Saturday morning was not unusual. I sat at a local coffee shop, opened my laptop, and readied myself to make notes on the week’s activities fighting against torture and for human rights. But for good measure, as I also always do, I grabbed a copy of the Washington Post from the newspaper bin.
What I found was the usual immoral onslaught from an amoral President that could either lead someone like myself into despair, inaction, or worse indifference.
In just one day Trump:
- Modeled how to cyberbully friends and colleagues. Trump took to Twitter to publicly shame Deputy Attorney General Rod J. Rosenstein, who is supervising the Justice Department’s Russia investigation, accusing him of a “Witch Hunt.”
- Modeled how to get what you want through braggadocio instead of by engaging in the give and take of civil discourse. Trump sounded every bit the unapologetic victor, gloating over the spoils of the deposed former regime, announcing to a crowd of Cubans in Miami as he rescinded Obama’s order easing of restrictions on Cuba: "Now, we hold all the cards.”
- Modeled how to rule by instilling fear. As he rescinded an Obama order barring the deportation of undocumented parents of U.S. citizens, he didn’t Tweet, thankfully, but rather left the fear mongering to Homeland Security Secretary John F. Kelly, whose dire warnings to immigrants was that they should “look over their shoulder.” The disregard for the terror this overlays onto the lives and families of 11 million undocumented immigrants in this country just trying to make a living and get by like the rest of us was palpable.
And that’s just in one day, and there was probably more. Whatever you think about this President’s war on immigrants and the poor in this country, disregard for civil discourse, or lack of awareness of just how insular and petty his foreign policy appears to others on the global stage, how he is accomplishing his agenda is just as immoral as what he is doing.
Why immoral? One of the greatest fears expressed by mothers, fathers, siblings, and grandparents was, and continues to be, what our children would see and learn from what Trump says and how he says it. This criticism of Trump was picked up by Facebook campaigns, news articles, and parents’ organizations as one of the best reasons not to elect him President.
Few can question the core responsibility of the elder generation in any society to provide healthy role-modelling on morality for young people, for they too are consuming the same news, information, and ideas as adults from multiple sources. Youth depend on elders for the skills to build a moral framework around this information they receive. That’s what elders and leaders are good for – modeling a moral framework that lets in compassion, care for others, civility, decency, and self-deference, especially in the face of moral bankruptcy of egomania, fear-mongering and bullying.
Indifference and despair aren’t an option for any of us, despite how frustrating it is to see this public display of bigoted self-promotion day after day. And yes, the children are watching, Mr. Trump. When will he see the destructive nature of his ways? Perhaps more importantly, when will those who surround him see that they have become Yes-men and women to a bully and then, do something about it?