sonora2sonoma

I’ve seen many changes in my 70-odd years, but the biggest change I’ve seen in my time here on Earth is a recent one, and it is the most alarming and, actually, frightening change of them all:  I’m speaking here of the change in our political climate.

President Eisenhower was in office for most of my formative years. He was a president children could look up to as a role model and be the better for it because he represented values that were good and decent and admirable. The majority of the presidents who have held that office since “Ike” have also been good role models for kids to aspire to emulate. The notion of politics doesn’t fit in the calculus of a child’s mind.

The Republican nominee this political cycle is, based on his behavior, both past and present, not that kind of person. He tramples peoples’ values with impunity. His utterances fly in the face of reason, propriety and decency. The reality he inhabits bears little resemblance to the one most of us live in. He promotes division, bigotry, hatred and fear while displaying an alarming absence of understanding of or compassion toward anyone who disagrees with him. He lacks empathy.

In the words of New York Times columnist Frank Bruni, Trump is “a repository of almost every character trait that we reprimand children for.”  And Richard Hanna, Republican Congressman from New York’s 22nd Congressional District, in announcing why he is voting for Hillary Clinton for president, said “at a minimum the president needs to consistently display those qualities I have preached to my two children: kindness, honesty, dignity, compassion and respect.”

To anyone who is either a Trump supporter or is considering becoming one, I have a question. Do you want your children to look up to a bully? A liar? A person who devalues women, minorities, disabled people, Muslims? A person who encourages violence? Do you want your child to grow up to be a person who breaks agreements as easily as he makes them? A person who preys on the fears of others and seeks to divide people to further his or her ambitions? A person who scorns science and calls climate change a hoax? A person who would invite a foreign power, and an adversary as well, to commit espionage against our country for personal gain?  In short, do you want your children to grow up to be narcissists and sociopaths?

And how can you justify giving the nuclear codes to a person of Mr. Trump’s temperament. As you can see by his Twitter feed, Mr. Trump is easily baited and routinely demonstrates his impulsivity and lack of good judgment. If the man is incapable of exercising restraint when confronted with information critical of him, how do you expect him to react in a national emergency? Do you expect him to maintain his cool and gather information and manage the situation like a normal person, or do you expect him to say or do things that are inappropriate or dangerous? And if you expect the former, Why?

August 3, 2016

Tim Konrad