deserved. Someone who has served as the First Lady of Arkansas, First Lady of the U.S., Senator from the state of New York, and four years as U.S. Secretary of State.
The accusations against Clinton are flimsy and based solely on assumptions and suspicion. The drum the Clinton haters always beat are the emails and Benghazi. Yet both of these things have been investigated and investigated – by a Republican Congress, by the FBI – to the tune of years and millions and millions of dollars. The only thing they came up with was that a small handful (about 6, I believe) of classified emails went through an unauthorized account. That’s it. Yet, despite these intense investigations the hoards of Trumpsters fling wild accusations of every stripe, even calling her a murderer because a 4 state department employees were killed in a terrorist attack as though she intentionally wanted them to die. For those informed enough to know that one of those killed was a close personal friend of hers, we realize how cruel that accusation really is.
Trumpsters also blame Hillary directly for the world being in chaos – since she was secretary of state for four; a charge so ludicrous as to be laughable. (Especially since the people who really threw the Middle East in a larger state of chaos was the Bush Administration by lying us into an unnecessary invasion of Iraq.)
Don’t get me wrong. I am not truly a Hillary fan. I was on board with Bernie from the beginning. But let’s get real. We have a choice between someone who has proven to be competent and intelligent, and someone who only seems to care about how they feel at any given moment – willing to lie and lash out in any way imaginable if they feel slighted or unhappy. Yet even people who don’t support Trump seem to fall into the false equivalence trap. “I don’t know who to vote for.” “They are both terrible people.”
Americans – the need for false equivalence shows just how ill-informed many of you are.