It’s remarkable that the most important job in the world, president of the United States, has no job requirements attached to it other than native citizenship and a minimum age – no educational requirements, no experience requirements, no demonstrated competency requirements, no health or psychological requirements, no substantive job requirements at all. That’s what’s allowed a peanut farmer to become president, a movie star, and, yes, even a reality TV star who also leads a perpetually failing business organization – one that has experienced six bankruptcies, is plagued by scandal, is welcomed by almost no banks, and, in all likelihood, given previous controversies and lacking any evidence to the contrary, has a net worth far below what is claimed.
The problem in the last of these cases is that the president seems to think he’s still on a reality TV show, in which anything goes to win. For him, it’s okay to choose deceit over truth, conflict over peace, bullying over diplomacy, dividing over uniting, knocking down over building up, anger over evenness, hate over love, stubbornness over compromise, chaos over clarity, callousness over compassion, adultery over fidelity, arrogance over humility, ignorance over education, underhandedness over integrity, and personal gain over public service, as long as he wins the game.
This reality TV mentality has been no more obvious than at the Republican National Convention, where the sole goal appeared to be to make Mr. Trump seem better than he really is. Mr. Trump used a naturalization ceremony, including immigrants who didn’t know they would be part of the convention, to try to show his compassionate approach to immigration, whereas his true approach has been no less than brutal. He had a long list of women participate to try to show how supportive he is when, in truth, he has demonstrated a disrespect for women that demonstrates flat-out misogyny. He forced the FDA to give emergency approval to a still-questionable coronavirus treatment to show how effective he’s been at fighting the virus, whereas nearly 6,000,000 US cases and about 180,000 US deaths tell a far different story. He had a large number of people, including non-supporters who were literally tricked into participating, say what a great person he his; whereas a truly great person doesn’t need a parade of people claiming it, everybody already knows it. He went so far as to stage some of the convention on federal property, federal property that your tax dollars and my tax dollars fund for the running of our government, not to provide a majestic venue to aggrandize a morally bankrupt politician.
But we are not on a reality TV show. It’s our real lives and our real livelihoods that Mr. Trump is playing with – yours and mine. We need someone who understands that and is able to lead this country in an experienced, competent way. Mr. Trump was given a chance at the job and he failed. It’s time for all Americans to tell Donald Trump, loudly and clearly, YOU’RE FIRED!
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