Role model? Not Trump, but don’t despair or give up

‘Who’ll be my role model, now that my role model is gone, gone?” (”You Can Call Me Al” by Paul Simon, 1986)

Many pundits have offered theories about why Donald Trump was elected president: Russian interference in the process; the perfidy of FBI Director James Comey; people want an authoritarian leader; 25 years of bashing of the Clintons and President Obama by Fox News, Breitbart, and other conservative media outlets took their toll; right wing Christians for whom the prospect of outlawing gay marriage and abortion overrode any reservations they had about Trump’s character; racism; sexist opposition to any female president; the blue collar male vote of those who have been left behind by changes in the economy; people who believed Trump’s lies because they wanted to, and more. I think that no one theory suffices. But here we are.

Thin skinned Trump continues to lash out almost daily in speeches and by Twitter against anyone who criticizes him, calls him on his lies or broadcasts or publishes facts contrary to what he would have us believe. The lying media! And he is supported in these attacks by Steve Bannon, Kellyanne Conway and Sean Spicer, who push propaganda and “alternative facts.” The president has antagonized or threatened the governments of Mexico, Australia, Iraq, Iran, Yemen, China and much of Western Europe. He’s going to build a wall! He is going to ban Muslims! But not Muslims from countries where he has done business, e.g. Turkey, Egypt and Saudi Arabia, which was the origin of the 9/11 attackers. He has made dreadful cabinet appointments, many of whom come from Wall Street and the billionaire class against which he campaigned. He appointed Bannon, a man without any intelligence experience, to the National Security Council, while removing the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and the director of national intelligence. All of this in his first three weeks! 

But appalling as I find all this, it is the president’s character that I find most distressing. He is no role model for children and young people. Who among us would want a man like him to marry our daughter? Who would want him for a next door neighbor? He is self-aggrandizing, a bully, narcissistic, always on the attack against those who disagree with him, be they judges, editors, comedians or commentators. He is dishonest, but it is unclear whether he believes his own version of the facts. The evidence suggests that he is a racist and a sexist. Witness that he has demonized Muslims, including Muslim Americans and Latinos, including a judge. Witness his recorded statement that: “...You can do anything... grab them by the p----.”

I fear for our elderly, our poor, the future of public education and our millions of underemployed. I fear that the president and Bannon will lead us into another military action. I fear for our environment.

My role models value kindness, compassion, generosity, honesty, humility, inclusiveness and tolerance. I have yet to see any evidence of these characteristics in Trump. I abhor ad hominem attacks upon other individuals and ethnic and political groups, a practice in which our president engages almost daily.

There is a groundswell of support in social media for impeachment of the president. That won’t happen as long as Republicans control even one house of Congress. But let’s not throw up our hands in despair and give up. Vote! Write our elected representatives. Go to demonstrations. Above all, be honest, kind, compassionate and generous every day. Be a role model for those around us, especially our youth. Change begins locally, as well as nationally.

Jones is a resident of Taos.