by Jack
When one is elected to public office they have a duty to represent all the people. We expect that. This does not mean going against party planks or personal core values, but it does mean keeping an open door. It does mean, treating people with the sort of respect that reflects well upon yourself and the office.
Of course, the higher one goes the more we expect. We want and deserve representatives to show us their best side, to always be the bigger person even if others are not. The president has a duty to set the standard for all others in public service.
For example, the president can’t excoriate a corporation unless its the people’s business to do so. The president can’t lambast a news media, unless… it’s in the best interest of the people to do so and it rarely is. Mark Twain said, “Never get into a fight with people who buy ink by the barrel.”
The president must be above all petty behaviors for his sake and ours! Besides, there are better ways to be both effective and yet still critical. That’s called maturity and it’s what we need in the highest office.
“There should be no bitterness or hate where the sole thought is the welfare of the United States of America. No man can occupy the office of President without realizing that he is President of all the people.” ― Franklin D. Roosevelt
Early on, President Obama tread on many areas that made him look biased and UN-presidential, he had an ego problem. Right or wrong, he never quite escaped from that first impression that started in Cambridge, Mass. That flaw would go on to cause rancor and division among the American people. President Obama should have learned a lesson from his first experience (with the Cambridge Police), but like I said, he let his ego get in the way and we (the public and the police) paid a heavy price later on.
We observed with great disappointment when Obama embroiled himself (and thus the nation) in a number of pointless and divisive street level incidents, such as, Trayvon, Ferguson and Baltimore. Those missteps eventually led to serious violence. The lesson: What the president says, every single word, really matters and it carries serious consequences. A president must be deliberate, thoughtful and choose his battles very carefully… battles that only serve the good of the American people.
“The best index to a person’s character is how he treats people who can’t do him any good, and how he treats people who can’t fight back.” ― Abigail Van Buren
I hope Trump learns from Obama’s mistakes. As an amateur politician, he’s got a lot to learn. However, that’s why I feel he’s entitled to make a few mistakes, but not too many, lest the media crucify him before he has chance to do what he was elected to do.
We might
like it when President Trump sticks it to CNN in a WH news conference, after all they’ve been sticking it to conservatives for a very long time. But, deep down, the adult in all of us says, presidents must rise above pettiness. Lesson #1 – in great victory always be magnanimous.
If I could meet President Trump face to face, I would tell him, Mr. President, please set the bar high for strong moral character. Lead with wisdom and foresight. Be the leader that all of us can respect, even if we must disagree and I wish you much luck…you’re going to need it!
I appreciate that you see the need for Trump to stop doing things like this. I agree Obama also engaged in squabbles he shouldn’t have But Trump has taken this much further. Calling the news media the “enemy of the people” crossed the line. This is how terrorists and criminals are described, not flawed news agencies. Where I part ways with you is that I don’t believe Trump is capable of changing this aspect of his behavior.
That’s why I feel he’s entitled to make a few mistakes?
Hello he has a whole Team telling him to stop. Look that is his mentality always has been. He is not there to be Presidential. He was very very clear during the campaign. Right now the war for power is between Preibus and Bannon.
Look Jack we have to get real. I deplore Pence and this man makes me want Pence in. This is just not a Job that suits what Trump is or does. Melania is miserable and we are paying for 3 Households of security 24/7. This is expensive! I think it is 10 Million for just the first month. We are paying for security for all his sons business trips?
Look we have to do something here the world is afraid of sharing intel with us now.
Dewey, you commenting on anyone’s “mentality” is a hilarious farce.
Jack I admire you for making such a sincere statement about the president even though you had to know it would offer opposing posters here an opportunity to describe President Trump as sub-human just as they always described President Obama as “gifted.” One suggests he’d prefer Pence even though he loathes him. Don’t believe it for a minute. Pence, or any other Republican (including McCain), would get the same treatment. The goal of the radical left is always to destroy.
Although I agree in principle with what you and those you quoted said, I have to disagree that Trump has the option to be magnanimous. We are living in unusual times. Respect for authority, respect for opposing thought and voices, and respect for the outcome of the election is gone. Common decency has left the building. Our politics and discourse have been reduced to the street corner level and it started long before Donald Trump came on the political scene.
