BY BOB BEARDEN
The Electoral College electors have spoken and it is now official – The Donald will be the 45th president of the United States come Jan. 20. Not my choice, but president no less.
I will respect the office, but not necessarily the man holding it. He has to earn that. The GOP totally disrespected our current president for no other reason than they hated the fact that he was half black. I see no reason to treat our incoming president with respect he isn’t due.
Just because he was able to convince a lot of people that he was just a guy talking locker room talk about groping women doesn’t mean I must respect him on face value. He is my president, but he needs to earn my respect. And he won’t do that at the rate he is now going!
I respect honesty and he hasn’t offered any to me or the citizens of this nation.
His choices of cabinet members for his administration does not show that he has any respect for the 68 million people who voted for Hillary in the election. They, in fact, show just the opposite – that he has absolutely no respect for the office he has been elected to, nor to the people of this nation, nor the more than half who voted not to elect him president.
He cannot bind this nation together by taking his thin margin of victory in the Electoral College as a landslide mandate to govern as he pleases. He has not by any stretch of the imagination renounced his ties to the white supremist movement nor to supporters of the ilk of David Duke, former Grand Dragon of the Klu Klux Klan. In fact, he has appointed a member the alt-right [code for white supremist] to his inner circle of close advisors.
This is a very diverse nation and the path he appears to be taking does not appear to be a path to bind our nation into a nation where diversity is celebrated, but one where it is given one slap in the face after another.
If George W. Bush was the Decider, Trump appears to eschew the title of the Divider. The steps he is taking show that he is moving towards policies that will further divide our nation along racial lines. And that cannot be a good thing.
Yes, to echo the words of John Wayne, when John F. Kennedy was elected president in 1960, “I didn’t vote for him but he is my president!” No, I didn’t vote for The Donald, but now it’s official he will be my president. But to really be my president, he will have to earn my respect and, so far, that doesn’t look likely.
We need healing and someone who will respect all viewpoints and seek to put people in key positions that will make every effort to work with both sides of the aisle to end the deadlock of government brought on by members of the Grand Old Party of Lincoln. We are not seeing that coming to fruition with the appalling appointments so far being made by the incoming 45th president of the United States.
The government of the United States of America is not a prime-time reality show. We need a leader, not a reality show impresario. The world of diplomacy does not work as a reality show. And a president can’t govern effectively by tweeting his piques whenever his ego gets bruised!
– Bob Bearden is a trustee of the Central Labor Federation and a member of Mayflower Congregational Church UCC in Oklahoma City
