Of PRESIDENTS, JANITORS, and SHOESHINERS
Background: Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D) asks President Trump to resign over sexual assault allegations. Trump tweets back calling the Senator lightweight, who would come to his office begging for campaign contributions and would do anything for them.
The USA Today editorial board responded by an Op-ed titled “Will Trump’s lows ever hit rock bottom.” It reads that a president who’d all but call a senator a whore is unfit to clean toilets in Obama’s presidential library or to shine George W. Bush’s shoes. It goes on to call Trump uniquely awful and his behavior sickening.
Having read this, my dear friends, Mr. Janitor and Mr. Shoeshiner came running. They had comments and questions, and I did not have the answers. Here is a part of the conversation.
Both asked me how they should feel after reading this Op-ed?
They asked about the Presidency, does the Op-ed belittle that office?
Now with their profession, both of them handle and deal with mud. They wanted me to say that the problem with mudslinging is that by its sheer nature it tends to make all playing with it dirty. They were confused with the fact that when the mudslinger in chief is the President of the country for how long and how much can a population take without responding in the kind and if there is a better way to respond to all this?
Both my friends and I are first-generation immigrants and brown. They seemed worried that the most significant casualty of all this was common decency. On the funny side, they wanted to know if it is alright for brown men, first-generation immigrants, two Mexicans and a Muslim, to intercede in a fight between a powerful White Man and powerful White Woman?
Their last comment took me by surprise. Mr. Janitor asked that when President Trump said during the campaign that he could shoot someone and not lose any votes if he actually meant that?
Mr. Shoeshiner added if there was one good word to hold the office of the President in respect and still describe what Trump is putting the Majority Americans and this World through. He then came up with his word. Weird. He added “Weirdo” sounds insulting to the office. We all had a laugh at that.
In my mind, I am saying, yes very very weird, though that is four words already.
Footnote: this is a work of fiction and satire.