Originally Posted by Pete F.
There is no comparison between Trump and any other politician, thankfully. It is necessary that our President be a man with some ethics. A little empathy is also helpful. What is not acceptable is an ignorant buffoon who's word is not good. Some will say he has kept his campaign promises but that is largely limited to those that could be accomplished without the cooperation of others by executive order. He has had minimal legislative success, but is attempting end runs around Congress to make up for his lack of negotiating skill.
The least problematic part is the lack of originality of Donald Trump’s words. During his presidency, Trump has uttered no beautiful and memorable phrases. His inaugural address, is remembered, for the phrase American carnage and Trump’s description of a dystopian nation, broken and shattered. More problematic is that many of Trump’s utterances are babble. If you read the transcript of many of his interviews and off the cuff speeches, you find that Trump is not only unable to often lay out a coherent argument; at times he’s unable to string together sentences that make sense.
When it comes to dealing with those who oppose him, he consistently uses words to demean, belittle, bully, or dehumanize. He has mocked former prisoners of war, the disabled, and the appearance of women. He has attacked Gold Star parents and widows. And he has engaged in racially tinged attacks. The number of his targets is inexhaustible because Trump’s brutishness is inexhaustible.
Many other presidents have been viewed as divisive, but Trump provokes for it's own sake; delighting in turning Americans against one another in order to turn them against one another. He seems to think he gains a political advantage in dividing us.
Trump’s words are bad enough, but the greatest cause for concern is his nonstop, dawn-to-midnight assault on facts, truth, reality. That places Trump in a category all his own.
Many politicians are guilty of not telling the full truth of events. But only very few—and only the most dangerous—are committed to destroying the very idea of truth itself by using the big lie. We saw it Day One of the Trump presidency, when he insisted—and sent out his press secretary to insist—that the crowd size at his inauguration was larger than that of Barack Obama’s, despite photographic evidence to the contrary. And that behavior has continued almost every day since.
He lies at will. He lies all the time. He lies on purpose. He lies as a way of life. He lies about things big & small. He lies with impunity. He lies with the direct intent to distract, fool, and deceive his supporters.
In a speech to the Veterans of Foreign Wars, Trump said, “And just remember: What you’re seeing and what you’re reading is not what’s happening.” In other words, who are you going to believe—me or your lyin’ eyes?
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