Normally I don’t discuss politics here, and I didn’t watch last night’s Presidential Debate. I usually don’t watch speeches, either. I monitor a half-dozen news feeds, and I figure if anything important happens, I’ll learn about it that way. But what these news sources have told me today has caused an assessment of our current presidential situation.
I remember the book All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten by Robert Fulghum. I have never read the entire book, but I’ve read enough of it, and am old enough, to glean its wisdom. (Apparently other people have too. Its original copyright is 1986 and it’s still in print.)
So what’s so important about kindergarten? That’s where you learn the basics of good behavior. Fulghum presents a list, which includes these elements —
Share everything.
Play fair.
Don’t hit people.
Put things back where you found them.
Clean up your own mess.
Don’t take things that aren’t yours.
Say you’re sorry when you hurt someone.
Based on this list, I think I see the current problem — Donald Trump has never passed kindergarten.
All the signs are there — the interruptions, the aggressiveness, the business setbacks, the (what’s a polite way to say this?) failure to fact-check. Simply put, some part of his education has to be missing from his formative years. And I think that’s the most important part. Maybe that’s the part that keeps the rest of us from running for public office?
So for the future debates, this is the question I would like to see answered — Forget the intelligence tests, the drug tests, can Donald Trump color within the lines?