Imperial Gentleman

My mother once told me a gentleman or lady never insults anyone unintentionally. At first I thought she misspoke, and meant to say "intentionally". I was very young.

She patiently explained what she meant, and I never forgot the lesson: Being a gentleman or lady does not meant you are always nice or always polite. It means you never insult or offend anyone because you "don't know any better".

It's not about good manners, pleasant as they are. It's about social awareness, empathy, kindness...and humility. And, it's about knowing when it's appropriate to cut someone to ribbons—intentionally.

A rather more subtle instruction than the typical concept of "acting like a lady". My mother was very smart.

George W. Bush, with his down-home ways, and friendly familiarity, and his manly physicality...like jumping to the defense of his body guard (remember that?) and smoothly dodging thrown shoes, and riding horses, clearing brush, wearing a cowboy hat & boots, and not speaking like a mandarin...never gave you the idea that he was better than you, or reminded you that he was the most powerful man in the world, even as the actual power of the office he occupied increased during his tenure.

He filled the office. But he never flaunted it. He was rich, well-educated, funny, skillful (you try to fly that plane), down-to-earth, had the "common touch", was genuine. Good Breeding.

As a result, I didn't notice that the Presidency has become Imperial. He did not have the bad breeding and the bad taste to act imperial.

The current occupant of the Oval Office, unfortunately, is a "flaunter". And he's managed to (unintentionally, one assumes) offend several countries, and insult most business owners, everyone who works on Wall Street, bankers, CEOs, taxpayers, people who follow the rules, tens of millions Rush Limbaugh listeners, free-market capitalists, conservatives, Christians, Republicans, and gun owners. Not an easy feat in five weeks even for someone as ambitious as he.

With his demagogic narcissism, obvious his self-regard, condescension, disregard of or inability to feel empathy, his shallow, superficial courtesy, and perhaps most telling of all, he and his woman's conspicuous consumption, one must conclude he is not the product of good breeding, but rather quite the opposite. He is no gentleman. He is the perfect caricature of the worst traits of the ugliest parody of a snobby aristocrat as he might be dramatized by a member of the French Revolution.

This is not a good thing. And thus, the enormity of an Imperial Presidency is thrown into all too evident and horrifying relief.

We need to get that office pared down to size pretty damn quick.

The Gunslinger