Donald Trump and the Purveyors of Civility

By Steve McCann August 28, 2018

With the election of Donald Trump as president, the words "civility" and "character" have become among the most overused terms in current political discourse. According to his adversaries, Trump grotesquely lacks these attributes. However, over the past 30 years, the necessity of possessing and living by these traits has been limited to the Republican Party or conservatives in general. The Democrats and the American left are exempt from this requirement.

If Donald Trump had run for president and won as the nominee of the Democratic Party, his lack of character and rampant incivility would not be an issue, and in fact, those mannerisms would be praised as revealing a tenacious and determined personality.

How did this absurd double standard evolve? It began in 1988 with the election of George H.W. Bush. He won not on his own merits, but almost solely because he was the beneficiary of being the vice president during the two terms of Ronald Reagan – in many ways the most successful and popular president of the twentieth century............The time for civility is over until the opposition either is defeated on the field of ideas and the ballot box or begins to behave as a civilized entity............ Read more