We need to resist the urge to set Trump as the "low bar," and here's why.
I'll put the money shot up front, and then explain my thinking.
If we compare other Presidents, or other politicians in general, to Trump, we give every elected official in office right now and every politician that runs for office in the future our permission to be light years behind the men and women they should be, as long as they are simply "better than" Trump. Some of the worst people I have known in my life are "better than" Trump, and they are not even involved in politics. What's the point, what's the value, of being "better than Trump" when that encompasses the vast majority of people that you and I know? It's like the infamously ridiculed "Participation Trophies" kids get at a competitive event when they don't come in first, second, third, or fourth...they just show up and got a trophy for that act alone. Seven days a week, Fox News gives Trump a "Participation Trophy" for being elected President. We've had enough of that, right? Hasn't the time come to stop handing out those trophies?
Why am I posting this?
This morning, on Twitter, there was a video montage of John McCain, posted with the comment "This is what politics should be." It was posted by Twitter user "Stop Trump." Other than that, there was no reference to Trump himself, but the intent was obvious. The video featured the famous "He's an Arab, isn't he" question, and McCain's "No, M'am" response. It also features McCain congratulating Obama for winning the nomination. In terms of a "clean political campaign," there were a number of times McCain took the "high road." There's a clip of him congratulating Obama on winning the nomination as the Democratic candidate. Compare McCain's campaign to Trump and you're talking choir boy, honor student, you name it.
At the same time, though, many of you will remember the time McCain stood face-to-face with Obama during the debates, pointed to him, and referred to him as "THAT one." At the time, we questioned the racist intent behind making a statement like that. While it was not "overtly" racist, it hung in the air and demanded clarity. We never got that clarity.
And on the campaign trail, Sarah Palin was hurling fusillades of thinly-veiled (or not veiled at all) racist remarks along the same lines of the woman who asked McCain if Obama "was an Arab." Remember her insistence that Obama was "Pallin' around with terrorists?"
So yes, John McCain ran a cleaner campaign than Trump. I don't think anyone here would question that. But does that mean his campaign was the "gold standard" for future campaigns? No, it does not.
It's somewhat ghoulish that John McCain is still living and breathing and the world is trying to define his legacy, and in some cases, re-write history. The single greatest way to honor any human being while they are alive and after they have passed on is to never see them as anything other than the person they are. There words, their deeds, their consistency of action. John McCain was, is, and will continue to be "better than Trump."
When Trump was much younger, his father handed him $1,000,000 and his Rolodex. He dodged the draft. He cheated contractors, he skirted around tax laws while you and I paid our taxes. He sexually assaulted women and bragged about "getting away with it." He commited multiple acts of adultery while the women he had married were at home giving birth to, and taking care of, his children. He has hurled one insult after another based on race, gender. religion, "fat shaming," and physical disabilities of his "targets." He is caught in lies on a daily basis. Meanwhile, he screams and howls about the "fake media" that who reports it all with accuracy, pondering over whether he should "take away their credentials" for daring to question his glorious presidency.
What is the value in being "better than" this man?
It does a service to John McCain while he is living, and to his legacy after he's gone. And it's not just John McCain.
It's everyone that we deem as "better than Trump," because it gives them a free pass to be so much less than they could be, so far removed from the public servants they were elected to be.
Thanks for listening.
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