What's He Hiding?

   The American electoral campaign this year has become a reality show, with about as much substance as backyard gossip or locker room taunting. Moreover, it's being led by a political pharaoh, or king of denial, who proudly proclaims that his foreign policy experience, for example, is based on having once sponsored a Miss Universe pageant in Moscow.
   That puts him on the same level as Sarah Palin, the former governor of Alaska and vice presidential candidate, who cited her foreign policy credentials as being able to "see Russia from my house," and "living next door to Canada."
   Here's a thought: What if You Know Who played a Republican woman card and selected Palin as his running mate?

   The snark money is on the current GOP  leading candidate to keep playing the caustic card, defying opponents to match his skill at insult and vilification.
  Dissent is a good thing in a democratic society, but dissing for its own sake is not.
   
   Meanwhile, the Voldemort candidate refuses to make public his tax returns, claiming they are under audit, and when the IRS audit is complete, which may not be until after the November election, he may release them. Then again, he may not.
   Today, he told a reporter his tax level was "none of your business."
   The IRS has pointed out that, contrary to the candidate's insistence that he can't release his tax returns until the audits are complete, he can indeed release them anytime he chooses to.
   And this raises these questions: Why does he refuse, when there is a tradition going back to the days of Richard Nixon and Gerald Ford that every President and Presidential candidate has voluntarily released his or her tax returns?
   The current GOP candidate claims he is audited by the IRS every year. Why every year, when very few American taxpayers are audited at all, unless the IRS suspects something? What is he hiding? How about releasing tax returns of previous years, audits of which by now should be complete?
   He claims to be worth $10 billion. But why should we believe him, when he refuses to follow a political tradition of six decades in making his net worth public?
   Technically, he's correct in telling a reporter that his tax returns are "none of your business." But other candidates routinely release their tax returns and document their net worth, showing a respect for the trust of American voters. Therefore, it has become the American electorate's business.
   But You Know Who does not show respect for those who question him, and he routinely dismisses any challenge to his veracity with insults and personal abuse.
   Why not just answer the question? A good reporter's only agenda is to gather information on behalf of the public, so voters can make informed decisions. Reporters are, first and foremost, citizens themselves, and they ask tough questions because they need to be asked.
   This candidate does not answer direct questions, especially those that deal with positions and comments he makes that directly contradict what he has said in the past.
   And that raises these questions: Does he really know what he's talking about? Does he really have any knowledge or expertise in anything, beyond his self-glorifying praise of everything he says and does, with no evidence that any of what he says is true?