After eight full months of the presidency of Donald Trump, the evidence is now totally clear, the man is completely unfit to be President. He has demonstrated a lack of respect for the Constitution, for our Judicial System, for the people he is meant to serve, and for the demands of the office. Being totally lacking of any real empathy for other people, his only focus is on trying to enhance himself, make himself look good, and receive the praise of others. He is failing miserably in this endeavor, as his personal dynamics leave him with only one way of responding in the conflict situations which are so constantly encountered, both domestically and internationally, by a president: attack, insult, and threaten to destroy his opposition. He lives, breathes, and breeds conflict. As President, this quality is potentially devastating, for the nation and for the world.
In business, Trump's wealth and financial power allowed him to achieve a modicum of success in gaining his goal of respect, along with a lot of notoriety. In TV entertainment, his outrageousness gained him an audience, but denied him the respect an EMMY carries. As President, he has already lost the respect of the majority of our nation's citizens, who find that his proposals undercut their best interests and that his incapacity to lead results in an absolute lack of major policy accomplishments. As a world leader, he is seen as a veritable laughingstock, a leader the world needs to take seriously because of the power he commands as US President, but one they cannot take seriously as a person because of his obvious incompetence. How can our nation, or the world, grant respect to a leader who does not himself grant respect to those he is dealing with in consequential affairs? In a more fluid type of democracy, such as a Parliamentary system, Trump would perhaps already have been voted out of office, or would be very close to seeing his tenure end. Our system moves slowly in such circumstances. Presidential elections are only every four years, impeachment is a lengthy, cumbersome, uncertain process. Special investigations, whether by the Department of Justice or by Congress, take time, and are subject to the usual political pressures. Protests and resistance efforts can help sway public opinion, bringing more people into the movement, but little can really change until voters have a chance to undo the damage at the ballot box. Congressional elections in a little over a year necessarily become the next focal point.
As concerned citizens continue to mobilize their efforts against the reign of Trump, let's take a look at what are seen as his major offenses, and why his Presidency should not continue. His first major responsibility was to appoint the Cabinet members who would serve under him, leading his Administration's federal departments. Without exception, his appointments were people, often with limited or no experience in the field in which they were entrusted responsibility, who were motivated through political or business connections to undo and reverse many of the social, environmental, educational, scientific, medical, or other gains that their agency had produced during the last several decades. Trump had promised to "drain the swamp". One might hope he was thinking of reducing the lobbying influence of Wall Street and other special interest groups on policies emanating from Washington, or lessening Defense Department spending in maintaining our heavy military footprint in numerous overseas nations. Putting a halt to being engaged in endless, winless wars in the Middle East would also be consistent with his pledge to "drain the swamp", as would becoming a leader generally responsive to the needs of the primarily middle class people who formed his base and celebrated his victory. The results, unfortunately, have been quite to the contrary. Vested interests, whether family, corporate, business, or right-wing establishment, prevail more than ever.
Trump's supporters insist, "give him a chance". Any elected leader does deserve some months to settle into office, discover what works, begin to prove themselves worthy of the office. Giving Trump a pass on his first six months, let's just look at a few of the things that have transpired recently. He took the onset of Hurricane Harvey as an opportunity to announce his pardon of Sheriff Joe Arpaio, freeing him from serving any jail time on his judicially imposed sentence. He choose the time of maximum TV coverage because of Harvey so that his anti-immigrant base would have full exposure of his finally achieving a success in one of his campaign goals. While he does have the right to issue the pardon, most presidential pardons are issued at the end of the President's term, and after the convicted person has served some prison time. Not so with Trump, which goes along with the lack of respect he had previously expressed for judges and for our judicial system. Some legal authorities would find him guilty of contempt of court, in an implicit fashion. Trump would undoubtedly like to fashion himself as "an Imperial President", able to have the other branches of government follow his whims and do his bidding. Fortunately, he is discovering otherwise.
A second major transgression, recent and still ongoing, concerns his verbal, tweet-generated threats against North Korea, and his continuing a running battle of attack and counter-attack with their immature, pompous leader. Real leaders, in fact, real men, do not do that! It reveals Trump as an equally immature, hot-headed, buffoon-like individual. Certainly not representative of the way to engage in any kind of competitive interaction with a nuclear-powered nation with nowhere near our strength and resources. Trump wants his threats of "we will destroy you" to stand alone, even ridiculing his Secretary of State for mentioning that we do have channels available for communicating with North Korea diplomatically, saying such efforts are a waste of time, adding he would take care of North Korea in his own way. Diplomats are aghast with Trump. Does he really prefer war to negotiation and diplomacy? Let's hope that cooler minds will prevail in the resolution of issues with North Korea, as well as with Iran and with Venezuela, two other nations Trump has sounded off against impulsively, while other officials and advisors are working in more strategic, quieter ways to navigate the conflicts that exist in our relationship with those governments. A steady hand at the helm would be preferable, not an erratic hothead.
Two other recent examples of Trump's failure at being a president are his response to the Charlottesville rioting, where he had difficulty finding the white supremacy group of rioters, which included people with Nazi and Ku Klux Klan banners and emblems, any more at fault than those who were protesting their march, and also his handling of the Hurricane Maria devastation to the island of Puerto Rico. The later revealed his total lack of empathy and understanding of what the people of Puerto Rico were experiencing, his lack of awareness of the history and the people of the island as US citizens, his putting down of their needs and minimizing their tragedy, and his tendency to attack, this time very viciously and unseemingly, when his leadership ability is questioned. In this case, was it ignorance, racism, or just Trump being Trump? Does it matter? There can be a tendency to passively accept what cannot readily be changed. With Trump, we cannot let that happen! It is too important, he is too dangerous, in his mindlessly arrogant, self-serving way. If you share these perceptions, get involved, join groups, speak out, write letters, contact legislators. The country that needs different leadership is our own, our children's, and our grandchildren's. It's not too late, but the need is imminent, and the dangers are too real.
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