It appears that Trumps unwillingness to put up with this state of affairs is also sincere…and intentional. His resorting to verbal fisticuffs with such rabble as the phony and disingenuous left press is therefore admired by most of those who placed him in our highest office. Conrad Black pointed this out today in the NY Sun, “The president is running well ahead of the Democrats in the polls, has twice the approval rating of the Congress, which has risen since the end of gridlock, and three times the approval rating of the media.
We have seen what it looks like when Republicans set the bar high. We have seen the way the radical left uses the Alinsky method to slowly and deliberately destroy the reputations of good people. I speak of people like Ronald Reagan, Clarence Thomas, Robert Bork, Sarah Palin, and numerous others. I speak of George W. Bush who acted the gentleman and did his best to take the higher road after being a bit cocky at the start. Bush learned your lesson and refused to get down in the mud to take on the pretentious, knuckle dragging, lying left. That choice hurt not only his reputation but more importantly, it hurt the nation. The result was a two term activist president that deeply divided our country, caused an artificial race war, destroyed all chances for economic recovery, blew up the ME, saw our nation negotiate with a terror sponsoring country, and caused a refugee crisis that includes radical Islamists invading the west. He accomplished all of this with the adoration and support of the left press that Trump now refuses to show respect, and with cause.
Make no mistake about it, radical activists have destroyed the more centrist Democrat Party and reduced this nation to a level of street thug politics. They have no respect for the processes of government or the rule of law and certainly none for the men and women now running our country. The leaders are agitators romantically and narcissistically tied to the revolutionary change they dreamed of as college students. The love fest with President Obama stands as evidence of such. Fundamental transformation was his by-word and they will stop at nothing to undermine that horrible man that has managed to outsmart them and unseat what they saw as the pinnacle of their movement.
We’ve reached a crisis in this nation. Trump was elected in part because the people saw in him a man that had the ability to overcome the debilitating result of political correctness and the tyranny of the socialism seeking radical Marxists from the sixties whose aim was the destruction of our republic. If we are to go on as a republic and free people they must be defeated and defeated now. Good manners and taking the high road is ineffective against such low life brutes and bullies.
That doesn’t mean Trump won’t do his best to treat people with respect when they deserve it. He has had successful meetings with several heads of state and performed well, quoting Conrad Black again:
I have no expectations of perfection in a president. They are human beings with flaws just like the rest of us.
But I’m sure the left will expect Trump to perform at levels they would never expect from Obama or any of their leaders who presumably can do no wrong.
Washington times, Charles Hurt, “Trump is the answer to all that ails Washington”
When we reclaim our republic and the language is restored we can reclaim the high road. Until then, Trump will do just fine!
Re Bryan H. : “Where I part ways with you is that I don’t believe Trump is capable of changing this aspect of his behavior.”
I fear Brian may be correct. While I have very much enjoyed watching Trump stick it right back to the media who is at war with him, he needs to move away from this and rise above it. I disagree with Brian that Trump has taken this “much further” than Obama whose presidency was a remarkable study in animus, pettiness and contempt (but not for a fawning press).
Jack is absolutely correct, a presidential Trump needs to emerge, the sooner the better. While the left wing dominated mainstream news media will crucify Trump no matter what he does or says Trump needs to concentrate on how to best promote and implement his agenda and best serve the American people. He needs to concentrate on delivering the hope and promise of a change in the status quo and turning around a stagnant economy crippled by oppressive over regulation and confiscatory taxation that has driven business and industry out of country. He and his team need to concentrate on finding solutions for inner city crime and violence, illegal immigration, border security, the disaster of Obamacare and the constant threat of Islamic extremism here and abroad.
Trump has a full plate just delivering on a fraction of his campaign promises and only four short years to show some tangible positive results. Squabbling with a contemptible press who is at war with him, will never change their behavior, will never give him a fair shake and will seeking blood for the next four years is wasting time and energy better spent elsewhere.
