Are we witnessing the new normal?
Would you give your 4-year-old child the keys to your brand-new car and tell her to drive to the store for some milk? How about letting your toddler fill the lawnmower with gasoline? If you are a sane, reasonable person you would not do such things.
In some respects, I feel we have done something similar to that by electing Donald J. Trump. In light of recent events, even Trump supporters are starting to express concerns and doubts. No, I’m not going to get into whether the election was valid, I refuse to re-hash the election results. Until concrete evidence to the contrary appears, Trump is our democratically elected president. What’s done is done. My concern is more to what may happen tomorrow.
When faced with taking a stand on any issue I turn to my scientific side. Emotions may help at times but not when trying to objectively evaluate a problem.
We elected a person with no diplomatic or political skills. In fact, Trump made those deficits appear to be a positive trait. He based such an idea on his assumption that previous presidents who did have those skills were somehow wrong in their approach. But what we are seeing now is not any better, and an argument may be made that it is actually making things worse.
Words have meaning, especially in diplomatic realms. All we need do is look at history. Wars have been started over misunderstanding of language and lack of good communication skills. There is a reason diplomats and ambassadors speak in a certain way that the rest of us may find vague and useless. The reason is very straight-forward: If we keep talking, we can reduce the likelihood of conflict. Give your opponent an honorable way out, don’t box them into a corner with only one (bad) solution. We just might face a war we don’t want to fight.
Using Twitter as a means of presidential communication is — using the vernacular of our president — bad, very bad. What if the Founding Fathers had used Twitter? Would the U.S. Constitution have been sent out in 140 word increments? What if Ben Franklin had a Twitter account? “From: @realBenFranklin1787: Hey, peeps, check out the Constitution John, Thomas, and my homies put together! Best document of freedom EVER!! Philly rocks!”
Kind of reduces the historical greatness, no? Please, Mr. President, put the cell phone down and back away! I cringe at the thought of future history textbooks showing not well-practiced speeches, but 140-word snippets shot out with little to no thinking involved. Words not meant to define a legacy for future generations, but issued to trivialize, demean, or exact revenge for some perceived slight by another. A president should rise to higher, more noble endeavors.
It is always easier to hit back than to practice restraint. The ability to ignore your baser instincts in responding to an insult is a hallmark of great leaders. Just
as we would not allow a toddler to play with flammable liquids, neither should we tolerate a leader who inflames critical situations with childish rhetoric.