You need not look any further to determineĀ whether the two major-party candidates for president of the United States — Democrat Hillary Clinton and Republican Donald Trump — truly detest each other.
They showed it Thursday night at the Alfred E. Smith Memorial Dinner in New York City.
It’s an event aimed at raising money for work done by the Catholic Church. The headliners are the two candidates for president. History holds that they poke good-natured fun at each other and at themselves.
Barack Obama and Mitt Romney did it beautifully four years ago, as did Obama and John McCain four years before that. YouTube is full of hilarious comedic riffs from both events.
Last night was a different story — entirely.
For the first time in anyone’s memory, Trump actually got booed for some of the things he said about Clinton. Did anyone actually think he would exhibit a hint of self-deprecation, that he would turn the tables on himself? You know the answer to that one.
Clinton was little better during her time at the mic. She did manage to jab at herself … but seriously?
There was true loathing on display.
What I believe we have witnessed in this campaign has been a ratcheting up of what’s been called the “politics of personal destruction.”
It’s gotten so bitter, so angry, so vindictive that the major-party nominees for the presidency cannot set aside — even for a couple of hours — their seeming hatred for each other.
The Smith dinner is supposed to demonstrate one of the rare qualities of American political life, about how politicians can set aside their differences if only for an evening. Instead, it showed us just how angry we have become.
It saddens me.