General Discussion
Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsAmerica, the diminished - by Ezra Klein
America, the diminished
What Trump has wrought.
Updated by Ezra Klein@ezraklein Jul 3, 2017, 9:20am EDT
At the Washington Examiner, Byron York argues that those who fight Donald Trump on Donald Trumps terms end up diminished. Trump sprays insults with abandon, mocking everything from his critics intelligence to their popularity to their ethics to their plastic surgery, but those who engage with the president of the United States on his own level make themselves look smaller and meaner, and they are never able to go as low for as long as Trump.
Of course one could say that Trump is at fault, York writes. Yes, one could. York doesnt so much reject that possibility as rule it out as a category error. Unlike most people, whose behavior is bounded by shame and thus amenable to criticism, Trump is truly shameless, and thus criticizing his behavior is useless. Trump is Trump, York writes. He does what he does.
York has a point. Trump takes such glee in conflict, and cares so little for standards of decency or compassion, that his assailants often diminish themselves by betraying their own values out of desperation. But this isnt just true of Trumps assailants. It is true of all of us. To consistently engage with Trump is to be diminished by him. And we have all been diminished by his presidency.
We are diminished when our president lies, and even more so when we begin taking his habitual lying for granted. The New York Times published a comprehensive list of falsehoods Trump told since taking office and found it wasnt until March that Trump went a full day without saying something flatly untrue. The absence of public dishonesty, for Trump, is usually driven by an absence of opportunity to be publicly dishonest. On days without an untrue statement, he is often absent from Twitter, vacationing at Mar-a-Lago in Florida, or busy golfing, the Times found.
We are diminished when our president uses cyberbullying as a communications strategy, spending his mornings picking childish fights on Twitter and coming up with insulting nicknames for his enemies. It is impossible to imagine the firestorm that would have followed Barack Obama or Bill Clinton mocking a television anchors plastic surgery. But in this White House, press officers justify the presidents insults by saying he fights fire with fire. The president is teaching our children that bullies win so long as they never, ever back down.
more
https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2017/7/3/15910508/america-the-diminished
angstlessk
(11,862 posts)cwydro
(51,308 posts)Such a sad place we're in.
tblue37
(65,227 posts)***************At Axios, Mike Allen notes Trump has tweeted the words opioid or opioids just once but loser 234 times, and dumb or dummy 222 times.***************
Adrahil
(13,340 posts)having the free world look at us with disdain, and have an "also-ran" nation like Russia just walk all over us
tblue37
(65,227 posts)***************Unable to defend the presidents behavior, Republicans have decided the only viable path forward is to declare him exempt from moral judgment.***************