I am always curious about human behavior. I am never sure how anyone can feel justified to mistreat another human being, to verbally assault another person, to consciously and publicly insult, demean, and embarrass another…by clear and unmitigated choice. There is, of course, never a justification for any type of assault–violent and physical or non-physical, yet violent. We are privy to such assaults every day…and they come from the mouth of the one who we as a collective citizenry elected as our president. Our “leader” has done nothing to ratchet down the vitriol, the rancor, or the state of our ugly, partisan, selfish, nasty politics. He has, however, done everything to encourage the ugliness, partisan bias, selfish, nasty behavior that has slowly come to embody our politics. He likes it. He relishes it. (He talks about this sort of thing in his books…)
Apparently, there is nothing any of us can do to change this horrid man. He apparently likes this sort of leadership. We are stuck with it for the next two years. The only thing those of us who cannot support or give nod to this sort of leadership can do is to become politically active, and to make sure we get out and vote in two years. We need to begin letter-writing campaigns, flooding our congresspersons offices, telling them what we think about the ugliness, their lack of leadership to lead a counterbalance to this political travesty, and what our hopes and dreams are for our country apart from this Bizarro-Trump-World we find ourselves stuck in. We need to boldly encourage one another to vote against Trump in 2020…but we need to find a suitable replacement.
The kind of person we’ll need to right our ship will need to be the antithesis of Trump. We will need a person of personal integrity and political integrity. We will need a person capable of empathy and compassion…one who can listen…who reads and knows history…who has a political acumen as well as some experience in the world beyond a high tower in New York city…We need a person who is mentally sharp and mentally healthy, without a diagnose-able mental illness. We need someone who understands how to treat others, especially those who disagree, with respect…with care and concern. We need someone who will staunchly protect our children and the world’s children. We need someone who respects women for their intellect and their wisdom without having to comment on their looks (especially not inappropriately commenting on their own children!)… We need someone who can respect everyone, no matter their sexual orientation, their race, their gender, their party, or their differences in abilities.
In short, we need a human being who can redefine what leadership means and still be a compassionate, empathy-exercising, wise, and savvy president.