Laura Ingraham recently discussed the moral principles of Donald Trump with a caller. The claims made by Ingraham were bolstered by the comparison of Trump to Ronald Reagan and Abraham Lincoln.
The caller believes that Trump lacks moral integrity, citing the numerous problems he has had with women in his own life, both public and prviate:
“Well, let’s see. He’s immoral, multiple adulterer, philanderer, boasts about his promiscuity and his sexual degradation of women.”
Ingraham first line of defense was in the divorce of Ronald Reagan, which the caller brushed aside because “his wife divorced him.” This comparison however, carries a little less scrutiny because some of his social policies were frankly ridiculous.
Using Lincoln in a lengthy comparison is where things become problematic. Regardless of any events detailing a moral failing in Lincoln’s run as a politician, claims of Trump being a comparable public servant is outrageous. Ingraham uses the civil war to drive home her point:
“Do you think, Lincoln suspended habeas corpus for goodness sake. We had hundreds of thousands who were slaughtered in the most – Lincoln was an amazing man and we owe him so much. But remember, he had to do some really immoral things, also, to win the Civil War for the union of the country. They had to make choices. Morality is…we’re not picking a church leader.”
One tends to ponder over what may be comparable to the Civil War in modern American society. The Civil War was a dynamic era of the United States that provided great turmoil and change. The closest possible thing may be between African Americans and our police and correctional institutions (surprise, Trump sides with the police).
Trump is doing his best to fracture relations between people who do not fit the status quo: stopping Muslims from coming to this country, widespread deportation of Mexican immigrants, building an outlandish wall. Lincoln may have had his faults but he was the man who led us through the other side of slavery. Ingraham’s claims have no place on any political platform.
Listen to the entire segment below:
Featured image by Pro-Life Unity via Flickr, available under Creative Commons attribution license
