It occurred to me as I watched the speeches from the New York fundraiser last night that saw Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump on the same dais, separated by a "religious" (the irony was not lost on me) that we are dealing with a seriously wounded candidate.
Donald Trump is a deeply scarred man, a man who doesn't hate Hillary as much as he is in awe of her. On the debates I watched him closely. Especially when Hillary was talking. Yes, he had his usual arrogant petulance, that kind of bland, fixed mask that tries to hide everything, but I never saw hatred there. At least not for her. For women? Yes, definitely, along with Latinos, Muslims, immigrants, African Americans and just about everyone else, projecting out to all an enmity that he probably feels for himself.
But I did see awe for his opponent, as though he knew that they were part of history and that a woman, a strong, brilliant, woman who refuses to be touched by his vitriol, is actually going to beat him fair and square. In front of the eyes of the world, on a very global platform.
At the dinner I saw small gestures of his reaching out to her, this conflicted, tortured man. After she finished her speech, I saw him rise quickly to hold her chair in place for her. After the dinner, it was Donald Trump that immediately reached over to Hillary, not the other way around. It was as though he wanted to hate her, but could not quite pull it off.
He is a man deeply divided within himself, and we can only hope that he never reaches the helm of power so that this conflicted state, this inner scarring, reaches out to harm others as well.
Donald Trump is a deeply scarred man, a man who doesn't hate Hillary as much as he is in awe of her. On the debates I watched him closely. Especially when Hillary was talking. Yes, he had his usual arrogant petulance, that kind of bland, fixed mask that tries to hide everything, but I never saw hatred there. At least not for her. For women? Yes, definitely, along with Latinos, Muslims, immigrants, African Americans and just about everyone else, projecting out to all an enmity that he probably feels for himself.
But I did see awe for his opponent, as though he knew that they were part of history and that a woman, a strong, brilliant, woman who refuses to be touched by his vitriol, is actually going to beat him fair and square. In front of the eyes of the world, on a very global platform.
At the dinner I saw small gestures of his reaching out to her, this conflicted, tortured man. After she finished her speech, I saw him rise quickly to hold her chair in place for her. After the dinner, it was Donald Trump that immediately reached over to Hillary, not the other way around. It was as though he wanted to hate her, but could not quite pull it off.
He is a man deeply divided within himself, and we can only hope that he never reaches the helm of power so that this conflicted state, this inner scarring, reaches out to harm others as well.