“Everyone who does not agree with me is a traitor and a scoundrel.” One wonders about a leader who utters these words. Is he mad? Dangerous? It’s not a matter of left or right.
We all watch as our president viciously attacks those who once gave him their support. Their crime? Principled disobedience to him. We watch our elected leaders’ ongoing failure to even understand the Constitution and its eloquently conceived protections preventing the abuse of his power. And then recently I watched the embarrassing, self-aggrandizing spectacle as he blustered and bragged in front thousands of young Boy Scouts, not sensing at all how inappropriate his actions were (a leader for the Scouts later apologized for him).
Our president never actually said, “Everyone who does not agree with me is a traitor and a scoundrel.” But he is living that unfortunate sentiment. Those words were uttered long ago by another world leader who came to be known as the “Mad King,” George III.
One wonders what the Mad King might have said with access to a Twitter account. Or maybe we need not wonder at all.
Mark Petersen
Park City