authoritarians get things doneAnd the ends do justify the means. The basis for judging is the result, not the process. So, when time are good again, when we get through the pandemic - and we will - and the economies return to a new normal - as they will, Trump will be recognized as the leader who led us through the bad times. The "how" will be forgotten. The result will be all we choose to remember.
In every contest we remember who won, not how they won. Hillary who? Joe who?
As a value, I understand authority as useful in a crisis, but not a person.But it is always in a person. The committee is useless - way too easy to blame error and failure on the "other" members or on the need to reach a consensus. Every leader knows that we humans need a face to identify both our leaders and our enemies. A faceless leader engenders no confidence; a faceless enemy gives us nothing to hate.
T rump has a face. A very ugly face. It does not inspire confidence in me. It elicits shame that such an ugly face is one that was (sort of) elected leader of my country. A face to inspire shame, not confidence.
COVID-19 has no face, except the death masks of all who it kills.
T rump would do well to always wear a mask over his nose and mouth. It would not only protect those around him should he become a C-19 carrier, it would give the world some respite from having to constantly see the full brunt of his very ugly face.
He by far has the ugliest face of any POTUS that we have ever had.
I mean even forgetting all of his incompetence, his sheer ugliness of face should bar him from holding public office.
Please T rump, save the world, (from your ugly face). Wear a mask!
The same deep lines coming down from the nose. Beady eyes, thin lips, loose jowls, and strange hair.
Which is which?
Ugly face and ugly face. Which is which?
Ok, here’s a tough one. Which picture is of a donkey’s butthole? Huh? It’s almost like an optical illusion!
Which is which? Hint: the donkey’s butthole is not wearing a tie. Can you see it now?
His face is pure ugly goofiness. It is tragically kind of funny that his face is so goofy looking.
He’s the boss, but I find it curious - why?
They are identical threads.
The poster never followed up with a response or comment on either.
Curious.
In a crisis, a decent POTUS is typically given as much authoritarian power as he needs. T rump is just incompetent and irresponsible, characterologically flawed, and not really very bright.The president already has all the authoritarian power he needs, he just hasn't used it because is simply not an authoritarian. That's what makes him incompetent.
The president already has all the authoritarian power he needsWTF, so are you living by Russian standards now? When was authoritarianism ever a part of our government or Republic? But you make it sound like you think it's a good thing.
That American Catastrophe is worse than incompetent.
Here’s a perspective from across the pond:
“Why do some British people not like Donald Trump?” Nate White, an articulate and witty writer from England wrote the following response:A few things spring to mind. Trump lacks certain qualities which the British traditionally esteem. For instance, he has no class, no charm, no coolness, no credibility, no compassion, no wit, no warmth, no wisdom, no subtlety, no sensitivity, no self-awareness, no humility, no honour and no grace – all qualities, funnily enough, with which his predecessor Mr. Obama was generously blessed. So for us, the stark contrast does rather throw Trump’s limitations into embarrassingly sharp relief.
Plus, we like a laugh. And while Trump may be laughable, he has never once said anything wry, witty or even faintly amusing – not once, ever. I don’t say that rhetorically, I mean it quite literally: not once, not ever. And that fact is particularly disturbing to the British sensibility – for us, to lack humour is almost inhuman. But with Trump, it’s a fact. He doesn’t even seem to understand what a joke is – his idea of a joke is a crass comment, an illiterate insult, a casual act of cruelty.
Trump is a troll. And like all trolls, he is never funny and he never laughs; he only crows or jeers. And scarily, he doesn’t just talk in crude, witless insults – he actually thinks in them. His mind is a simple bot-like algorithm of petty prejudices and knee-jerk nastiness.
There is never any under-layer of irony, complexity, nuance or depth. It’s all surface. Some Americans might see this as refreshingly upfront. Well, we don’t. We see it as having no inner world, no soul. And in Britain we traditionally side with David, not Goliath. All our heroes are plucky underdogs: Robin Hood, Dick Whittington, Oliver Twist. Trump is neither plucky, nor an underdog. He is the exact opposite of that. He’s not even a spoiled rich-boy, or a greedy fat-cat. He’s more a fat white slug. A Jabba the Hutt of privilege. …
C’mon, that’s only one little piece of his incompetence.
Plus, he IS authoritarian as he needs to be when it comes to covering his own ass. He has attorneys arguing in front of the Supreme Court, today, that, not only can he, as a sitting President be convicted of any crime, he also cannot be investigated by the Congress for anything by their use of a subpoena to gather information from third parties.
I would say that setting one’s self up as ABOVE THE LAW, is a strong instance of authoritarianism.
But, back to your point, he is not using the power that he has to remedy things. That, however is JUST one little example of his incompetence.
He is incompetent, first and foremost, because all of his motivations are first and foremost about him. (Narcisistic Character Disorder). That works out ok for the nation as long as what T rump perceives as good for him is good for all. But alas, that is often not the case.
He is also incompetent because he is just not bright enough to be POTUS. He lacks foresight. He cannot learn from mistakes (because he never admits a mistake). He has the medical and basic scientific knowledge of a child (though he truly seems to think he is a genius like his uncle).
He is incompetent, because his answer to most problems, is to blame others for them, or ignore them, or take credit for solving them when someone else deals with them, or to just create his own version of reality, and expect most people to believe it. (BTW, he has done all of these when it comes to the Coronavirus problem).
