When I was growing up and my sister or I did something naughty that was blindingly obvious, and then proceeded to deny it outright, my mother would (frequently, suppressing a laugh) give us a finger wag, a stern look, and a serious morality lesson, telling us about Mr. Nobody.
Mr. Nobody
I know a funny little man, As quiet as a mouse, Who does the mischief that is done In everybody’s house! There’s no one ever sees his face, And yet we all agree That every plate we break was cracked By Mr. Nobody
`Tis he who always tears our books, Who leaves the door ajar, He pulls the buttons from our shirts, And scatters pine afar; That squeaking door will always squeak, For, prithee, don’t you see, We leave the oiling to be done By Mr. Nobody
The finger marked upon the door By none of us are made; We never leave the blind unclosed, To let the curtains fade. The ink we never spill; the boots That lying round you. See Are not our boots they all belong To Mr. Nobody.
Author: Unknown
I particularly remember an incident where the block of butter in the refrigerator developed a clean child-size finger gouge. I swear it was my sister who did it, not me. From then on, the Mr. Nobody story became sort of a family code. When one of us kids screwed up, to call on Mr. Nobody was a way of acknowledging participation, but denying any guilt.
This escape hatch got used more than once in our house.
We have all been visually assaulted over the last few days with more examples of Trump supporters turning ugly and getting violent with protestors at his rallies. The tension ratchets up, as Trump gets ever more colorful in his taunts and insults to protests in order to pump up the crowd’s energy level.
But when something happens in Fayetteville, or Chicago, or St. Louis, Trump is Mr. Innocent. It’s not me. My hands are clean.
Reuters reports today:
“I don’t accept responsibility. I do not condone violence in any shape,” Trump said on NBC’s “Meet the Press.”
The tension at his rallies, Trump said, came from people being “sick and tired” of American leadership that has cost them jobs through international trade deals, failed to defeat Islamic State terrorism and treats military veterans poorly.
“The people are angry at that – they’re not angry about something I’m saying. I’m just the messenger,” Trump said.
Trump claims he is just the messenger. To borrow a presidential strut from former President George Bush about being the Decider, Trump should just announce “ I am the Inciter (in Chief).”
And, if the messenger ploy doesn’t work, blame it on Bernie. Bernie did it. Bernie is Mr. Nobody, as Trump points the finger elsewhere, any place not Trump.
As Chris Cillizza writes in the Washington Post, it’s always someone else.
In Trump’s version of events, the recent upswing in confrontation is to be blamed on professional “disrupters” who come to his rallies looking for fights. As for the vitriol coming from his supporters? “The reason there’s tension at my rallies is that these people are sick and tired of this country being run by incompetent people that don’t know what they’re doing on trade deals,” with U.S. jobs being shipped out to other countries, Trump told Todd on Sunday.
But the idea that he bears zero blame for the environment he creates at his rallies is ludicrous. It’s like saying, “Sure, I yelled fire in a crowded movie theater but I wasn’t the one who got up and trampled everyone trying to get to the exits.”
Trump is a big boy. He should be able to own up to his own deeds. Come on, man! There’s video (lots of it) showing how you jack up your less inhibited fans at rallies going back weeks.
This particular Donald John Trump behavior pattern most reminds me of the YouTube video of 3-year old John, the Sprinkle Boy. Little John and his Mom made it nationwide all the way to the Ellen Show. Little John is cute.
Big DJT is not. You are running for President of the United States, for God’s sake. Your repeated denials ring hollow. A tiny bit of decorum, please. What would Lincoln, Roosevelt and Reagan say?