Stuart’s Thoughts  8/29/2017

Disrespecting The President

Foreward: I want to preface my remarks by stating that while I truly wanted to present a positive optimistic assessment of the current state of politics in the U.S., Donald Trump’s own combative nature has been a major factor in setting an unfortunate negative tone of mutual disrespect for others.  While I didn’t personally vote for Mr. Trump my hope was that upon assuming the Presidency his personality would yield to the dignity and enormity of the office.  If this had taken place, the following words would likely be vastly different.
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Disrespecting the President of the United States has probably been going on since George Washington was elected but I was never really aware of this taking place to any great extent until fairly recently.  While the person gaining office achieves this by defeating a political adversary, one of the keys to the greatness of the U.S. and, something that has separated our country from many other nations of the world, is that, following an election, for the most part our people have come together to support the new President and the latest iteration of our duly elected representative form of government.  It’s been said that peaceful transition of power along with the “Rule of Law” is the foundation of our Democracy
There has always been griping and complaining about objectives and programs supported by the opposition party but we have usually managed to do this in a reasonably civil way and with a basic level of respect. It seems to me that in recent years we have witnessed a dramatic ramping up in the frequency and intensity of negativity aimed at political opponents and, in particular, disrespect directed at the President.  The disrespect presently being directed at President Donald Trump is, in my opinion, extreme and potentially very damaging to our country and the free world.  It gives the impression to our adversaries that the U.S. is a weak, unstable, nation possibly ripe for defeat.  At the very least, we may have lost the respect of many friendly nations.  Certainly the disrespect demonstrated by Donald Trump himself for his political opponents has played a key role in this tragedy.
I’m not sure when I first noticed this trend developing.  It’s easy to blame personal weaknesses of recent Presidents for this, especially President Trump who admittedly has more than his share of personal flaws.  However, I think it goes much deeper than that.  Presidents such as Ronald Reagan and John Kennedy seemed to be able to somewhat bridge the political divide and employ a degree of leadership in bringing together the congress to address important issues of the day.  Recent Presidents including George W. Bush and Barack Obama have had little success in this regard and currently there appears to be little hope that Donald Trump will do any better.  Particularly since President Trump’s own Party seems to have little interest is having this happen.  Therein lies a recent negative aspect of the Washington scene.  Donald Trump is an outsider not welcome, to say the least, by the “Washington Political Establishment”.  By the Washington political establishment I include not only both the Democrat and Republican Congressmen and Senators but also the legions of “Deep State” Washington bureaucrats, the corps of Washington lobbyists and the main-stream media.  None of these people have any appreciation for an outsider “crashing their party”.  The reason behind this attitude is why I feel our political system is flawed and in need of serious revision.
There is enormous wealth centered in Washington, D.C., perhaps more wealth and power there than anywhere else in the world.  At any rate, people wanting a piece of that action are, to a large extent, those who I’ve defined as the “Washington  Political Establishment”.  In their view, an outsider coming upon the scene has the potential of upsetting their applecart and interfering with them acquiring their own personal “golden apple”, especially one who campaigned on the pledge to “drain the swamp in Washington”.  While most Republicans won’t admit it, they are as anxious to get ride of this interloper as the Democrats.
Draining the Washington swamp would have been the best thing that could have happened for the American people.  Unfortunately, Donald Trump has so many personal flaws that he can’t get out of his own way.  His huge ego constantly works against him and his total lack of diplomacy in dealing with difficult people is a fatal flaw.  These weaknesses are what have led to the regretful extent of disrespect of the President which we now see.  Unfortunately it not only damages the person who is President but I’m afraid it is also doing serious damage to the greater concept of the “Office of the Presidency”.
Associated with this has been an unprecedented degree of viciousness and violence characterizing efforts by the left to reinstate their political dominance and oust the current President.  Black-hooded thugs have carried out countless attacks against supporters of Donald Trump and in the process have looted and damaged much personal property.  Never before in my memory has the nation faced the viciousness of this kind of politically associated terrorism and one wonders where support for these far left thugs comes from.  The most worrying aspect of this attack is their attempt to stymie free speech.  On many occasion threats of violence from these thugs has prevented programs in support of political opponents on college campuses and various other venues.  This assault on freedom cannot continue.  Political thuggery and its support must be stopped. 
Likewise, there should be no tolerance for violence coming from the far right.  Groups such as the Ku Klux Klan or other white supremacists are as unwelcome by conservatives as they are by liberals.  We must all be in agreement that any violence associated with politics in the U.S. should not be tolerated.
Famous Words of Wisdom - “We should be able to disagree without being disagreeable”