Trump blame game, obsession with lying have us trapped in a trick-or-treat America

As Halloween approaches, tens of millions of people feel they are trapped in a trick-or-treat America, where, if you didn't vote for Donald J. Trump, you are powerless to stop the president's celebration of white supremacy, assault on the environment and repeated attempts to erode our democracy. The Lowe's in Paramus is asking $199 for this Skeleton Couple. 

GUADAGNO LAGS IN THE POLLS,

BUT GAINS AT THE RECORD

-- HACKENSACK, N.J.

By VICTOR E. SASSON

EDITOR

Today's post was inspired by a Wyckoff man's letter to the editor of The Record, my local daily newspaper.

The letter from Ronald Barone appeared on Thursday's Editorial Page under this heading:

"Tales of a self-absorbed, 

insecure president"

As happens often, letters from readers like Barone often say what the editors of the Woodland Park daily don't or won't say about President Trump's nine months in office.

"One has to wonder how this totally insecure individual, Donald Trump, became president," Barone began. "Why does he feel the need to continually blame others for his failures?

"Why, everytime he speaks, does he feel the need to lie? Does he think people can't check his facts? What is his compulsive obsession with President Obama? Could it be he knows he will never measure up to Obama's presidency?

"Does Trump know that he hasn't the intelligence or empathy required for this position? His recent statements that he's not taking the blame for the failure of the Republican Congress to overturn Obamacare should not be surprising.

"He has not taken responsibility for anything he promised on the campaign trail, which was plentiful.  

"Everything he speaks of ultimately comes back to how it affects him. Have we ever had a more self-absorbed president? I don't think it's close."

Barone's letters to the editor of The Record have been published frequently.

A Bernie Sanders supporter shows her loyalty on her car's rear bumper.

How Trump did it

Of course, one of the factors in the election of Trump was the millions of registered Democrats who stayed home on Nov. 8.

Another was the 12% of Bernie Sanders supporters who voted for the Vermont senator, a Democrat, in the primaries, then voted for Trump in the general election.

That's according to the Cooperative Congressional Election Study, a survey among 50,000 people by Brian Schaffner, a political science professor at the University of Massachusetts. 

In the key swing states -- Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin -- the Sanders supporters who voted for Trump were potentially enough to have handed Clinton those states and the presidency. 

Can happen in N.J.

That kind of voter apathy among Democrats could sink the candidacy of Phil Murphy, who hopes to succeed Governor Christie, New Jersey's own GOP bully.

In the Nov. 7 election, Murphy, a former U.S. ambassador to Germany, is facing Republican Lt. Gov. Kim Guadagno, who is using such Trump-like tactics as lying about what Murphy would do if elected.

In 2013, Christie was re-elected, but the turnout was the lowest for a gubernatorial election in state history, and that hurt his opponent, Democratic state Sen. Barbara Buono.

On Thursday, The Record's front-page coverage of the second of two Murphy-Guadagno debates was played below the Yankees' chances of going to the World Series.

More slanted coverage

Dustin Racioppi, the same reporter assigned to cover Christie, has filed one slanted story after another favoring Guadagno, and his debate story on Thursday was no exception. 

Racioppi's second paragraph is a classic example of a reporter stacking the deck against the Democratic candidate:

"Guadagno insisted repeatedly that she would lower taxes in New Jersey, and that Murphy would raise them," Racioppi wrote, without telling readers the Democrat wants to raise the income taxes paid by millionaires, and the wealthy corporations and hedge funds the Christie-Guadagno team shielded from taxes.

Guadagno isn't pledging to lower income taxes; she claims she'll be able to lower local property taxes, even though governors have little or no control over levies set by local councils and school boards.

Pulled from air

"She calculated a multitude of promises Murphy has made during the campaign to run between $50 billion to $65 billion, all of it to be borne by taxpayers," Racioppi said, strongly suggesting Murphy would raise taxes on the middle class.

And Racioppi doesn't mention that Guadagno's claim is that she can lower property taxes -- the highest in the nation -- the same Big Lie that got Christie elected in 2009.

As one of the paper's Christie apologists in recent years, Racioppi is absolutely the wrong reporter to assign to the gubernatorial election.

Obama, Bush

Former President Barack Obama campaigned for Murphy on Thursday, saying a victory for the Democrat would reject "the same old politics and division that we have seen so many times before" (1A in The Record).

Meanwhile, in Manhattan, former President George W. Bush called on Americans to reject bigotry and white supremacy -- a veiled reference to Trump's divisive policies (5A).