The latest flap over Donald Trump, the presumptive Republican candidate for President, demonstrates one of the excellent features built-in to the human brain: selective memory.
It seems Trump once sat for a telephone interview with a magazine, pretending to be a publicity agent named John Miller.
In this interview, Miller alluded to Trump's excellent dating life, and tauted his current financial prowess.
It got back to his "main squeeze" that Trump had several other chicks on the side. She was reportedly devastated, and Trump had to back off this impersonation to say he was sorry, that the fraudulent interview was a joke gone awry.
Now, years later, the taped conversation with "Miller" has surfaced, and Trump is ready to say he has no knowledge of the incident. He says it's not him, that it doesn't sound like him, and he suspects it's one of the innumerable frauds that have been perpetrated against him by his political enemies—of which he has many.
That he has forgotten giving this interview under the pseudonym of John Miller, and forgotten apologizing for it in the past, is an example of a kind of selective memory that may be called "political amnesia."
Politicians can simply forget their past indiscretions. They don't need "plausible deniability." They are perfectly capable of denying anything, no matter what the proof, and maintain an attitude of outrage that anyone would even suspect them of such bizarre activities.
Reminds me of a classic scene in a Hollywood comedy: A Guide for the Married Man. Joey Bishop is caught by his wife in bed with another woman. She screams his name, to which he replies, "What?" His wife continues to yell his name in an accusing tone as he and the chick get up, get dressed, and make the bed. All along Bishop answers, "What?" He appears to have no idea what his wife is going on about. In time, with the woman gone, the evidence obliterated, and the attitude of her husband relentlessly innocent, the wife gives in to this apparent reality and asks what he wants for dinner.
Trump has repeatedly said amazing things and apologizes for none of it. Sometimes he suggests you heard it wrong.
In this latest episode, he simply denies it ever happened, despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary.
Political amnesia.
Makes you wonder what's going on in his taxes.
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