Degrading and Debasing the United States of America on a Daily Basis

See if you see anything in common in this list of names, on a quick scan:

Buckminster Fuller
Georgia O’Keeffe
Norman Rockwell
George Balanchine
Walt Disney
Bob Hope
Gregory Peck
Samuel Goldwyn
John Wayne
Meryl Streep
Steven Spielberg
E. B. White
T. S. Eliot
Carl Sandburg
John Steinbeck
Tennessee Williams
Toni Morrison
Maya Angelou
Duke Ellington
Arthur Rubinstein
Irving Berlin
‘Count’ Basie
Frank Sinatra
Vladimir Horowitz
Ella Fitzgerald
Isaac Stern
Plácido Domingo
Van Cliburn
Aretha Franklin
B.B. King
Yo-Yo Ma
Bob Dylan
Itzhak Perlman
Stephen Sondheim
Barbra Streisand
Elvis Presley
Henry Ford II
Walter Annenberg
David Packard
Sam Walton
David Rockefeller
John Kenneth Galbraith
Peter Drucker
Estée Lauder
Alan Greenspan
Warren Buffett
Admiral Hyman G. Rickover
Warren E. Burger
Thurgood Marshall
Edward R. Murrow
Walter Cronkite
William F. Buckley, Jr.
David Brinkley
Lucille Ball
Johnny Carson
Bill Cosby 2002 George W. Bush [5]
Fred Rogers
Carol Burnett
Andy Griffith
Oprah Winfrey
General Omar Bradley
General Chuck Yeager
General Colin Powell
General H. Norman Schwarzkopf
General Wesley Clark
Brooke Astor
Bill Gates
Melinda Gates
Helen Keller
Martin Luther King Jr.
Robert McNamara
Dean Rusk
W. Averell Harriman
Henry Kissinger
Madeleine Albright
Rev. Norman Vincent Peale
Mother Teresa
Archbishop Desmond Tutu

Well, they do come from a variety of disciplines: art, music, science, leadership, innovation, religion, diplomacy, industry and commerce–but what they have in common is that they’ve all been awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom.

A comment I saw online earlier:

“Rush Limbaugh, who once claimed Michael J. Fox was faking his symptoms of Parkinson’s disease, who called President Obama “Barack the Magic Negro”, who described Georgetown law student Sandra Fluke as a “slut” and “a prostitute” after she spoke to a congressional hearing about birth control, who called Amy Carter “the most unattractive presidential daughter in the history of the country” and compared Chelsea Clinton to a dog, and once said “I mean, let’s face it, we didn’t have slavery in this country for over 100 years because it was a bad thing. Quite the opposite: slavery built the South. I’m not saying we should bring it back; I’m just saying it had its merits. For one thing, the streets were safer after dark”, was just awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom during tonight’s State of the Union speech.

I wouldn’t wish lung cancer on anyone. But Rush Limbaugh’s mean-spirited, mocking, ill-informed bullshit (vendor who) helped make America the frightened and hate-filled place it’s become. He is a wretched man.”

All we’re really looking at here is another day’s proof that Trump is extremely skilled at outrageous behavior; in fact, it’s the only thing he does well. On an almost daily basis he does something that degrades and debases America, solely for the purpose of deepening the traction he holds with his base.

It’s worth noting that most of these acts of “outrageous behavior” are indelible stains upon the honor of America.  The President of the United States just put an ignorant, hateful racist pig in the same class as Omar Bradley and Mother Theresa, and that’s not going to be undone.

How much worse can this get?  We’ll see. In the meanwhile, those who use comedy to make their points are, characteristically, having a field day.  From The New Yorker’s Andy Borowitz: Rush Limbaugh Admits Presidential Medal Of Freedom Less Of An Honor Knowing That Rosa Parks, Maya Angelou Also Received It.