I’ve read three books on President Trump: “Fear” and “Rage” by Bob Woodward and “The Room Where It Happened” by John Bolton. I do not need anyone to tell me about the shocking things this president has done; I’ve seen and heard enough on the radio, television, and social media to make my stomach ache and my hair stand up in anger. For the first time in my voting history, I believe we have the absolute worst man in the White House since the birth of our nation and the election of George Washington. It’s been said that all of us face adversity and rejection throughout our lives. Adversity makes us stronger if we are willing to learn from dark times. Rejection is not failure. The way we respond to rejection is what determines whether our lives are positive or negative, productive or unproductive, happy or sad. I believe the “real Donald Trump” has never dealt with either adversity or rejection, and that’s why he is not the man we need as a nation in our White House.
After three and a half years, I now believe we have an imposter in the White House, a man who cannot lead our nation because he was never taught how to be empathetic, caring, or positive about himself. Somewhere in his youth, someone beat him down so hard and so negatively that the only way he can relate to Americans at any level is by being sarcastic, rude, and vulgar. That’s not the kind of president we need in these turbulent times of COVID-19, racism, economic problems, divisiveness, and violence, either by brute force or uncaring words. We need someone who will put the needs of the nation first before his own selfish needs and desires. For a man to feel America cannot handle hard times is just plain ludicrous. We have come together before and we will do it again if we are being led by a real leader.
A real leader doesn’t take credit for decisions that were made by many people while he continues to berate anyone who disagrees with him. A real leader openly and without reservation gives credit to all of the team members. He does not highly praise a new team member on the onset of their duties and then when something goes wrong, throws that person to the wolves. He does not blame other people for his bad decisions. He works with experts in the military, science, and medical fields to help them do their extremely difficult jobs. He’s supposed to care for Americans, not put them down for wearing masks and doing social distancing. Any leader who feels he knows everything will sooner or later become a victim of his own lack of intelligence, integrity, trust, and kindness. We all want to be liked, or even loved, by the people we spend our lives with, at home, work, play, school, or church, but that should not be the basis for doing our jobs or making wise decisions.
In the president’s case, once he took the oath of office for the presidency, he was responsible for all our lives, not just his family. In much the same way as fathers are the heads of their families, he is the head of our nation’s citizens and their families. As much as I would like to call America, “One Nation Under God,” we are not acting like God’s children, rather like some lesser creature of little love or caring. A leader, a head of a family, is to train up his children in the ways of the Lord, not pour gasoline on everything we try to do for each other. Any man who so maliciously maligns and abuses his children should not be a father of a family or a leader of a mighty, yet stumbling, nation. By whatever name you call God, we should know that our president has God at the center of his own thoughts, words, deeds, and actions. This president has tried to place himself on God’s throne, and I, for one, have only one God, my Heavenly Father.
We are a nation that is grieving in so many ways, but when we pull together in times of joy and times of crisis, we can do everything we set our hearts, minds, and hands to do. I believe the highest compliment a president can receive is that he or she saw us through the good times with joyful positivity, through the bad times with graceful compassion, and leads us through to a glorious future as a nation with integrity, strength, courage, compassion, and an unfailing desire to preserve, protect, and defend the United States of America, e pluribus unum (“out of many, one”) and with the cross of Jesus Christ in every man’s heart.
Anna Hartt
