The verdict is in; Trump should've been in 4-H
Win without bragging and lose without squealing. -- 4-H Motto
Pity poor Donald Trump. No spring chicken himself, he's lived 77 years and never learned the time-honored value of "Win without bragging and lose without squealing" that shaped the character of generations of 4-H club members in this county and all across the USA.
Whenever he speaks, he demonstrates unwareness of the building blocks of good character which have made our nation great. This was especially on display last Thursday when a jury of his peers in New York City, by a unanimous 12-person vote, found him guilty of 34 felonies for falsifying business records just days before the 2016 presidential election to conceal payments to a porn actress and a Playboy model with whom he had affairs.
Instead of expressing remorse or regret for behaviors which led to that momentous moment – the only time a former president has been convicted of a crime – he lashed out at the judge, the jury, the witnesses and the justice system in the state of New York, claiming the trial was "rigged," "a witch hunt," and declaring them corrupt. He called the judge "the devil" and hurled insults at members of his family.
Imagine how a 4-H club member would be judged if he/she, in a moment of defeat or disappointment, attempted any of these!
In campaign rallies, a favorite line of Trump, the presumptive Republican Party nominee for president in 2024 who likes to play the victim despite having been born with a golden spoon, is, "If they can do this to me, they can do this to you!" YES, and they SHOULD do it to me or you or anybody who falsifies documents to conceal a crime.
Sowing distrust
Sadly, the undertone of Trump's pronouncements is to sow distrust in our system of justice, which is foundational to democracy, and that includes business and industry. Did you know that the integrity of courts is part of the decision-making process when investors choose where to move their money? They want courts that will render fair and unbiased verdicts.
Yet, Trump has promised, if elected, to dismantle the FBI and U.S. Department of Justice, just as he has made repeated threats about elections, claiming them valid only if he wins and "rigged" if he loses. Calling the news media (that's me and my colleagues) "the enemy of the Amrican people," and undermining faith in our justice system and electoral processes have thus far been winning cards for Trump in his bid to win back the White House, but it's a prescription for disaster the next time you or I or "the least among us" need to know our vote is counted accurately or that we can get a fair shake in a court of law.
A better way
Republicans can do better. At the precinct causus for Eldridge 2 back in January, one attendee, supporting a candidate other than Trump, called the former president "a bombastic ass." He said it OUT LOUD and there was not a big reaction, just a muffled chuckle.
At that caucus, Trump got 47 percent of the votes, which was not a majority, thanks in part to people like me who showed up to cast a vote for Nikki Haley. If the Republican pooh-bahs should decide they don't want a 34-time convicted felon at the top of their ticket come November, the nomination of Haley would almost assure the GOP of victory.
But that does not appear to be the Republican Party today, a party which has surrended its soul to Trump, now a 34-time convicted felon. The voices of leaders not afraid to speak truth to power such as Liz Cheney, Mitt Romney, Adam Kinzinger and Chris Christie nationally, and our former Congressman Jim Nussle and former Scott County Republican chair David Millage locally, have been rendered irrelevant – but in my view, history will remember them well.
The conservative syndicated columnist George Will, writing in The Washington Post on March 29, said, "The nation no longer has a reliably conservative party of sound ideas and good manners."
Yes, manners. Trump and his minions, who are afraid for their futures if they stand up to him, could take a tip from 4-H: "Win without bragging and lose without squealing."
And the people said, Amen!
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