I wish president Trump well and hope he has a good measure of success. If he can manage to really turn the economy around and put us on a path of prosperity, we may even be able to start growing our way out of the staggering $20 trillion in federal debt and begin to put a dent in it.
Adendum …
Jack, this is what Trump and his team should be focusing on and showing some leadership —
Drudge Put It Perfectly: Congressional Republicans Flail and Fail
“I disagree with Brian that Trump has taken this “much further” than Obama whose presidency was a remarkable study in animus, pettiness and contempt (but not for a fawning press).”
Here, here!
@ your link: Darling is correct to call out the Republican leadership. But I don’t think all of it is incompetence. Some of it is old guard elitists who care more about preserving power in the established core. These are the very group that conservative Republicans fight against for their phony promises every election season. Some, I’ve learned, have taken campaign money from the likes of George Soros! Please read the entire article…an excerpt:
Republicans are getting an earful at home. Problem is, many of them are outside of the elite establishment cabal. This group is not working toward the agenda that drove Trump’s win.
Related, must read today: Seven Days in February – never-trumpers-subvert-presidency-talk-coup-impeachment-assassination by Victor Davis Hanson:
Drain the swamp isn’t just a slogan, it’s a mandate! Trump can’t do anything about the representatives that people in various states have elected…but if indeed he is the great negotiator perhaps it’s time to negotiate effectively with the ineffectual Congress.
Re Tina: “Drain the swamp isn’t just a slogan, it’s a mandate!”
Unfortunately Trump will have to deal and learn to make friends and influence the elitist Republican alligators in Congress. If he continues to gain ground against influence peddling by legislators that will be welcome and helpful.
Dream on, Jack. It was manifestly apparent during the campaign, the man has spent his entire life a bully. He’s not going to change now. It has also long been plain as day that he is a flaming ignoramus. He shows no inclination to change; his appallingly short attention span is on display daily.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/i-didnt-think-id-ever-leave-the-cia-but-because-of-trump-i-quit/2017/02/20/fd7aac3e-f456-11e6-b9c9-e83fce42fb61_story.html?utm_term=.50459d5c2d11
This guy describes a situation appallingly similar to the pre-9/11 Bush Administration, wherein politically problematic intelligence was ignored. This is not good.
Libby, the man is not perfect, but then neither was Obama, Bush, Clinton, Carter, etc. What’s new? , teal with imperfections in presidents, this is how it works and always has. But, in Trump’s case even 100% perfection would not be good enough for your side. Why is that? What’s the real reason so-called progressives hate Trump beyond all reason? I’m absolutely convinced if Donald Trump had run as a democrat these protestations coming from the left would be few and far between. And I bet the news media would be singing his praises, just like they did for Obama. We’ve seen this happen too many times Libby and we won’t be fooled.
We (conservatives) remember that many of the things you now accuse Trump of, that we had evidence that Clinton actually did, and worse, but you gave Clinton a pass, why was that? It makes me think liberal values are only a political ploy, and they change with a D or an R after one’s name.
Blah, blah, blah. I am sick and tired of this … “but Timmy did it too” horsepucky, most of which isn’t true.
We are here, and it is now.
Are you going to countenance another 9/11 type debacle on the grounds that “The Shrub did it too”? That’s pretty damn sick.
McMaster may whip them into shape, but right now Trump seems only too happy to let the fairyland he lives in trump reality.
“We are here, and it is now”
Good! Now kindly join us in the present and accept the fact that this man will be our president for the duration, whether four years or eight…and yes it could happen!
Too bad you’re “sick and tired!”
Nobody makes you read PS.
If it bothers you so much there is a choice you can make where you won’t be bothered again.
Nonsense … I live for the fight!
I’m providing you with valuable input from outside the bubble, which you sorely need.
And this “Timmy did it too” it is a feeble line of argument that you can quit using any time.
“We (conservatives) remember that many of the things you now accuse Trump of, that we had evidence that Clinton actually did, and worse”
For example?
No, no, no. From now on, they will be defending Trump’s actions and the consequences thereof … in their own time, context, terms, whatever you like … not in (faulty) comparison to anything else.