Respect
Presidents come and go. Sometimes you win and sometimes you lose. I have been a left-leaning liberal Democrat from the moment I came out of the womb. As I have got older I am probably more fiscally moderate but I am extremely liberal when it comes to social issues and that goes under a very large umbrella. I am certainly open to conversations from the other side as I am curious and continue to be amazed at how and why people are so conservative. No surprises that my friends are mostly in my camp when it comes to politics.
I have been asking myself what is it about this Democratic Presidential loss that gets me so riled up and angry. Certainly I can point to a variety of things as we all can. My guess is a lot of information surrounding Russia and more will eventually come out as everything swept under the carpet always rears its ugly head. History of everything has proven that.
What is the most disturbing thing of Trump is as he has risen to the power of the President is the lack of respect for the office is slowly eroding. While Obama was in office we saw for the first time Senator and Congressmen on the other side actually call Obama names that was disrespectful of the office of the Presidency. It was shocking. In the military, there is a clear divide from officer to General. There is a command of respect that changes as you move up the ladder. It is certainly necessary on the battlefield as the commanding officer makes the decisions and everyone must follow the decisions made whether they believe it is the right thing to do or not. The level of respect based on command has been the same in Government but that seems to be disappearing.
When we have a President who uses a social media tool, aka Twitter, to push out whatever comes off the top of his head it demeans the office of the Presidency. That tool has allowed any citizen to tweet out their own personal response to Trump. Those tweets are no different than a group of teens dissing on each other. We now can see anyone in the world using this medium to raise their voice to dismiss one of the top leaders/offices in the world. You can be a Domino delivery driver in Iowa and tweet out that Trump is an idiot and it shows up on the moments on our Twitter roll next to Trump’s latest tweet. There is something unsettling about that.
As world becomes flatter there is a culture of disrespect that is boiling up that I find uncivilized. We are seeing the long tail of this behavior through violent outbreaks against people at rallies. People feel entitled to dismiss anyone regardless of their stature in society. I am not saying that we should be more respectful to someone who is more powerful such as President of a company but we should respect each other and most important we should respect the office of the Presidency. If we have no respect for that then where does that leave us?
Comments (Archived):
I’ve always thought, and tried to teach my children, that respect should be freely given to others (others earn the loss of your respect), while you should assume that you will only get other’s respect by earning it.Regardless of how you look at it though, I do believe the world could use a little more respect all around…and perhaps a little more focus on what is the right way and what is the wrong way to be successful (shared my thoughts on this topic as it relates to today via my own post http://falicon.com/post/156… )
I see it every where every day now. It seems to have permeated every part of our society. You see the traffic cops behaving rudely for no reason. I had to file a complaint with the border patrol for being abused at Customs for no reason. People on the street. It’s trickle down rudeness and it starts at the top. Kids watch TV they see the president acting like an infant and hurling insults at anyone he chooses and then they figure they can do the same.Role models…where did the go?
where did the role models go? great question.
.I spend a lot of time in Texas (Austin is my home), Savannah, Winter Park, Charlotte, New Orleans, Charleston, Steamboat Springs, and NYC.I note that Southern manners have never been more pronounced than I find today. I feel a different brand when in Savannah than when in Austin but it is all gracious and, well, …………………………………. Southern.Different latitudes, different attitudes.I also detect that cops are really on edge. Jumpy, sort of.JLMwww.themusingsofthebigredca…
.In your graphic is the answer to your lament — in order to be respected, one must be respectful. This is both obvious and subtle.You write: “I am certainly open to conversations from the other side as I am curious and continue to be amazed at how and why people are so conservative.” perhaps not discerning how condescending and disrespectful that statement is.I don’t think you intend it to be perceived in that manner, but it is. You appear to be unable to consider that anyone could have a different view from yours with as heartfelt a basis in that view as you hold in yours. I freely admit to being unwilling to understand how the entire world cannot agree with me on everything.In the election, the elites were given a lesson by the deplorables, but at the core was evidence of a total disconnect by the elites (of both parties, mind you) of the lives of the untermensch (tongue firmly in cheek, mind you).Part of being by, from, and of the PEOPLE is the necessity to be in contact WITH the people in such a manner that they can be heard and appreciated. The people got angry because they had been ignored.This was not a new revelation as the 2014 election clearly demonstrated the anger of the hinterlands when the people delivered the Senate and a bigger majority in the House to the Republicans [Do not get me wrong, I don’t think the Republicans were listening either. The people had no real other choice and it was by default as much as anything else.]All the 2016 election did was confirm the people were still angry.Twitter provides a conduit for the people to hear from and speak to power. It is also colored by the smell, taste, and roar of the crowd. And, in those sensory messages come more than a little disrespect. Revolutions can be bloody.Respectfully submitted,JLMwww.themusingsofthebigredca…
There was a mystique (a decorum) about people before everything was shared online.Now, click bait, headline grabbers and shockjock-type tactics of sharing constantly flood people’s newsfeeds.Maybe we all need to stay offline for a few days, help an elderly neighbor do their grocery shopping / take care of the kids of busy parents for a few hours and do something meaningful for a non-family member for free.
