Donald Trump

Oh yeah, I'm going there. Where to start? First off, as I watched the debates leading up to the primary and general election, I was both saddened and angry to see a man bully his way to the republican nomination and then to the white house. I saw a man who, at every chance he had, took the low road and resorted to petty insults. Another thing to take into account is that before running for the presidency, he had absolutely no experience whatsoever holding any position of public office. I think that alone should have disqualified him in the eyes of the country. I was in shock when I saw the electoral map on November 8th but once I came to terms with the results, I tried to think about the best possible outcome of a Trump presidency. That best case scenario in my mind, is a short and uneventful presidency, but I think we all know that won't be the case. This is and will continue to be a presidency of pettiness and shock tactics that will do little but embarrass this country on the world stage and undo the progress that was made over the past eight years. The Trump presidency is the clearest example of the phrase "one step forward, two steps back" that I could ever possibly think of. There are many things that bother me about the president; his foolish policies, his ability to utter blatant falsehoods and then write them off without consequences, his ego, his demeanor and his complete and utter disregard for presidential behavior on social media just to name a few. But most of all what concerns me is that with him, his ego always comes first. This isn't debatable and isn't news to anyone, even his supporters. The reason that I see this as such a problem is that if push comes to shove, if something truly ground shattering occurs, he'll put himself before the country. Try to imagine how Trump would have handled various events throughout American history. How would he have dealt with pearl harbor? How would he have handled the Cuban missile crisis? How would he have handled 9/11? I think that he would have mishandled each of the above mentioned, and worse yet, would then find a way to absolve himself from any blame over his actions and lack of good judgement. Another huge problem I have with him is his complete and utter lack of even a shred of humility. To him, nothing is ever his fault, he can do no wrong. If he even once took the blame for one of his failures or admitted to any of his shortcomings, I would actually have an ounce of respect for the man. His demeanor and how he carries himself irks me because of how utterly unpresidential it is. He seriously can't ever take criticism. Once someone calls him on anything, instead of taking the criticism into account and adjusting himself accordingly, he throws a tantrum on twitter like an emotionally unstable teenage girl. He may like to think that his presence on social media makes him modern and accessible but the way I see it, it's just downright unprofessional. Even though I, like many others, can't stand his antics, I do see how some people are drawn to him. He's definitely something different, although I wouldn't say that's a good thing. He has an alpha male style that makes his supporters see him as a sort of strong man style leader which would be a good thing, if it weren't for the fact that he constantly makes a fool out of himself, removing any and all credibility he might have in the eyes of those outside of the country around the world. Many of his supporters like him because of his opposition to political correctness. They like him because they think he speaks without regard to hurting the feelings of others. They think he's "sticking it to the pc snowflakes" but there's a difference between taking a stand against rampant political correctness and, putting it bluntly, just being a dick. I've noticed that he continues to use the tactic of making controversial statements and actions in order to get attention and stoke his supporters, and for the life of me, I can't understand how the novelty of such actions hasn't worn off. His supporters till eat it up. Speaking of his supporters, I've noticed that a good portion of them are, let's just say, less than upstanding individuals. No, I'm not going to dance around it, many of them are downright deplorable. Another thing is that it doesn't matter if he is or isn't a racist, a white supremacist, or if he supports their ideas or not. It doesn't matter because enough of these degenerates think he's on their side, which is why after his election they suddenly felt so emboldened as to crawl out from the gutters they came from and take to the streets. His response to these rallies and his rebuke of such hateful groups has been, let's face it, piss poor. Above all, I dislike the man because he just flat out isn't a role model. Hearing that recording of him bragging about sexual harassment to Billy bush showed us his true colors. He believed he was in a private setting so he revealed his true misogynistic side. The possibility of me giving him a chance went out the window after hearing that tape. It's been more than a year into his presidency and I believe he's had his chance to prove the detractors wrong and be a good president, but he's failed in that endeavor. Nevertheless, despite all of the negatives, he is and will continue to be president for the next three years. I don't see impeachment or removal from office as probable, much as I would like it to be. We're just going to have to stomach him and have faith that the democratic process will prevent any more of his foolish, shortsighted and destructive policies from taking effect. In short, let's hope this is a controlled burn that the country will recover from.