Michael Bresciani
Report card: The Donald does not play well with other children
By Michael Bresciani
After watching Bill O'Reilly urging Donald Trump to be forgiving in a back-slapping, I've-known-you-since-eternity, we-both-give-money-to-causes fest, only one memory remains in the mind. It is a picture of a fuming, angry, petulant, almost pre-pubescent toddler-in-a-tantrum Donald Trump's scowling face.
He was the picture of the pouting child that the world will see as all America.
Fox News host O'Reilly nearly embarrassed himself on Wednesday, January 27, 2016, as he tried unsuccessfully to get Trump to reconsider his choice not to appear in the seventh Republican Debate.
When O'Reilly admonished Trump to consider the New Testament teaching on forgiveness, Trump fired back with the Old Testament call for "an eye for an eye." There is little doubt that Megyn Kelly, Roger Ailes, and perhaps even O'Reilly would have to live with one eye if the Donald had his way.
It was abundantly clear that Donald could not be swayed; he was going to pick up his marbles and go home so the other children would not be able to keep playing.
But the game went on without him. It became the first debate that wasn't about personalities. At last, Americans could actually hear and decide based on issues.
Trump plays like a bully, but this is real life, not an episode of the Apprentice; he cannot fire Megyn Kelly, Roger Ailes, Bill O'Reilly, or anyone in America he has deemed "stupid."
It is childishness on the one hand and a leaning toward authoritarian despotism on the other. Regardless of which view you take, it is unproductive at the least, and dangerous at the worst.
Recently, Trump dismissed the much respected brainchild of William F. Buckley, the National Review, as a has-been rag with a diminishing readership. The nation and its right-wing party has been collapsing, which makes right-wing journalism part of the collateral damage incurred by the decline, but this is likely beyond Trump's scope of understanding.
NRO's Andrew McCarthy said Trump is a "thin skinned tyrant" and is only a breath away from the authoritarian kind of oppressiveness of those would like to impose Sharia law on everyone.
McCarthy says, "Is Donald Trump the sharia of American politics? I'm having trouble finding much daylight between Islamic law's repressive blasphemy standards and the mogul's thin-skinned sense of privilege.
"None of us wants to be insulted or smeared. But sharia forbids not only ridicule or slander against Islam; it bans any examination that casts Islam in an unflattering light. Worse, truth is not a defense: Even if one's questions are based on undeniable past actions or verbatim quotes from scripture, tough questioning is considered blasphemous. Retribution, moreover, is often completely out of proportion to the scale of the perceived 'offense.'
"How is Trump different?"
The childishness and vulgar responses to people Mr. Trump uses against all those who oppose him are not the markings of a man, much less a great man. The question follows, how can a man who is not great make a nation great again?
Rather than an anti-Trump rant, I trust the wise will see this as a pro-wisdom plea for America to wise up, or at the very least – wake up.
Mr. Trump's people skills can be summarized by these two phrases, you're stupid and you're fired, but while his intentions may be good, we must never forget the adage:
"The road to hell is paved with good intentions"
America is much more than a business, and now the Donald can see it is much more than a reality show as well.
For the problem-child like Donald, teacher has some help for him to improve his grades.
To deal with his deficiency in people skills, he will be required to read Dale Carnegie's "How to Win Friends and Influence People" – from cover to cover.
For the problem of calling people stupid and other de-humanizing names, he will be required to go to his Bible and look up, and memorize, the following passage:
"But I say unto you, that every idle word that men shall speak, they shall give account thereof in the day of judgment. For by thy words thou shalt be justified, and by thy words thou shalt be condemned." (Mt 12: 36-37)
© Michael Bresciani
February 1, 2016
After watching Bill O'Reilly urging Donald Trump to be forgiving in a back-slapping, I've-known-you-since-eternity, we-both-give-money-to-causes fest, only one memory remains in the mind. It is a picture of a fuming, angry, petulant, almost pre-pubescent toddler-in-a-tantrum Donald Trump's scowling face.
He was the picture of the pouting child that the world will see as all America.
Fox News host O'Reilly nearly embarrassed himself on Wednesday, January 27, 2016, as he tried unsuccessfully to get Trump to reconsider his choice not to appear in the seventh Republican Debate.
When O'Reilly admonished Trump to consider the New Testament teaching on forgiveness, Trump fired back with the Old Testament call for "an eye for an eye." There is little doubt that Megyn Kelly, Roger Ailes, and perhaps even O'Reilly would have to live with one eye if the Donald had his way.
It was abundantly clear that Donald could not be swayed; he was going to pick up his marbles and go home so the other children would not be able to keep playing.
But the game went on without him. It became the first debate that wasn't about personalities. At last, Americans could actually hear and decide based on issues.
Trump plays like a bully, but this is real life, not an episode of the Apprentice; he cannot fire Megyn Kelly, Roger Ailes, Bill O'Reilly, or anyone in America he has deemed "stupid."
It is childishness on the one hand and a leaning toward authoritarian despotism on the other. Regardless of which view you take, it is unproductive at the least, and dangerous at the worst.
Recently, Trump dismissed the much respected brainchild of William F. Buckley, the National Review, as a has-been rag with a diminishing readership. The nation and its right-wing party has been collapsing, which makes right-wing journalism part of the collateral damage incurred by the decline, but this is likely beyond Trump's scope of understanding.
NRO's Andrew McCarthy said Trump is a "thin skinned tyrant" and is only a breath away from the authoritarian kind of oppressiveness of those would like to impose Sharia law on everyone.
McCarthy says, "Is Donald Trump the sharia of American politics? I'm having trouble finding much daylight between Islamic law's repressive blasphemy standards and the mogul's thin-skinned sense of privilege.
"None of us wants to be insulted or smeared. But sharia forbids not only ridicule or slander against Islam; it bans any examination that casts Islam in an unflattering light. Worse, truth is not a defense: Even if one's questions are based on undeniable past actions or verbatim quotes from scripture, tough questioning is considered blasphemous. Retribution, moreover, is often completely out of proportion to the scale of the perceived 'offense.'
"How is Trump different?"
The childishness and vulgar responses to people Mr. Trump uses against all those who oppose him are not the markings of a man, much less a great man. The question follows, how can a man who is not great make a nation great again?
Rather than an anti-Trump rant, I trust the wise will see this as a pro-wisdom plea for America to wise up, or at the very least – wake up.
Mr. Trump's people skills can be summarized by these two phrases, you're stupid and you're fired, but while his intentions may be good, we must never forget the adage:
"The road to hell is paved with good intentions"
America is much more than a business, and now the Donald can see it is much more than a reality show as well.
For the problem-child like Donald, teacher has some help for him to improve his grades.
To deal with his deficiency in people skills, he will be required to read Dale Carnegie's "How to Win Friends and Influence People" – from cover to cover.
For the problem of calling people stupid and other de-humanizing names, he will be required to go to his Bible and look up, and memorize, the following passage:
"But I say unto you, that every idle word that men shall speak, they shall give account thereof in the day of judgment. For by thy words thou shalt be justified, and by thy words thou shalt be condemned." (Mt 12: 36-37)
© Michael Bresciani
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