I’m not a psychologist.  I took one or two general classes on the subject during my undergrad years.  So I don’t know the proper diagnosis, the scientific name, or the proper designation for what ails President Trump.  Some say malignant narcissism.  Some say an inferiority complex.  Some say a simple lack of maturity, or a dangerous cocktail of many of those conditions.  Again, I’ll leave the professional diagnosis for those who know better.

But I am a student and teacher of history.  Though my fascination has admittedly waned in recent years, I used to be thoroughly enamored with the American presidency – the officeholders as well as the mystique of the office itself.  And I know that every president has had his peculiarities and quirks.  I know that some have been mean-spirited, some paranoid and vengeful, and some men of disrepute.  And some, like Andrew Jackson, managed to embody all of those things.

But I think we are kidding ourselves, particularly on the right, if we don’t acknowledge that there is something off about President Trump.  I don’t care how much you want to applaud his bluntness, praise his willingness to “fight,” or laugh at his antics.  At some point shouldn’t people of good character refuse to pretend that it is normal for the sitting president to say this a couple days before the 75^th anniversary of the D-Day landings:

Washed up psycho @BetteMidler was forced to apologize for a statement she attributed to me that turned out to be totally fabricated by her in order to make “your great president” look really bad. She got caught, just like the Fake News Media gets caught. A sick scammer!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 5, 2019

Or this a couple days after the 75^th anniversary of those landings:

....other than to know he was, and is, a total Loser. When he makes statements about me, they are made up, he knows nothing!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 9, 2019

This is not normal behavior for a sitting president.  Not in any way.  Listen, I don’t have any use for either Donny or Bette.  I don’t agree with their politics, I have always been confused at their relative popularity and celebrity status, and don’t doubt for a second that they were unfairly criticizing the president before he retaliated on Twitter.

But none of that justifies the President of the United States of America using his unrivaled platform and bully pulpit to…well…bully American citizens who may disagree with him.  When has that ever been okay?  I am firmly of the belief that President Obama stoked an immense amount of division needlessly during his time in office, and have even written recently that our only hope of unity in this country requires that he go away.

But President Obama was not rage-tweeting in the wee hours of the morning, calling his critics “total losers” and “washed up psychos” from his official platform.  If he had, the right would have rightly condemned him for violating decency norms and the standard expectations of dignity for those holding the office of President.  It disappoints me beyond words to see so many of those same folks actually enjoying and applauding President Trump’s decimation of those norms and expectations all in the name of political payback.

I understand that Michelle Obama’s infamous claim that her husband and his administration “went high” when their opponents “went low” was laughably absurd.  The left goes low.  They accused Mitt Romney of being the devil incarnate for heaven’s sake. 

But my question is if the right, so many of whom are cackling with glee as they watch Trump’s petulant antics these days, thinks going lower than low is really a winning long-term strategy.  And to be clear, I don’t mean “winning” for Republicans; I mean “winning” for all of us.