Who comes to mind when we think about role models? Parents, teachers, coaches, bosses, police officers, firefighters, soldiers, doctors, nurses — even celebrities and sports stars can serve as role models.
Unfortunately, we all know stories of how these tradition role models also provide negative examples. Sometimes it’s hard to tell who we can trust to guide future generations.
What about politicians?
Our “public servants” should inspire us. Some do. Barack Obama remains a voice of reason, pillar of personal integrity, and an exemplary husband and father. U.S. Sen. Tammy Duckworth is a true hero who lost her legs in the Iraq War, and now she continues to serve in Congress while pregnant with her second child just weeks before turning 50. Here at home, U.S. Rep. Jim McGovern inspires with his passion, energy, and humor despite our difficult political times.
Unfortunately, most politicians aren’t highly regarded as role models. For every Obama, Duckworth and McGovern, we can all name plenty more who betray the public trust. Some behave so egregiously in and out of office that the public roundly condemns them. Yet some of the worst get an inexplicable “mulligan” for their bad acts.
Case in point: A recent Quinnipiac University poll revealed that 72 percent of Republicans believe Donald Trump is a good role model for children. That’s deeply disturbing. I didn’t think 72 individual human beings would consider Trump a good role model, let alone millions of Republicans.
Fortunately, the poll indicates sanity outside the Republican Party — 99 percent of Democrats and 71 percent of independents said that Trump isn’t a good role model. So what happened to the GOP?
Republicans used to be the anti-Hollywood party but now swoon for a reality TV host. They used to be the “bootstraps” party but now revere someone born with a full set of golden cutlery. They used to tout law-and-order but are now accomplices to a con artist openly trying to undermine the law-enforcement professionals investigating him for collusion and obstruction of justice. They used to preach “family values” but now embrace a philandering harasser.
Republicans praise Trump’s alleged leadership skills, but he can’t even avoid a government shutdown with his own party controlling Congress. They parrot Trump’s pseudo-patriotic nationalism while ignoring how he twitches to Putin’s puppet strings. They call Trump the ultimate winner even though he lost the popular vote by millions.
Meanwhile, Trump bears no resemblance to true role models.
Who would hire Trump as a grade-school teacher? Linguists have analyzed his speeches and found fourth-grade-level language development, but speaking down to children (or adults) isn’t a virtue. And Trump’s self-confessed aversion to reading wouldn’t make him much of a role model for doing homework.
Who would trust Trump to chaperone a prom? He has frequently spoken in sexualized terms about young women (including his own daughter). He entered the dressing room for Miss Teen USA contestants while girls as young as 15 were changing clothes. And he has said of girls as young as 10 that he’d be dating them in a few years.
Who would want Trump to speak at a Boy Scout meeting? Oh, wait. Someone did. At the 2017 Boy Scout jamboree, Trump ignored the organizers’ instructions not to politicize his comments as he bragged about his election win, criticized Obama, swore, and referenced “the hottest people” at a cocktail party he attended. The head of the Boy Scouts had to issue an apology for the president’s behavior a few days later.
Who would send a young person considering military enlistment to Trump? Trump weaseled five deferments for heel spurs to avoid service in Vietnam — although he continued to play sports at the time. He has called his youthful exploits with multiple sex partners “my personal Vietnam” that made him a “brave soldier.” When recently asked which heel had the spur, Trump couldn’t remember.
Who would tell a friend to ask Trump for marital advice? Well, can you say “porn star”? How about “py grabber”? Do Republicans know that those incidents happened shortly before and shortly after Trump’s current wife Melania gave birth to their child? Enough said on that subject.
Who would recommend that youngsters follow Trump on social media? His infamous Twitter feed is like a handbook for cyberbullying, complete with threats, mindless insults, and retweets of hate groups and white supremacists. Perhaps Melania’s invisible anti-bullying initiative is just brilliant trolling to embarrass her horrible husband.
Who would extol Trump as a “cannot tell a lie” example of presidential honesty? His whole campaign was based on the lie that he’s qualified for office. He rose to political prominence behind the racist “birther” lie about Obama and has since told thousands of documented falsehoods. He lies equally about inconsequential trifles and life-and-death issues.
During his recent State of the Union Address, the fact-checking website PolitiFact.com literally crashed as millions of people monitored his dishonesty.
Who would want Trump as a boss? Most people don’t enjoy working for someone who outsources production to other countries, has multiple business bankruptcies, stiffs his employees and contractors, was fined for discriminatory business practices, and has been sued thousands of times.
His television signature was arrogantly grunting, “You’re fired!” Trump may fancy himself “America’s CEO,” but he’s the textbook definition of a toxic boss.
Overall, anyone who thinks Trump is a positive role model has clearly lost touch with reality. Only Republicans still fawn over Trump. The rest of us are looking toward a real role model, Robert Mueller, to cancel this failing reality show.
John Sheirer is an author and teacher who lives in Florence. His most recent book is “Donald Trump’s Top Secret Concession Speech.” Find him at JohnSheirer.com.