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Nevilledog

(51,079 posts) Sat Sep 10, 2022, 07:43 PM Sep 2022

Dan Rather: Toddler In Chief

Link to tweet

Tweet text:

Carolyn Boyle 🌻
@accidntlmystic
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"It’s like a preschool teacher saying, in effect, 'Oh that’s just Donnie being Donnie.'"

As usual, @DanRather's clear eyed view of the world is thoroughly grounded in reality and common sense; and, it's a pleasure, and a relief, to read #Steady

steady.substack.com
Toddler In Chief
Mine, mine, mine, mine
7:39 AM · Sep 9, 2022

https://steady.substack.com/p/toddler-in-chief?utm_source=twitter&sd=pf

*snip*

“My top secret documents...”
“My judges...”
“My people...”

Trump sees a simplistic binary world where everyone is either there to serve his needs or they are the enemy. Material possessions are to be accumulated and used however he sees fit — according to the metric of personal benefit.

The way our system of government aspires to work is that the law applies evenly to all citizens. Sadly, history has shown time and again how far from that reality we often are as a nation. But the principle of “equal justice under the law” is fundamental to the American ideal, and we as a people overwhelmingly believe in striving for it.

Trump and his acolytes do not even pay lip service to it. There is no “my fellow citizens,” no commonality. He expects to exist in an alternate universe. By his formulation, the law applies only to “thee” as in us, and never to “me,” as in him.

This mindset was destructive enough when it drove the decision-making in the Oval Office. Since Trump’s defeat in the 2020 election, the danger in some ways has escalated. The truth is that the president of the United States is afforded many special privileges and powers. But they reside in the office and not the person. Donald Trump is no longer president. And yet the court ruling from a judge he appointed runs roughshod over this democratic principle.

*snip*