Presidents are expected to set the national tone. What we got with Trump has been catastrophic.

[Zorro]

Opinion by the Editorial Board

President of the United States is a special office. Unlike the constitutional monarchs or prime ministers of European and other systems, the president is neither head of state exclusively nor head of government, but performs both roles — fusing two aspects of national leadership, symbolic and substantive, in a single person.

The Founders of this country anticipated, in short, that the president would not just execute national laws but also set a national tone. They understood that obedience to written laws could only do so much to perpetuate a republic; citizens would have to follow unwritten norms of civic virtue as well, and would be more likely to do so if their leaders modeled them. They designed the presidency with their epitome of personal integrity and decency, George Washington, in mind.

The great fear of these early Americans was that the presidency could fall into the hands of a demagogue: someone like the current incumbent, Donald Trump, whose impact on the nation’s political culture over the past three-plus years has been, if anything, more damaging than his impact on public policy. Where past occupants of the office have at least paid lip service to its inspirational aspects, and where both of his immediate predecessors, George W. Bush and Barack Obama, actively campaigned on themes of unity, Mr. Trump lives by a different credo: “When someone attacks me, I always attack back . . . except 100x more.” This is a formula for upwardly spiraling conflict. Consistent with it, Mr. Trump has used the bully pulpit — magnified by social media — to debase public discourse.

He has broken taboos — against personal insults, questioning the motives of one’s opponents and delegitimizing the political process itself — that historically enabled Americans to compromise when it is possible and to co-exist when it is not. Think of it: From the highest office in the oldest electoral democracy on the planet, he has referred to the free press as “truly the enemy of the people,” and repeatedly spread the canard that the next election will be “rigged.” Earlier this month, Mr. Trump broadcast to the entire world, on Twitter, this about Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo (D) of New York: “Cuomo killed 11,000 people in nursing homes alone. Crooked & Incompetent!” The remark was typical — not even close to his basest outburst while in office.

This is a president who does not so much govern the country as harass it. In fact, the flow of invective is so constant that it can become overwhelming, almost numbing — but must not be normalized just the same. This is especially true with respect to his repeated use of xenophobic, racist and misogynistic themes and tropes. Amid times of tension and disorder, where other presidents would call for calm, he traffics in violent words (“when the looting starts, the shooting starts”). On one notorious occasion in 2017 — doubly shocking to recall in light of subsequent events, including the death of George Floyd under a policeman’s knee — Mr. Trump told an audience of law enforcement officers on Long Island: “When you see these thugs being thrown into the back of a paddy wagon, you just see them thrown in, rough, and I said, ‘Please don’t be too nice.’ ”

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2020/09/04/presidents-are-expected-set-national-tone-what-we-got-with-trump-has-been-catastrophic/

[dalton99a]

1. The traitor is not a president but a terrorist-in-chief

committing crimes against Americans on a daily basis

[Claire Oh Nette]

2. Tone on top

This.

The tone at the top has spilled down into schools, before COVID turned the year on it's head, in the rise in bullying. That's spilled out to cowardly, fearful maskholes who have their Karen meltdowns for being asked to follow public health policy.

VOTE!

[raccoon]

3. And remember who we have to thank that he's still there.

And remember who we have to thank that he’s still there.The traitorous, spineless Republicans in the Senate (and House) who value party above country.