“I wouldn’t want him for a friend, but he’s getting things done!” Really?
February 15, 2020
You say you reject his repeated and overwhelming lies, bending of rules and norms, vindictiveness, denigrations, and retributions? You don’t condone his treatment of women or minorities?
You wouldn’t tolerate this behavior in your children? You’d avoid family and acquaintances who exhibit it?
In fact, you say you try to stem your prejudices and bring your implicit biases to consciousness.
So why, I ask, in civility’s name, would you tolerate such behavior in one of the most powerful men in the world, one whose behavior is pulling down the guardrails of democracy?
You say he’s getting things done? The economy is better?
Is this the same economy that was brought back to health under President Obama’s leadership, that is prodded along by tax cuts that bolster the rich and hurt the poor and do little to repair our infrastructure, lower drug costs, or provide health care for the needy?
You say he tells it like it is? Does hearing his “truths” really relieve your anxiety, the nervous feelings you have that lead you not to trust government and politics as usual?
You want a return to a time that seemed better and are willing to wear the make-America-great-again paraphernalia? Furthermore, you add, he’ll learn from his impeachment?
Sadly “I wouldn’t want him for a friend but I’ll vote for him anyway” bears resemblance to what Republican Senators said: “What he did was wrong but doesn’t rise to the level of impeachable.”
But these rationales have an ethical problem at their center. They have duplicity at their core. They create a false reality. They challenge the moral integrity that is central to democracy, to family or friendship, to the indispensable human good that is central to civility itself.
I implore you. Instead of passing off these incivilities for another four years of Trump’s civility-rending, democracy-threatening leadership, look yourself in your face. There is no humanity in wanting for others what you wouldn’t want for yourself.
Use your vote as a source of the virtue you would want for your children and theirs.
Use your vote to claim goodness for everyone who is affected by Trump’s incivilities.
Say, “I wouldn’t want him for my friend so I won’t vote for him.”
You wouldn’t tolerate this behavior in your children? You’d avoid family and acquaintances who exhibit it?
In fact, you say you try to stem your prejudices and bring your implicit biases to consciousness.
So why, I ask, in civility’s name, would you tolerate such behavior in one of the most powerful men in the world, one whose behavior is pulling down the guardrails of democracy?
You say he’s getting things done? The economy is better?
Is this the same economy that was brought back to health under President Obama’s leadership, that is prodded along by tax cuts that bolster the rich and hurt the poor and do little to repair our infrastructure, lower drug costs, or provide health care for the needy?
You say he tells it like it is? Does hearing his “truths” really relieve your anxiety, the nervous feelings you have that lead you not to trust government and politics as usual?
You want a return to a time that seemed better and are willing to wear the make-America-great-again paraphernalia? Furthermore, you add, he’ll learn from his impeachment?
Sadly “I wouldn’t want him for a friend but I’ll vote for him anyway” bears resemblance to what Republican Senators said: “What he did was wrong but doesn’t rise to the level of impeachable.”
But these rationales have an ethical problem at their center. They have duplicity at their core. They create a false reality. They challenge the moral integrity that is central to democracy, to family or friendship, to the indispensable human good that is central to civility itself.
I implore you. Instead of passing off these incivilities for another four years of Trump’s civility-rending, democracy-threatening leadership, look yourself in your face. There is no humanity in wanting for others what you wouldn’t want for yourself.
Use your vote as a source of the virtue you would want for your children and theirs.
Use your vote to claim goodness for everyone who is affected by Trump’s incivilities.
Say, “I wouldn’t want him for my friend so I won’t vote for him.”