What happened to basic human decency?

We’ve learned a lot about Donald Trump through his own words and behavior and reliable reports from others. Almost all of this has been confirmed by public record, his own words, his associates and/or psychologists and none truly debunked. He is a sexual predator, self-avowed sexual assaulter, warmonger (also likely draft dodger), non-taxpayer, constitutional illiterate, demagogue, misogynist, compulsive liar, narcissistic sociopath, hypersensitive whiner, conman, racist, bully, adulterer, mocker, nepotist, business cheat, autocrat, phony, niggard, scientific reality denier and more. He has shown himself consistently to be a vindictive, mean, arrogant, reactionary, insecure, humorless, delusional, childish, cartoonish egotist apparently innocent of any real human compassion or empathy. All of this is explained by his insatiable personal greed, the only value he understands. His only ideology is self-glorification at the expense of civil discourse, social stability, rule of law and anything else that disturbs his egomania. What this says about a sitting American president is alarming. But more so is what it says about the almost 63 million Americans who elected him when most of this information was already known. It suggests that they have no ethical problem with this. To what level of brutish coarseness, then, have so many fallen? To what degree is confrontainment — reality television, polemic talk radio and cable news, and internet disinformation responsible for this? What happened to common human purpose and understanding? What happened to basic human decency? And what can you and I do about it?

This story was originally published November 7, 2017 at 12:29 AM with the headline "What happened to basic human decency?."