Is Trump evil? Does Trump-Bashing Dishonor America?
On Facebook, someone said, about “Trump bashing”: “It’s our America. When you put down our President, you dishonor our country.. Stand behind our elected leader. What you are doing is un-American. In some countries, it would be treason.
Did Obama-Bashing Dishonor America?
I replied: When Republicans put down Obama, it seemed to me that they dishonored our country. They dishonored America for years. Fox News and Breitbart, the champions of fake news, dishonest media, lies and distortions, they dishonored America, too. A king of sin, Breitbart executive Stephen Bannon is Trump’s chief strategist.
The devil shames people into standing behind an evil leader. You seem to be doing that, too. In some countries it would be considered treason. But in most, opposing evil is heroic and virtuous.”
Is Trump Evil?
A third person replied: “Well said. But labeling Trump as “evil” seems a bit much, don’t you think?”
What IS evil? Was Bush evil?
Then Bush lied to get us into war with Iraq. The naive decision to fire the Iraqi police and army plunged Iraq into civil war. It killed, injured and displaced millions. Arresting and torturing Iraqis sprouted the seeds of ISIS and created willing followers. Bush spent trillions of US dollars on a dishonest war and destabilized the Middle East.
Some people in his administration saw the seeds of the financial collapse. Bush put almost no energy into it.
Was Bush the Devil? No. Did he intend to do evil? He intended to lie. Bush chose to empower idiots and not seek wise council. He chose pride, to trust himself and his cohorts. He practiced presumptuousness, like “Mission Accomplished” instead of humility.
His actions brought a lot of evil in the world. Did he want those results? I’m sure not. Is he responsible for all that evil? In a real sense, he was evil’s pawn.
Is Trump Evil?
What about Trump? He doesn’t value his word, or truth. When asked about his promises, he shows no accountability. He has no problem making promises and breaking them. He doesn’t remember his word, much less honor it. His words are full of the utmost pride. He dismissed everything US intelligence said about Russia. In his boastful arrogance, he grudgingly admitted that maybe Russia did try, but they didn’t effect the result. He pretends to know– that’s pride. Pride is usually recognized as the worst of the seven deadly sins.
Plus there’s his greed- his willingness to violate agreements, defraud people and sue them. From his win/loss record, there’s no evidence that he has decent judgement or concern about the merits of a case. He seems naive about kindness, even ignorant. Niceness or civility only appear when it’s good for his publicity. He seems to have no respect for the best practices either of a president or of American government. Not revealing his taxes is dishonest. Having his vast network of conflicts of interest is simply wrong and bad- it’s an invitation for corruption. These are many vices balanced by a thorough lack of virtue.
He’s rich. If he was ethical, he’d sell all his holdings and perhaps buy out the co-owners of Trump Tower. He’d put the rest in a blind trust and make America is first and only responsibility. That’s what a good person would do.
Look at his level of truth-telling in the campaign. He’s completely wedded to “the ends justify the means.” A good person would be committed to ethics as well as good results. That’s not Trump.
Trump may well want wonderful things for America. But he’s not on track to deliver them. Is Trump evil? He’s on track to serve evil.
(Quotes from Facebook were edited for readability.)