"Respect for the office"

[bluesbassman]

Been a while since I've posted here, but I wanted to share my thoughts on the passing of Senator John McCain, and the concept of respect for the office.

A sitting United States Senator, John McCain, has died. This is a man who served in that capacity for thirty-one years, additionally served as a United States Congressman for four years, served in the United States Navy for twenty-three years, including five and a half years spent in the infamous Hanoi Hilton as a prisoner of war, enduring years torture and solitary confinement.

My political and policy beliefs were often at odds with Senator McCain’s, and I vehemently disagreed with many of his positions. What I never for a minute doubted though was his integrity, morality, honor, and love for this Nation of ours. He may have been wrong on certain issues, but he did work across the aisle in an effort to reach compromises and concessions that would benefit the American people, and for that his position as a United States Senator truly deserved my full “respect for the office”.

This brings us to the current highest elected official in our country. However one may view the manner in which he was elected, and maybe someday we will all know if not the exact details at least we’ll know enough to ensure the integrity of future elections, regardless of our personal feelings for this man, we are told by some that we must “respect the office”. Now there have been many examples of this man’s lack of integrity, morality, honor, and even basic competence, not only prior to taking office, but since. His childish propensity for schoolyard name calling, his racist and misogynistic declarations and policies, his often incoherent and inflammatory tweeting, these things alone are enough to justify not respecting the office, because they are evidence that the man himself does not respect the office, nor the American people that the office serves.

Now though we have a new low that proves beyond a shadow of a doubt the disrespect this man has for not only the office he holds, but for the institutions that guide our Nation, and the people who serve in these institutions on our behalf, and by extension the very citizens he supposedly serves. John McCain served his country, both as a Naval officer and as an elected representative his entire adult lifetime. His passing is a loss for the entire Nation and should be honored as such. That Donald Trump chose to mark McCain’s passing with a simple tweet expressing nothing but sympathy for his family, and has not ordered the White House flag to be flown at half mast during McCain’s period of lying in state is not just disrespectful to a political enemy, it is disrespectful to the citizens of our Nation, the office he holds, and yes even the flag he often wraps himself in at his rallies.

Yes, as a veteran and citizen of this Nation I respect the Office of the President, but I do not and never will respect this man that currently holds that position because he has never done anything that even remotely deserves that respect.

[leftieNanner]

1. Excellent Post

The Office of the President is a position of power that commands respect.

The orange moron currently infecting the Oval Office does not.

[Arkansas Granny]

2. Very eloquently put. Many of us feel the same way.

[grantcart]

10. +1

[ck4829]

3. I don't "respect the office" of President, not anymore. Maybe a future President can regain it.

Maybe.

At the end of the day, the office of President is occupied by one American. I respect my fellow Americans, especially the ones Trump's little friends want to dehumanize and marginalize, far more than one person who I don't know personally.

[2naSalit]

4. K&R

[handmade34]

5. I used to respect the 'Office...'

but when we have a system that is faulty enough to allow a vile, ignorant person to remain in that office and not be reprimanded, impeached, removed, etc... for a long enough period of time to harm our Country, make us less safe and embarrass the hell out of so many of us... I can no longer respect the 'Office of the President'

I want to be able to and hope that we can soon return to a functioning system worthy of respect and that we can be proud of...


there is certainly a flaw in the system at this time...

[ck4829]

6. +1. If an individual people can gain or lose our respect, no reason why an abstract 'office' should

be exempted.

At the end of the day, the "office of the President" is not a natural or divine thing, but a constructed thing, made by us. There is a lot of formal power to it, Article II of the US Constitution for example, but there is also a lot of informal power that is associated with this 'office' that exists because we agree that it exists and we can take it away at any time... and we should have done it started in January of 2017.

[bluesbassman]

7. Excellent points by both of you.

In reality all of our elected positions a "constructs" out of necessity in order for our representative form of government to function. We afford each of these offices a certain inherent level of respect in accordance with the fact that we elect or approve of these individuals and grant them the varying degrees of power that each office holds. That however is where the line is drawn in my opinion and beyond that any individual office holder must earn the respect for his or her time in office by their actions. Trump has not earned a damn thing as far as I'm concerned either before or since taking office.

[ProudMNDemocrat]

8. Trump has STAINED the OoTP......

For years to come.

[populistdriven]

11. Speaking of Trump Stains...

[MontanaMama]

9. Thank you for this thoughtful OP.

I cannot agree enough that we should respect the Office of the President but have no obligation to respect the person who holds that office when his/her words and deeds are as horrific as what we are witnessing now. I respect Senator McCain because he behaved respectfully and with honor even though I disagree vehemently with almost all of his policy positions. I don't wish him or his family ill will because we don't agree. He deserves the flag flown at half mast and the pResident deserves to die broke and in prison.

[bluesbassman]

12. Thanks, and agreed!

Nothing would warm my heart more than to see him in an orange jump suit being perp walked.