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March 23, 2020

Too Small for the Job

I was not a fan of 'W' as President. However, when tested by something few other world leaders or Presidents had to deal with during their tenure, he rose to the occasion and acted presidentially. He offered sober direction, provided leadership to *all* Americans, and swallowed his partisan leanings in favor of the common good as we rebuilt and came together after 9/11. He did, eventually, show his stripes when he fabricated a war with the middle east when none was warranted, but during the 9/11 crisis, he provided leadership and guidance.
45 has also been called to serve with an equally serious and testing event. His response so far has been to deflect, lie, and blame others. He specifically takes no responsibility for anything that has happened on his watch. The buck does NOT stop with him, but with some underling below him or somehow with a President that hasn't been in office in over 3 years and who specifically set up an organization to deal with just this sort of crisis, which 45 dismantled/fired.
Rather than calming words of succor for all Americans, his sense of leadership is to save the rich and the corporations and let the average American die. He has dragged his feet and looked for the chances to enrich himself. His petty grudges with individual state leadership have led him to act in vicious, dangerous ways that further harms the average American. It is hard not to come to the conclusion that he *wants* this pandemic to spread and kill as many people as possible, especially as it is strongly in those states he can't carry come November.
Even when other world leaders have been dealing with the same issue and shown what needs to be done to resolve it in the best and fastest ways possible, 45 has refused to follow that example. It is like he can't act presidentially even when shown a blueprint for success. He doesn't understand empathy, doesn't get the nuances of job, and can only understand fear, anger, and happiness. Which is probably why he likes authoritarian dictators so much; they use the emotions he understands in ways he understands them to lead. To him, they are good leaders because he can understand them. He doesn't get more subtle uses of power, moral leadership, doing what is right even when it is harder or he has less to gain from it.
All leaders are tasked with something big during their tenure. Most rise to the occasion. Some keep an even keel. And a few fail. Poor, overwhelmed Trump has proven incapable of leadership on his best days. Now that a true crisis has called on him to act, he has proven too small for the job.

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