Obama, a model of dignified presidential behavior (just like *nearly* all of his predecessors, Democratic & Republican), understood viscerally the importance of self-restraint & adherence to long-established norms. Which is why he was so troubled by #Trump’s decadent performance. “You can stand in front of tens of thousands of teenage boys & encourage them to be good citizens & be helpful to their mothers,” Obama said, “or you can go Lord of the Flies. He went Lord of the Flies.”

#AntiAmerican

This #Jan6 plaque was made to honor law enforcement. It's nowhere to be found at the #Capitol

The official plaque honoring the #police who defended #democracy that day is nowhere to be found.

It’s not on display at the Capitol, as is required by #law. Its whereabouts aren’t publicly known, though it’s believed to be in storage.

#NeverForget #insurrection #PoliticalViolence #Trump #coup #AntiAmerican #law #Constitution #PeacefulTransitionOfPower
https://apnews.com/article/capitol-riot-jan-6-anniversary-police-plaque-f6fd39b437c339fa9ff477318a7d36e2

This #Jan6 plaque was made to honor law enforcement. It's nowhere to be found at the #Capitol

The official plaque honoring the #police who defended #democracy that day is nowhere to be found.

It’s not on display at the Capitol, as is required by #law. Its whereabouts aren’t publicly known, though it’s believed to be in storage.

#NeverForget #insurrection #PoliticalViolence #Trump #coup #AntiAmerican #law #Constitution #PeacefulTransitionOfPower
https://apnews.com/article/capitol-riot-jan-6-anniversary-police-plaque-f6fd39b437c339fa9ff477318a7d36e2

&, in particular, police officers who were brutalized by Trump’s army of deluded followers—these days can seem infernal. Trump’s term is one-quarter over; a piece of advice often attributed to Churchill has it best: When you’re going through hell, keep going.

#Jan6 #NeverForget #insurrection #PoliticalViolence #Trump #coup #AntiAmerican #democracy #law #Constitution #PeacefulTransitionOfPower

We are in a long Lord of the Flies moment, led by a man who, to borrow from Psalm 10, possesses a mouth “full of cursing & deceit & fraud.” For many people—government scientists seeking cures for diseases; FBI agents investigating corruption & terrorism; military leaders trying to preserve respect for the rules of warfare;

#Jan6 #NeverForget #insurrection #PoliticalViolence #Trump #coup #AntiAmerican #democracy #law #Constitution #PeacefulTransitionOfPower

Obama, a model of dignified presidential behavior (just like *nearly* all of his predecessors, Democratic & Republican), understood viscerally the importance of self-restraint & adherence to long-established norms. Which is why he was so troubled by #Trump’s decadent performance. “You can stand in front of tens of thousands of teenage boys & encourage them to be good citizens & be helpful to their mothers,” Obama said, “or you can go Lord of the Flies. He went Lord of the Flies.”

#AntiAmerican

Somewhat to my surprise, Obama mentioned Trump’s speech at the Boy Scouts’ National Jamboree earlier that year. This appearance has been largely forgotten, but it was a festival of #indecency. At one point, #Trump told the scouts about a wealthy friend of his who, he suggested, did unmentionable things on his yacht.

#AntiAmerican #democracy #law #Constitution #NeverForget #Epstein

“We have slowly adjusted to this entirely new culture from the top, perhaps in the hope that it will somehow be sated soon—but then new indecencies happen,” Sullivan wrote.

The subject of #Trump’s #indecency came up in a conversation I had with Barack Obama in 2017. I asked him to name the most norm-defying act of his successor to date.

#AntiAmerican #democracy #law #Constitution #NeverForget

“It is one thing to find & arrest illegal #immigrants; it is #indecent to mock & ridicule them, & send them with no #DueProcess to a foreign gulag where #torture is routine. It is one thing to enforce #immigration laws; it is another to use masked, anonymous men to do it. It is one thing to cut foreign #aid; it is simply indecent to do so abruptly & irrationally so that tens of thousands of #children will needlessly die,” Sullivan continued.

#Trump #AntiAmerican #democracy #law #Constitution

In an important essay, Andrew Sullivan noted this past fall that #Trump’s #indecency is comprehensive in style and substance. “It is one thing to be a realist in foreign policy, to accept the morally ambiguous in an immoral world; it is simply indecent to treat a country, #Ukraine, invaded by another, #Russia, as the actual aggressor & force it to accept a settlement on the invader’s terms,” Sullivan wrote.

https://andrewsullivan.substack.com/p/the-question-of-decency-bc2

#Jan6 #Trump #AntiAmerican #law #democracy #Constitution

For reasons that are quite possibly too unbearable to contemplate, a large group of American voters was not repulsed by such slander—they were actually aroused by it—& our #politics have not been the same. Much has been said, including by me, about Trump’s #narcissism, his #autocratic inclinations, his disconnection from #reality, but not nearly enough has been said about his fundamental #indecency, the characteristic that undergirds everything he says & does.

#Jan6 #Trump #AntiAmerican #law