Feb. 16, 2020
Hubris and I had a very refreshing ride last Friday afternoon. We took the ditch bank—along the east side of the main outer irrigation canal of the Rio Grande—north, past downtown Albuquerque, through the Rio Grande Nature Center State Park, and almost half way to Bernalillo and then, back to our very little ranch in the South Valley just before dark. Riding through the Bosque in the afternoon and late evening is a real treat. The birds are amazing and a person on horseback doesn’t seem to frighten them. The city pollution—along with the present pollution of political reality—disappears behind the wall of dead-leafed Cottonwoods and riverside brush. It is amazing how a simple horseback ride through the woods followed by a shot or two of Uncle Jack’s finest refreshes the brain.
After the Iowa Caucus crumbled under its’ fallen tent and the Impeachment ‘Acquittal’ verdict but before the New Hampshire Primary election, I thought it might be a good idea to step back from the fray and re-visit the matter of the ‘character’, or lack-thereof, of our ‘Perfect’ (his claim, not mine) President, Donald J. Trump. I had to spend about two seconds before finding an appropriate phrase from which to introduce this outline assessment of his character and that was—‘A spoiled brat’. Although it may seem old fashioned, I suggest that it is a good place to start. I’ll bet a nickel that he was an arrogant bully in grade school. If he attended a ‘Military (High School) Academy’ to be taught discipline—he must have failed the course. Evidently, the Wharton School of Business didn’t include any ethics courses because he hasn’t shown any in his business dealings or in his ‘show business’ career. Did the Wharton program include courses in ‘groping’?
As any person who claims to be a ‘self-made’ business success should know, it’s a bit of a stretch to make that claim if your father gives you Four-hundred and thirteen Million Dollars to escape his having to pay estate taxes. Trump has set a record for business bankruptcies but also has claimed a personal fortune of ten billion dollars. Forbes rated him at $3.5 billion—with a big asterisk behind that number—because they really don’t have any idea of his worth or ‘worthlessness’. Maybe we should ask Deutsche Bank or the IRS what they think he is really worth? If what he claimed is true, why would he hide his tax reports? But who cares? Evidently, his electorate doesn’t. So far, I have defined Donald J. Trump as; a spoiled brat, bully, and bragger.
And so far, neither his political rivals nor any of the respected media have called him out with the shout of, “Liar, liar, -pants on fire!” but he has set world records for lying during his campaign for election and during his term in office thus far as ‘President of the United States’. I am hoping that the New York Times is keeping an accurate count of his lies and will release the figures just before the 2020 election—assuming he is still ‘in office’ at that time. Somehow, I never expected that the ‘ability and willingness to lie’ would be a qualifier for the position of ‘POTUS’.
I was sorry that the impeachment articles didn’t include the matter of Trump’s taking ‘emoluments’ since he was elected to office. That word simply means ‘using the power of office for personal financial gain’. It so worried the writers of our Constitution that they made special note of prohibiting it in our Constitution. Donald J. Trump is driven, not by morality or charity (as in love for your fellow man) but by the three factors of evil, lust-for power and privilege, avarice and greed. I’ll ignore the ‘lust’ factor as it relates to his attitude toward women for now but his performance in life has been ‘X-rated’ and has not been fit for family viewing for a very long time. And so, stopping again to total up the score, I now have our President rated as: a spoiled brat, bully, bragger, liar, lust-driven, avaricious and greedy person. And you were thinking about sending your sixteen year old daughter to an intern program in Washington, D. C. this summer?
I had always thought our President should be a role model of good character and a great leader of the country that had chosen him to be its’ President. Good leadership (I happen to think) is supposed to bring people together in an effort to improve the common good. What I see happening in our ‘United’ (?) States is Trump’s actions to make himself and the rich richer and the poor poorer. A ‘Leader’ he is not. A ‘leader working for the common good’ he is not. He is a divider— and a mean divider to boot! I think it’s time for a final summary of the character traits of Donald J. Trump, our ‘Perfect’ President. Donald is like a spoiled brat, and he also is a bully, bragger, liar, lust-driven, avaricious, greedy, mean-spirited, ego-centric, draft-dodging divider—just the characteristics no country needs, or should want, in its’ President. How did he get to be our ‘President’? The answer, my friends, isn’t blowing in the wind. The real answer is the ignorance and indifference of our electorate. That’s a hard pill to swallow, but, I believe it just might be true. Only a blind and lazy electorate would have chosen two low-down crooks, Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump, as candidates of the major parties in the 2016 election. So now, we get what our electorate asked for. As the song goes, “Good morning America, how are you?” The answer my friends isn’t blowing in the wind, the answer is that we are totally screwed. When we have an un-thinking electorate we get what we deserved. God bless America.
Hubris reminded me that (tomorrow) Monday is ‘President’s Day’. Then, I was reminded, by My Fair Lady, that- that ‘Day’ was a compromise date between George Washington’s and Abraham Lincoln’s birthdays. The best I can do is to suggest that you spend Monday, February 17th comparing the characters of Washington and Lincoln to the character of our present ‘Commander-in-Chief’—Donald J. Trump—as defined above. Hail to the Chief? Or, have our standards for our ‘President’ just ‘gone to hell in a handbasket’? Then, Hubris told me there was no problem in our government so big that a few carrots and a shot or two of Uncle Jack’s finest wouldn’t help us forget. I did just what Hubris suggested and with a hearty shout of Hi Ho Hubris, Aawaay! we were off for our Sunday afternoon ride on the ditch banks of the Rio Grande.
Lou
Copyright, February 16, 2020, Louis J. Christen