Yeah, I can think of a few examples where I thought his comments were “appropriate”. Can you?
Leaders are human. They make mistakes and do dumb things. I imagine you would hesitate to give your seal of approval to every utterance of the past few Dem presidents too, right?
What makes you think it’s up to you to “shut them down”?
Sounds like? Well, sounds like you want to cop some centrist cred by pretending criticism in the mildest possible terms. “Fainting with damn praise”. I mean, “inappropriate”? Are you sure you want to be that harsh? Weren’t you at least tempted to go all out with maybe a “not very nice”?
Are we seriously trying to get HurricaneDitka to stand up in his chair, put his hand on his heart, and declare “Donald Trump is the worst person ever and I was incredibly stupid for supporting him for one single second ever! And please, sir, can I have some more crow?”
I mean, this sounds like a super-productive use of our time, but I thought I’d check first to make sure I was on the same page as everyone before I dived in.
This is one of the things I find the most disturbing. We’re less shocked and bothered than we were in the beginning. And I’m really disturbed at how the media is still reporting his actions/speeches/etc. as though he were a normal [del]human being[/del] President. At least some of the opinion writers/columnists (mostly left, but a few right) have started calling him a liar, a disaster, a total screw-up, so that’s something.
To go back to an analogy I coined a few months ago, the first time Uncle Harold shows up at Sunday dinner with his underpants on his head, everyone is shocked, dismayed, disgusted, and freaked out. But now, we’re used to it and people are saying, “Yeah, that’s just Uncle Harold. I like the Fruit of the Looms he picked today. That little Donald Duck print goes nicely with his yellow tie. Pass the potatoes, please.”
God help us… where will we be with this in a year… in two years. I can’t bear to think of it.
Just ignore him. That’s the most productive strategy. Unless you love beating your head against a brick wall while simultaneously wasting time.
You’re missing the point. The rules are different for Trump. If he does bad things, it is always a “two scoops” story for certain people. If he grabs a crotch, so what? Two scoops. Cites law enforcement officials over a personal grudge? Two scoops. Violates ethics standards? Two scoops. Murders a man on Fifth Ave? Two scoops.
If he was as big as he insinuated, he would have dropped trou right then and there.
:eek:
I wouldn’t go so far as to shut them down, but I’d be interested in the opinions of those with sons in the Boy Scouts. How do you feel about it? Does the BSA’s stance on religion and their former stance on homosexuality bother you?
My husband’s stepbrother became an “Eagle Scout.” I put that in quotes because his mother wanted him to be an Eagle Scout so she did the vast majority of the work for his community project. I think all he did was show up on the designated day and help out. This did tarnish my view of what becoming an Eagle Scout means.
OTOH my nephew became an Eagle Scout. He came up with the project (building houses for bats on a public path as a natural way of reducing the mosquito population) and did all the leadership on it. I went to his ceremony and I was very proud of him.
But even so I was bothered by the anti-atheist/agnostic stance of the BSA. At the time, gay boys were not allowed to be members and gay adults couldn’t be leaders, and that bothered me, too.
Many, many years ago i was a Girl Scout. The Girl Scouts have to the best of my knowledge never cared about the sexual orientation of members or leaders. We did pledge “to serve god” but when this was objected to in the 1990s their basic reaction was, “Oops! We include all religions, so feel free to sub other language if you want.”
Yes.
But.
Here’s the thing: I go to the doctor and explain that I have a pain in my kidneys. The doctor grabs a otoscope and starts looking in my ear. At first I might think he’s beginning a thorough exam, but then I realize he believes he can see my kidney in there.
Now, you might say, “Hey, whoop-de-do. He didn’t operate and remove the wrong organ. He didn’t give you poison. He just made a mistake about the kidney.”
And that’s all true. . . but it’s the kind of basic, fundamental mistake no medical doctor should ever make. So while the effects of this mistake are indeed small, the realization that I have a doctor who believes the kidneys are in the skull is a considerably more serious matter.
So, too, in this instance. I grant you the specific effects of this are minuscule. But the episode exposes the fundamental, basic lack of awareness of political norms that plagues Trump and dooms his presidency.
This single event is not a big deal in isolation, but it is when viewed in the larger context: this guy is supposed to be America’s leader, yet he has never – not once – made a speech that was actually about America, or any of its institutions. It’s always a narcissistic self-promoting self-aggrandizing ramble and/or a mean-spirited condemnation of the alleged awfulness of his growing legion of enemies, which now seems to include half of his own dysfunctional administration. He is incapable of leadership, or of carrying out any of the duties required of a president. And that’s a pretty big deal, and it should be a cause for introspection for all who voted for him.
I do blame the BSA a bit. Maybe they thought Trump wouldn’t say anything bad. Maybe they felt they had to maintain the tradition or face a bunch of mad Scout parents. But they still should have chosen to not invite a known evil President to speak. They should have taken their own code of conduct seriously, and, since the President publicly and proudly doesn’t adhere to those, then he should not have been invited.
I can still feel sorry for them, that Trump was Trump. I can mostly blame Trump But I can’t say they don’t share any of the blame. They could have prevented this, if they cared enough.
If they cared to send the message that even the honorary President must be good and help others. If some kids act out after this, I would not fault them for it. The president of the organization did it, why can’t they?
Trump supporters don’t believe he’s unaware of political norms. He’s shaking up the system, playing 3D chess and trolling the Dems so they are distracted by silly things like a jackass like speech to the boy scouts.
Didn’t say it was up to me. It was up to us, collectively, if we want the Boy Scouts to morph into a modern Hitler Youth or not. The scouts behaved terribly, their leaders failed to instruct them in civilized behavior, and they egged on the most evil man in human history.
“Hello, pest control? I seem to have a cockroach problem”
“How bad is it?”
“It’s like a modern Hitler Youth. Similar to that racoon problem I called you about last month”
Of course a bunch of teenage boys are going to wildly cheer a manifestly inappropriate speech. Teenagers enjoy the flouting of convention by a figure who is supposed to be respectable.
Sooo…If he did something that, to you, foretold “doom to the nation” you might decide to actively get involved?
No, he wouldn’t and stop asking him pointless questions like this. :smack:
Ha, ha! That sure would be funny! Those foolish liberals. Snort!
I join you in thinking that if I read someone’s post in a manifestly ridiculous way, refusing to reread it to figure out what they might actually be saying, I should totally post my misreading of them as a challenge. I’ll look clever then, and probably score points!
You appear to go off the rails right here.
I’m already “actively involved”.