In the powerful revival of the musical “Ragtime” at the New York City Center theater, the female lead, played by Caissie Levy, stops the show with a song titled “Back to Before.” With words filled with emotion in each phrase, she sings of the pain of making progress in a deeply divided and bigoted turn-of-the-century America. As I absorbed the song, I could not help but think of Donald Trump and the corrupt message he has brought in the election.
Trump is, of course, a man with a criminal and moral record. He has four indictments charging some 91 felonies, 34 of which have resulted in guilty verdicts. He has boasted about groping women and been found liable for violating one. He has shared national security secrets with unauthorized individuals, tried to overturn an election, fraudulently misrepresented his net worth to his lenders and allegedly cheated on his taxes as well as all of his wives.
Nothing evinces Trump’s amorality as much as his chilling remark after being told that his own vice president was in danger of being lynched by a mob he had set loose on the Capitol: “So what?”
Americans have heard what Trump has said in his own words. He believes he has the authority to terminate “rules, regulations, and articles, even those found in the Constitution.” Using the military, he’ll implement the “largest domestic deportation operation in American history.” He would give those who attacked the Capitol in the deadly Jan. 6 riot “pardons because they are being treated so unfairly.” He would tell Vladimir Putin’s Russia “to do whatever the........