Life here in the United States wasn’t always as bad as it is right now.
I’m not talking about a broken economy, trade wars, declining international relations, the fall of the American empire, the foolish war with Iran, unprecedented presidential corruption.
I’m talking about having someone as President who has reduced the statue of the office to such a pedestrian level that people have lost respect for the office itself.
I think most Americans once took it for granted that whoever sat in the Oval Office would speak and act in accordance with the standards attending to holding the most important political office in the world.
That a president would always be respectful of others, showing appropriate restraint in speaking and dealing with people who disagreed with him, projecting genuine humility without being weak, and giving the entire world reason to trust American leadership.
We took for granted that our presidents would themselves treat the office with appropriate respect for all it stands for and it being the symbol of America’s statue in the world.
Recently, I listened to President John Kennedy’s 1961 Inaugural Address on YouTube. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PEC1C4p0k3E)
I then listened to a series of his press conferences that were marked by his sharp wit. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BRcTCUTXr5M).
Finally, I watched an hour-long interview he had with three reporters (Bill Lawrence of ABC News, George Herman of CBS News, Sander Vanocur of NBC News) in December of 1962 as he was completing his second year in office. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=74LDApCWe_0)
I encourage you to do the same. If you are old enough to remember President Kennedy, or too young to have known him, here is what you will see.
A President who was wordsmith of the highest order, who possessed an amazing ability to inspirie the nation to have confidence in itself to meet the serious challenges of the day, including the genuine threat of nuclear war between the U. S. and then Soviet Union.
A president who instilled confidence that he was up to the task of leading the most powerful nation on earth in using its resources in his own words to promote freedom, reduce poverty, advocate for justice, nurture the bonds of peace, help the entire world share in economic prosperity, and improve the lives of people here at home and across the globe.
You will see a President who possessed in-depth knowledge of the enormous problems we faced, a President who had the personal confidence to admit mistakes, acknowledge facing a learning curve when he took office that surprised him, but smart enough to learn quickly what he needed to know to lead the nation.
You will see a President who understood that criticism was inevitable when making decisions that mattered, never losing his sense of humor when quizzed by reporters asking tough questions.
You will see a President who would have never considered using the Justice Department to go after his political enemies even though his brother was the Attorney General, a President for whom political vengeance was never anything to which he gave thought.
Most of all, you will see a President who believed the difficulties of getting things done was a sign of a healthy, functioning democracy that was to be treasured instead of destroyed in order to get his way.
Not every past president had the mind, the good looks, the eloquence, and the charisma John Kennedy had.
Not every past president was awarded the Purple Heart and the Navy and Marine Corps Medal for gallantry and heroism in service to his country as President Kennedy was.
Yet, President Kennedy was in most ways very typical of past presidents who like him considered the office they held to be a sacred trust in working for the good of all Americans.
He was typical of past Presidents who loved their country, served it as best they could, and who to the person made the nation proud to have them as the face of America to the world.
He was typical of presidents who believed the office they held was the greatest opportunity they would ever have to serve the needs and best interests of others.
None of them was perfect, all flawed as we humans always are, but who nonetheless did the best they could for the nation.
I realize none of that matters to MAGA Republicans, but on November 3 the rest of us can say clearly and emphatically that those things matter to us, matter a lot, in fact, not only to us, but to the world.
It is easy for us to become so focused on the daily failures of the current president to meet the challenges our nation and the world are facing that we don’t pay attention to the what is happening to the one office of our government by which the rest of the world judges all Americans.
The fact is, the presidency itself transcends all of those problems, and that is where Trump’s damage will be the most lasting.
The economy can be fixed, trade wars can be ended, a solution for ending the war with Iran can be found, along with ways to address all the others problems we face, but restoring respect for the office Trump has desecrated is another thing altogether.
In the long run, nothing is more important than that. When our President speaks, we want the world to listen rather than ignore, respect rather than ridicule in private, trust as intellectually competent rather than seeing an incompetent fool with a fragile ego.
The force of a President’s words and actions depends in large part on the respect others have for the office itself, and that respect depends on the quality of person in the office.
All presidents before Trump lived up to the trust the office itself had earned in the eyes of other nations. That is now gone, but the presidents we have had also remind us who we once were, too, as a people, and who we can be again.
We should never forget that, never forget that we once were and can be again a better people and a better nation than Trump is or ever will be as a person and a president.
