Michael Cohen plea

[Bengalzona]

(08-22-2018, 09:27 AM)Belsnickel Wrote: We have a society that wants to pretend out political leaders are moral authorities. I don't know why, to be honest, as that is something that comes with the divine right to rule territory. We put founding fathers on pedestals, thinking them to be of the highest moral character, but they were men and they were fallible, just as the political leaders are today.

If anything, what the Trump presidency shows is that there are a number of unwritten norms that have existed in Washington that act as the glue that holds the institutions together. Slowly, but surely, these norms have been facing an erosion. Trump is merely the product of this, not the cause. This isn't to say that Trump has not done anything wrong or criminal, just that decades of bullshit have brought us to this place. What befuddles us about Trump is that his wrongdoings are public, not in secret. We're not used to that. We're used to digging to find some secret wrongdoing but Trump's activity is all out in the open and we can't handle this very well. He has no shame.

We have no shame. After all, he is OUR President.

I am held to a high standard of conduct by society. There are a lot of things that contribute to that (age, marital status, occupation, being a parent, etc.). Some of those standards are societal norms. Some are regulated by the various levels of government and/or professional organizations. Be that as it may, if my conduct breaks those standards then I am held to account. There are consequences. Try as I may, most of those consequences are not avoidable. And some have no consideration for mitigating circumstances.

I am by no means unique in this. In fact, almost everyone I know is in the same circumstance. And most of us make do with our daily existence and try to meet those standards of conduct as best we can because we don't want the consequences (or also because some of us also recognize and respect the need for those standards of conduct).

I do not believe it is unreasonable to require a higher standard of conduct by our elected officials. When I was an officer in the Army, we had a pretty darn high standard of conduct. We were public employees. We were "your tax dollars at work". When we were TDY somewhere, we were not supposed to wear a t-shirt with any slogans or pictures on them so that we did not misrepresent the Army or the government. God forbid that you got caught having an affair or wrote a bad check as an active duty officer. There were severe consequences. These are just a few examples of the many regulations we had. So, if an Army officer is held to such standards, why wouldn't elected officials be held to the same or even higher standards? And of all elected officials, shouldn't the President, our leader and representative to the world, be held to the highest standards?

No, Clinton's low standards do not excuse Trump's even lower standards. This is not a contest to reach the bottom. And a society which claims to have high standards but refuses to follow through on consequences is the equivalent of a society that hands out "participation trophies".