We're better than this, aren't we?

The first presidential election I remember was in 1980. I didn’t vote, since I was only eleven years old. I just remember my Mom had a John Anderson bumper sticker on her 1976 Corolla (he was an Independent who got 6.6% of the vote). The first presidential candidate I voted for was Michael Dukakis (remember him?) in 1988. Since those days, I’ve consumed political news and commentary on a near daily basis, although every now and then I have to take breaks.

Of course Ronald Reagan won the 1980 election in a landslide, and he was President for the next eight years. Then we had George Bush Sr in 1988, followed by Bill Clinton, George Bush Jr. and Obama. And then you know who. Over these years, there have been several presidents I’ve disagreed with. I thought Reagan and Bush, Jr. weren’t very intelligent, and that Bill Clinton wasn’t trustworthy, but on the whole I believed these men tried their best in an extremely difficult job. They certainly made some huge mistakes, which are pretty clear in hindsight, but each one seemed to be motivated by their vision of what was best for the country.

But now we have a President who is motivated only by personal greed and petty insecurities. He’s a man who has no sense of the national interest beyond himself, and who uses his presidential power to amass personal wealth and to attack his enemies, rather than try to do anything productive.

Like a lot of people, I am continually, freshly amazed that Trump has the support of ANYONE, much less that he was re-elected after he’d shown us very clearly his level of moral degeneracy. I can only conclude that either 70 million plus Americans either do not care about the morality of the person they choose to lead the country, or they believe it’s okay to have a corrupt president, or they are completely ignorant of widely available information. Because he is not normal. He is a nihilist who cares about nothing but his own ego, and that is fundamentally different from his predecessors.

We all possess values, and these values determine our behavior. Donald Trump was raised according to the values of his father, who was a rapacious, cruel and racist slumlord. He learned from his Dad that life is a constant battle for money and power, and the highest value is life is to fight and “win”. Not to be good, or kind, or honest, humble, compassionate or patient. Just to win.

Of course, “winning” and making a lot of money are certainly American values. Look no further than our obsession with professional sports. But most of us believe that winning needs to be balanced by fairness, justice, and caring. If winning is defined only as the triumph of one’s personal ego, and achieved through cheating and lying, it’s meaningless. Similarly, the pursuit of personal wealth becomes truly mindless after a certain point, when one has already accumulated huge sums. Mature people usually reach a point in life where they reconsider their values, and if they’ve made a lot of money ask themselves “what else can I do?” Immature people never question the values they live by, never grow, and remain trapped by the small and selfish concerns of their own egos.

I’d like to think that we’re all trying to be good people. Trump doesn’t even try to be good. He makes no attempt to disguise his love of money and power, and his desire to demean, harass, and vilify anyone who doesn’t suck up to him. He’s made it clear to us what his values are. But why do so many of us still support him, when his values are the opposite of what we teach our children? We’re better than that, aren’t we?