I was a Marine who was serving overseas when Obama was swore into office. I remember having to send Marines home who expressed dissatisfaction with him as president. Although I wasn’t happy he was elected and I still accepted the decision because I swore to defend the constitution of the United States. I worked as an aide for the Marine General who completed the Marine Corps Force Structure Review Group; the Marine Corps took their orders to downsize the force from the Under Sec Def Ashton Carter now the Sec Def. I watched as our Commandant come out against gay rights and then 3 weeks later turn around to lay out a plan to implement the overturn of “Don’t ask don’t tell.” Yes there is a generational divide in the USMC but there is less of one then you may think because on average the force is much younger then the working population and people didn’t hold in job and wait to retire because of the economic crash. Yes the commandant and some generals were more conservative on many issues but the majority of the force wasn’t and that is what prevailed.I didn’t vote for Trump, I actually voted for Hillary, and I agree with you that the office of the president should be respected. But I see just as much if not more disrespect towards Trump then he appears to have towards the American people. I hear people saying “not my president.” If I had ever said that about Obama I would have been kicked out of the USMC. I know being a civilian holds different rights but in my mind those words disrespect the whole process and our whole country. If we loose our process, or Constitution our democracy now, we will allow trump to become more powerful.I see using Twitter and the press as a completely separate issue, I also think that Obama/Clinton were active in destroying the relationship the government had with the press and know as a Marine that the way a story is told and released could endanger or kill the lives of other.
I agree with you about the respect issue. Not my President is the exact same thing but as Trump has lashed out at all of us it has set off disrespect on both sides of the fence.Interesting insight into the youth of the troops and the divide between you/them and the ones that lead you.
Reagan was called a lot of pretty bad names. I can remember some MTV videos and some art installations that were highly offensive. I agree, it’s now much more open. Lack of decorum. While Nixon revered the power of the Presidency, his actions certainly didn’t respect the office. Neither did William Clinton’s. I disagreed with Obama’s world view. I disagreed with the way that he ran the government, and the leeway he gave the federal bureaucracy to attack political opponents. But, he was dignified. Once decorum is gone, it’s hard to put the genie back in the bottle.Trump’s use of Twitter is not unlike FDR’s use of radio. It’s a different time. He knocks his rivals off their feet with Twitter. Sometimes, I find his language distasteful-but campaigns are different than actually having to govern. My guess is he will make the change. But, we will see.With regard to conservatives and liberals. Liberals believe government is the solution to problems. Conservatives don’t. For example. I think the public school bureaucracy dooms poor children to substandard educations and poor outcomes. Why do people that believe strongly in big government want to hurt poor people? For me, I think we ought to give the parent(s) of those children vouchers to spend on education. Let them choose between public and private options. Force competition. Spending more on education at the federal level will find it’s way into the pockets of consultants and bureaucrats, skipping over classrooms, teachers, and the students that need it.I don’t see Trump as either liberal or conservative. There will be things he does conservatives don’t like. Because we are as polarized today as a nation as we were in 1860, there will be nothing he does that liberals will appreciate or applaud.
I met Ronald Reagan many years ago. I hated his politics but really liked the man. He was extremely charismatic and fun to be around. I think he had a kind heart. Trump’s followers may think of his politics as Reagan-like but this is not a kind man. He mocks disabled people, admits on a taped interview to molesting and abusing women, and has a miserable track record of not paying people who work for his companies. To say that heis litigious is the understatement of the year. So what happens to the Office of President when an incoming President is not a man of character? Not only does that office get smaller, but unfortunately we all become a little smaller. During the next four years, the US as a lead nation among the world of nations will diminish. The biggest winner of the Trump Presidency will probably be Communist China which on a strictly human rights level is totally disgusting.
Sadly I completely agree with you.
Hard to teach kids respect when what they see is disrespectful behaviour running rampant. The only thing I like about social media and any president’s use is that it makes the president’s message available to all quickly…without the need for a formal press conference etc. But how to reign in the craziness. The platform has its upside as a communication vehicle for a president. Respect has to start at home.