Sucked into Trump trap
The man who currently occupies the White House had himself what he probably considers a red-letter day of cleverness and wit on Monday.
From Donald J. Trump’s vitriolic Twitter account came disparagement of California Congresswoman Maxine Waters as “a very low IQ person,” followed by a threat. “Be careful what you wish for Max!” By evening, the president had identified a new target.
“Why is Senator Mark Warner (D-Va), perhaps in a near drunken state. . .”
In short order, Trump moved from domestic to foreign relations. To Canada and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.
The Star’s Washington correspondent and fact-checker non pareil, Daniel Dale, reports that Trump delivered an extraordinarily rambling speech to supporters in South Carolina in which he mounted a largely incoherent stream-of-consciousness attack on Trudeau.
“Canada. You know, Canada. Nice guy, nice guy. Prime minister. Justin. I said, ‘Justin, what’s your problem, Justin?’ So Canada. O Canada. I love their national anthem. O Canada. I like ours better, however. So. No, Canada’s great, I love Canada.”
On he went, mocking, sneering and whining about trade relations between the two countries.
Just another day in the life of the most disrespectful, most destructive, most dangerous administration in American history.
There has been considerable discussion in American media in recent days about the need for civility in that nation’s troubled politics.
Samuel Johnson himself once noted there is a high cost to failures of civility and the shattering of norms of respectful discourse.
“When once the forms of civility are violated,” he wrote, “there remains little hope of return to kindness or decency.”
Let us hope, for the sake of America and our relations with that great friend, and for the good of the entire world, that Johnson is wrong.
On the wall of many elementary school classrooms around Greater Toronto can be found a poster. It was published almost 20 years ago and is titled “The Golden Rule.”
The poster was created by Paul McKenna while working as a lay minister at Scarboro Missions and cites the wisdom and teaching at the heart of most religions and spiritual traditions in the world.
At core, be it from Christianity, Judaism or Islam, Sikhism, Hinduism or from any other sacred text, the epicentre of instruction is remarkably similar.
At essence, they all say: Treat others as you would like to be treated yourself.
The admonition not to do to a neighbour what is hateful to you is so fundamental that Rabbi Hillel famously pronounced two millennia ago that all the rest of the Torah was mere commentary.
What has also been called “the ethic of reciprocity” is very likely the best, most succinct, most universal counsel ever given in the realm of human relations. That’s why it endures.
There are more axioms for civility and courtesy than there is space to recite.
“Civility is not a sign of weakness,” said John F. Kennedy. “Life is short but there is always time for courtesy,” said Ralph Waldo Emerson. “Civility costs nothing and buys everything,” observed Lady Mary Wortley Montagu.
Any reasonable observer would likely conclude that Trudeau’s comportment during the insulting onslaught from Trump of recent weeks has been exemplary.
Likewise, reasonable people would surely find the president’s conduct unworthy of his age, his office and the nation he leads.
It is, no doubt, a fool’s errand to ask Donald Trump to behave other than he has all his life. It is sensible to ask, however, that everyone else still within hailing distance of decency not let this aberration of a president drag them down.
He will answer to history. Civil society must answer to the better angels of our nature, and the wisdom of the ages.