The missing factor in Trump's presidency? Decency.
The coronavirus has rekindled interest in The Plague, Albert Camuss haunting and, now, eerily relevant 1947 novel about a fictional fatal epidemic in what was then a French colony in North Africa.
As thousands die and thousands more suffer deprivation and isolation under quarantine, the books protagonist, a doctor, explains why he carries on his work: Theres no question of heroism in all this. Its a matter of common decency. Thats an idea which may make some people smile, but the only means of fighting a plague is common decency.
Which brings us to President Trump, and his response to the coronavirus, from his initial belated steps to his rambling attacks on the media at White House briefings to his bizarre remark (an attempt at humor, his staff later said) at Saturdays rally in Tulsa: Increased testing for the virus is a double-edged sword useful for public health but bad for public relations so I said to my people, Slow the testing down, please.
In all of it, the missing factor has been decency, which the Cambridge Dictionary defines as behavior that is good, moral and acceptable in society, and which, throughout most of previous American political history, presidents have at least pretended to model.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/the-missing-factor-in-trumps-presidency-decency/2020/06/22/6735494e-b499-11ea-a8da-693df3d7674a_story.html
GeorgeGist
(25,322 posts)underpants
(182,868 posts)He is unable to care about anything or anyone not himself. He just cant stand anything not positive.
All he had to do was look like he cared. Empathy. Compassion. Decency.
Skittles
(153,182 posts)EXCEPT EVERYONE WITH CRITICAL THINKING SKILLS
Nay
(12,051 posts)Karadeniz
(22,564 posts)dreamland
(964 posts)chriscan64
(1,789 posts)It is a very low bar to "look" compassionate. A man who is no stranger to lying cannot muster the lie that he has any decency.