I didn’t see this until I had already put up the previous post about “Stupid Thanksgiving Tricks.” If I had, it would have been included. Above all else, the tweet is stupid.
I know, I know…this may be Julie Principle territory. Still, the conduct of the President of the United States is always of special significance, so I am loathe to declare before the second roller-coaster Trump term begins that he will be given an Ethics Alarms pass for the inevitable social media outbursts to come. What is so discouraging, not to mention unethical, about Trump’s Thanksgiving Day tweet is that it shows, again unfortunately, that our soon-to-be 47th President has a flat learning curve, at least in the area of public statements.
There is no reason for Trump to issue a back-handed “Happy Thanksgiving” message, and so many reason not to. He certainly knows that somehow managing to at least alleviate the toxic partisan divisions in America is not only an important task he must face and treat seriously, but also essential to the success of his administration. Trump Derangement is also approaching national health emergency status. What ethical objective can a tweet like that possibly accomplish? The answer is, I hope all can agree, none. Well, none except making Trump feel good. How juvenile and self-indulgent, in addition to selfish. The tweet is essentially gloating, a “Nyah, nyah, nyah!” to his foes. All it does is make them angrier, more hateful, more irrational, and more convinced that all Trump wants to do is inflict revenge on “Radical Left Lunatics.” The substantive goals he has claimed to be seeking will require his full attention; there is no time for such pettiness.
Yet there is it. No self-control, no hint of appropriate priorities, no sense of “I could tweet this, but it would be wrong.” No nation will be respected whose elected leader behaves that way.
Ethics Alarms 
Ya think? On the other hand, in a world of Putins and Netanyahus, who will notice?
I’m having a hard time finding anything I can disagree with in the tweet.
Trump is not George Washington or even John Wayne or Gary Cooper. He’s Bert Lancaster in “The Rainmaker.” He’s a lone wolf real estate developer. I’ve had them as clients. They are a breed apart. They’re visionaries. They sell grandiose ideas to bankers and investors. And sometimes their projects actually get built and are even successful. Trump’s not a manager and he’s nowhere near any traditional president and simply not out of that mold. He hasn’t spent his entire life grubbing for political contributions since he ran for student council president in eighth grade. Learning curve? He knows how to get elected to the biggest gig in the political game. Twice. (Maybe three times!) He’s not stupid. Why should he start acting like a run of the mill politician? People voted for the guy he is. He didn’t run as Mr. Comity. Maybe you need a really powerful hose to clean out the stables along the Potomac.
OB
How have Republican candidates been been treated when they run campaigns as Mr. Comity? I know your answer. And, not politely is an understatement.
Romney was unmercifully vilified and he was the poster child for the Presidential look and demeanor. Hell, even the so called “maverick” who voted with Democrats when it served his interest when he holds a grudge against another fellow Republican got the lash from Dems. The lesson is that comity won’t even buy a 10 cent cup of coffee when dealing with the likes of the media, Schiff, Waters, Pelosi, Schumer, and so many others whose stock and trade are division for the sake of gaining power.
I think your analysis is correct. He learned that comity is a losing proposition in the short run and that trying to be nice will only undermine the goals he wishes to achieve because the opposition will interpret that as weakness. Developing comity will require a critical mass among the electorate to create enough peer pressure to return to the center. He knows the sides are polarized so he will bring people along slowly.
Thanks, Chris. I appreciate it.
Did this come before or after a Congresswoman from New York floated the idea that New York should end tax remittances to the Federal government and seek, along with other New England states, to become a southeastern province of Canada ?
Correction. State legislator Liz Krueger.
Well, for 4 years, the federal government, the media, academia, and Hollywood have called me a far right extremist (and a lot worse). Federal agencies have training that lists Christians, white hereosexuals, etc as domestic terrorist threats. These are the rules now. As long as the left thinks that they can treat their political opponents as threats to democracy, as bigots, and as domestic terrorists without ever being treated similarly by their political opponents, nothing will change.
It is being reported that 30 tech company founders have recently been de-banked. This comes after thousand or tens of thousands of other conservatives have been de-banked for their personal beliefs or political affiliation. If you are a conservative, you can’t become a teacher (the teacher ed programs have viewpoint interviews), you can’t get government internships (you need to volunteer for leftist organizations as part of the prereqs), you will have a hard time going to law school. Med School will soon be an impossibility with the current leftist ideology being pushed. As long as there are no consequences for the left, there will never be support to stop such viewpoint discrimination.
When I was in college, I found out that one of my classmates had been sleeping in the lobby of the dorm for several weeks. Her roommate had moved her boyfriend into the dorm room and they wouldn’t let her in. When she went to the RA and the dorm director, they told her that “You two are both adults, you just need to discuss it and work it out”. She was frustrated because the roommate would not compromise on this. I laughed and said “Why should she? She has everything she wants and there are no downsides for her. What are YOU going to do about it?” So, I asked a freshman football player to go to her dorm room, pretend to be her boyfriend and ‘discuss’ the matter with the roommate and boyfriend. Well, he brought along the entire offensive line. Once he announced that he was her boyfriend, the roommate’s boyfriend fled. The roommate left school the next week. Nothing will change unless there are consequences.
Agreed. Trump’s tweet was juvenile and unnecessarily snarky, but it was funny knowing the Left’s heads would explode because Trump is simultaneously honoring a genocidal holiday celebrating dominion and conquest over indigenous peoples living in harmony with the land and needling the Left because he’s won. TTrump is a master at poking the bear.
jvb
…which is not an activity any sane person wants to become “master” of.
Take it away Billy (from memory, so may not be correct):
“You may be right,
I may be crazy,
But it just might be
A lunatic you’re looking for.
Turn out the light,
Don’t try to save me,
I may be wrong
But for all you know
I may be right.”