A few months ago, the trendy insult hurled at Donald Trump was that he is just like Hitler.

I dislike Trump’s style and some of his policies, too. (Unlike the other two candidates still in the race, however, he’s not the subject of an FBI investigation that could transfer him from the White House to the big house, and he doesn’t subscribe to the economics school of Joseph Stalin.)

But not everyone I dislike is necessarily Hitlerian. So I wrote a column titled “Is Trump just like Hitler?” in which I patiently explained that he’s not. To contend that he is trivializes the enormity of Hitler and the plight of his victims.

Maybe I succeeded. Trump is no longer called Hitler.

But now a whole new set of names are on the name-calling menu. Just here in Aspen, Trump has recently been name-called an egomaniac, a racist twice, an ignoramus, a xenophobe, a misogynist twice (are they incapable of originality?) and a boob (well, I guess that’s original, but it’s meaningless).

And that’s just here. Go national, and you’ll see that this person who is drawing about half the nationwide votes is name-called such things as bigot, stupid, a–hole, fat, demagogue, jerk, idiot, race-baiter, narcissist, sexist and man-slut.

One pundit called him the “Lord of the Rings” nonhuman character Gollum. Continue reading →

North Carolina recently passed a law prohibiting transsexuals from using the public bathrooms of their chosen gender. No Y chromosomes are allowed in the women’s bathrooms. Lola, that means you.

I have three confessions relevant to today’s discussion. First, I’m a political conservative. (“No way!” you’re saying.)

Second, I consider myself a Christian. (Whew, I feel relieved to come out of the Christian closet, but now I fully expect the local Christianophobes to shun and ridicule me — in the name of diversity and tolerance, of course. Oh well.)

Third, I’m the father of two daughters. They’re now more able and adult than their dad, but I can remember when they were vulnerable young girls in need of my protection.

So I must support the North Carolina bathroom law, right? Wrong. Continue reading →