There’s an epidemic in America, and I’m not talking about the Zika virus. I mean multitudes of angry, vulgar citizens who think it’s OK to provoke and insult others, then whine when someone goes back at them.
Call me crazy (or ugly, or a loser), but New York’s own Donald Trump seems to fit that mold. Last week, Hillary Clinton went back at Trump with a vengeance.
Clinton said Trump’s “bizarre rants, personal feuds and outright lies” make him unfit to hold office. She believes granting someone of his temperament access to our nuclear codes is insanity, because the tweet-a-holic could start a war if someone “got under his very thin skin” — and that he’d probably even tweet some nasty response to her speech.
To prove her wrong, Trump immediately tweeted “Bad Performance by Crooked Hillary Clinton!” and told The New York Times that he is, in fact, “the opposite of thin-skinned.”
Speaking of hot air, another sensitive individual recently made news on a JetBlue flight out of New York. I’m talking about a burlesque dancer who goes by the name Maggie McMuffin. She tried to board the flight to Seattle in skimpy, zebra-striped hotpants. No one raised objections on the first leg of her journey — hey, we New Yorkers are used to women parading virtually nude around Times Square — but a stopover in Boston was a different story.
The Boston JetBlue crew, apparently concerned McMuffin’s cheesy outfit might offend families on the flight (or give grandpa a heart attack), requested she change into something more appropriate.
Despite JetBlue offering to pay for the new outfit she purchased at the airport, the exotic dancer was outraged, accused the airline of “slut-shaming” and demanded an apology from the pilot.
Meanwhile, McMuffin’s strategy of whining on social media has gotten her a flight credit, not to mention tons of free publicity (you’re welcome), while Trump has pulled within 2 points of Clinton in the latest CNN national poll.
So parents, think twice before chastising that whiny little brat in the backseat. He or she may wind up being president of the United States — or at least the star of a reality show.
Playwright Mike Vogel blogs at newyorkgritty.net.
