Commentary: For Trump, America is one big strip club

FOR MANY MEN, a gentlemen's club (that's the more genteel phrase, if the S-word sounds too harsh) is a comforting refuge in a politically correct world.

In an era where the wrong move, or the wrong phrase, can get you marched down to the human resources department, these establishments provide the antidote.

No matter how insensitive, boorish or physically repulsive you might be, an attractive woman will smile at you, laugh at your jokes, bolster your ego.

You can be rude and crude. No word, no joke is out of bounds. Life is a Mad Men episode, and you are the star. You can talk about her body, suggest that she needs breast implants - even sponsor a trip to the plastic surgeon - without fear of repercussions.

Blouses and skirts are made to come off. If you're fixated on knowing how someone looks under her clothes, you don't have to use your imagination.

But can you grab? Depending on the establishment, that might get you tossed into the alley. Or, if everyone's amenable and the money's right, it's just another day at the office.

This is not meant to pass judgment. Women accept - and some embrace - the situation because it can pay really well. Men shell out lots of money for these dubious privileges.

A lot of contentious situations in our world are avoidable. You don't think that wealthy preachers should ask believers to buy them private jets? Don't chip in. Is $25 million too much to pay a guy to throw a ball? Don't buy a ticket. Make your own choice.

Likewise, whatever our opinion of strip clubs, as long as there's no coercion and everyone has opted in, so be it.

The problem is outside those four walls. As Donald Trump made clear long before the Access Hollywood tape surfaced, his strip club attitude and his strip club actions had no boundaries.

He didn't need to pay a cover charge or comply with the two-drink minimum. America is his strip club.

Sadly, he's exactly right when he says that rich and famous people can say and do whatever they want to women, anytime, anywhere, and usually get away with it.

This hardly started with Trump, of course. Take your pick of rock stars and athletes, spoiled rich kids and old tycoons, politicians and people wielding power of any kind.

Trump apologists will keep invoking Bill Clinton until they're hoarse (why don't they add John Kennedy more often?), and it's hard to argue the point.

But no matter how many men have shared this philosophy, Trump is their poster boy. He's the one caught on tape. Will he take the fall for them all?

That, to invoke a couple of his favorite adjectives, would be huge. And beautiful.

Because repudiating Trump and Trump's behavior would go a long way to send this message:

Do whatever you like inside the club, as long as all the parties involved are agreeable. But once you go through the doors and you are back outside, it's a whole different world.