The Futility of Porcine Grappling.

I have complained on prior occasions about how politics has intrusively seeped into every aspect of our lives.    I have also written numerous times about how our President’s mouth overloads his better senses sometimes and he speaks when his silence would be preferable.  His recent trip to Alabama where he campaigned for his preferred Senatorial candidate offered up an opportunity for these two unpleasant tendencies to intersect; and they did. 

There is an old saying that you can’t wrestle with a pig without getting down into the slop yourself.  This point is well defined by President Trump’s interactions with many entities and individuals.  Emboldened by a receptive and enthusiastic crowd in a state that he carried with over sixty percent of the vote last November, the Donald reverted back to his old campaign form.  He was throwing caution to the wind, eschewing discretion for hyperbole, and throwing lots of red meat to his adoring supporters.  Among his many colorful comments, he visited the recent controversy surrounding the NFL and the national anthem protests that have occurred at many games.  As is the case with many of Trump’s forays into irresponsible rhetoric, the target of this particular rant in the person of NFL Commissioner Goodell has responded.  And like many prior Trumpian oratorical escapades, Goodell’s response took him down into the slop along with the pig.  Goodell is a clown whose tenure as Commissioner has featured such circus events as the Ray Rice abuse incident, the Tom Brady inflategate farce, and the ongoing drama surrounding Zeke Elliott in Dallas.  As a typical NFL sports fan, I have often marveled at how such a person of obvious professional ineptitude managed to keep a job as NFL Commissioner; that particular mystery remains open.   His willingness to serve as a dunce errand boy for the rich and pampered NFL owners, doing whatever and however they want, is apparently enough to keep him in his current position.  Suffice it to say that a man in Goodell’s position is not well served by an ongoing social media war with the President.

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And to expand that point, there is just as clearly no point to be served by the President engaging in a tweet storm with the NFL Commissioner.  Amid clear evidence that the majority of the public is sick and tired of having politics mixed in with their sports viewing (note declining NFL ratings and ESPN loss of viewership), it is equally clear that most folks would prefer that the President focus on his job description a bit more religiously and forget these little side incursions into “flavor of the month” episodes.  Just as there is no place in sports entertainment for politics; there is no room in politics for sports.  Nary should the twain meet. 

I suppose that none of us should be surprised that a man who was born with a silver spoon in his mouth, climbed the ladder of celebrity status to his high station in life, and then parlayed his status as a reality TV star into the Presidency of the United States should continue to exhibit the same type of personal behavior that led him to his most recent conquest.  The sad, sad truth is that when President Trump allows his lesser angels to influence his public behavior, he not only does an injustice to himself and his office, but he tends to draw his opposition down to the same level.  This pathetic truth has been evidenced by the professional and ethical bankruptcy being exhibited by the mainstream media in all things Trump, by the Democratic Party and their idiotic resistance movement, and by any number of reasonable individuals who have been driven to unreasonable fits of reaction by their total frustration with the Donald and his unique brand of schizophrenic behavior.  

As much as many of us may yearn for President Trump to mature and grow into the office of the Presidency, it becomes increasingly clear on a daily basis that there is little chance of that happening.  For all steps he takes forward like a strong UN speech or a sincere and compelling reaction to natural disasters, there comes an equal and opposite step backwards like the Alabama remarks.  As infuriating as it is to continually be forced to ferret through the President’s words to glean the few kernels of truth and wisdom that reside there, it is even more maddening to acknowledge that we will likely be spending the next three-to seven years doing just that.  Just as Obama lowered the ethical and democratic principles of the Presidency during his two terms in office, Trump is well on his way to lowering the civility of the office in an equal fashion. We are left clinging to the resignation that an imperfect Trump is clearly far superior to the abysmal Obama; that President “all over the board” Trump is absolutely preferable to the corrupt and slimy Hillary Clinton; and that based on his solid administrative appointments and the resiliency of our nation’s government, this nation will likely survive a Trump Presidency the same way it has survived similar presidents in the past.