• by George Simpson , Featured Contributor, March 22, 2018

Whenever a professional athlete or a movie star does something aberrant, there is a (temporary) debate about the signals their behavior sends to children (and perhaps some adults) to whom they are role models. "Be like Mike" was not just a meme, it was a goal for millions of kids who played basketball.

Usually the offending jocks and celebs try to ameliorate the damage to their images by reminding everyone they are "just human" and did not set out to be role models -- that the media cast them in this light. For the moment, they conveniently forget that it's the media that built their audience, gave them leverage to negotiate and put them in a position to get sponsorships or endorsement deals. Live by the sword -- so to speak.

Which brings us to that immoral, crass and probably criminal insect that occupies the White House (for now). Every administration in history has leveraged its power with the media to help sell its agenda, lobby the public and Congress, and float ideas to see how voters might react. The current moron-in-chief thinks he can circumvent the mainstream media with his little Twitter account, but if the media chose not to amplify his tweets with coverage, he would be largely shouting into a void.

But just as with jocks and celebs, media coverage can cut both ways, launching the role-model debate at any minute.

I am glad my children are not young enough that I have to explain to them what an affair with a porn star or a Playboy model does to a marriage, and what kind of example it sets for the rest of the country. They are old enough to be disgusted on their own.

Pointing to Bill Clinton or Jack Kennedy's indiscretions does not in any way absolve the current President -- who, unlike his predecessors, went to great lengths to try and bribe away any potential revelations about his affairs. Perhaps the only amusing development is his attempt to try and collect $20 million for violation of an agreement he claims never to have made in the first place -- because, after all, the affairs were "fake news."

It's clear by now that Vladimir Putin's only friend in the entire world has absolutely no moral compass. He is an utterly shameless and self-centered opportunist who thinks only about how he can game the world to advance his own interests. He has neither the intellectual capacity nor sense of morality required of a person in that high office.

For those who credit him with the run up in the stock market and general improvement in the U.S. economy, I would ask that you take a slightly longer view and acknowledge that his every action will do more harm to this country, more than offsetting these temporary gains. He is not saving the coal and steel industries, he is not ending the opioid crisis, he has not drained the swamp (only added in folks who can't effectively operate there), he will never "build the wall" and will undoubtedly go down as the most incompetent (and immoral) President in the history of this nation. 

Robert Mueller cannot act fast enough.