I mentioned this in my review of The Americans 2.9, aired last night, which featured the major characters watching The Day After, the post-nuclear bomb movie first watched by more than 100 million television viewers back in 1983. One of the Soviet spies in The Americans, Elizabeth, mentions that the U.S. was the only country to have dropped the atom bomb (back in 1945). I thought, as I saw this on TV last night, that it's a hopeful thing that no nation has used nuclear weapons since 1983, either.
And then I thought of Donald Trump. And I realized that when you strip away all the bombast and racism and personal attacks, you have a man with a temper and access to the nuclear trigger were he to become President.
It's not his complete lack of governing experience per se that's the cause for concern. Eisenhower had zero political experience, but commanded the Allied Army that beat the Nazis in World War II. He, in other words, had massive experience with weapons. And though Ronald Reagan spent a lot his life as an actor, he was Governor of California, a populous and diverse state, before he was elected President.
Trump has none of that. In response to one of the terrorist attacks last year, he's already said he would "bomb the shit" out of ISIS. Can we be confident that he would not use nuclear weapons as part of that attack? And provoke some sort of counter nuclear attack as well as contaminating the affected area with radiation for decades?
His temper is unfortunately very obvious. To even the mildest of criticisms, he lashes out with insults. And while it's true that words are not physical weapons, can anyone want a person with his temperament in the White House?
We need someone with a maximum of foreign policy experience, which is one reason I support Hillary Clinton over Bernie Sanders. But whoever the Democratic nominee is, we - everyone with a modicum of sanity - need to do all in our electoral power to make sure Donald Trump never gets near a nuclear weapon.
And then I thought of Donald Trump. And I realized that when you strip away all the bombast and racism and personal attacks, you have a man with a temper and access to the nuclear trigger were he to become President.
It's not his complete lack of governing experience per se that's the cause for concern. Eisenhower had zero political experience, but commanded the Allied Army that beat the Nazis in World War II. He, in other words, had massive experience with weapons. And though Ronald Reagan spent a lot his life as an actor, he was Governor of California, a populous and diverse state, before he was elected President.
Trump has none of that. In response to one of the terrorist attacks last year, he's already said he would "bomb the shit" out of ISIS. Can we be confident that he would not use nuclear weapons as part of that attack? And provoke some sort of counter nuclear attack as well as contaminating the affected area with radiation for decades?
His temper is unfortunately very obvious. To even the mildest of criticisms, he lashes out with insults. And while it's true that words are not physical weapons, can anyone want a person with his temperament in the White House?
We need someone with a maximum of foreign policy experience, which is one reason I support Hillary Clinton over Bernie Sanders. But whoever the Democratic nominee is, we - everyone with a modicum of sanity - need to do all in our electoral power to make sure Donald Trump never gets near a nuclear weapon.
A good, even gripping episode of The Americans 4.9 on FX last night, which featured all of our major characters, including the Soviets in Washington, DC, watching The Day After, the movie on ABC which attracted more than 100 millions viewers when it was first broadcast in 1983, still a record for a TV-movie viewing audience.
