Trump and Trickle Down Ethics
The Moral Ramifications of Trump’s Rise to Power
I am reposting this article today as Donald Trump is about to become the 47th President of the United States. As stated below my hypothesis is that ‘how people in political power act in their daily lives and what values they hold and stick to has a trickle-down effect on how we all act’. This is a consequence I feel is not taken as seriously as it should be and the ramifications for society are potentially huge.
Donald Trump is a proven serial liar, at a scale we have never before seen. There is an extensive list of senior officials who worked with him in office publicly describing him as unfit for office. These aren’t just minor accusations – people in office have referred to him as a ‘domestic terrorist’, ‘the most grave threat [America] will face to democracy in our lifetime’ and that they were ‘terrified’ of him running again. He wanted to have protestors shot ‘in the legs’. His business career is marked by fraud, bankruptcy and failure and most egregious of all, he refused to a peaceful transfer of power.
All of the above are facts – the provable segment of a surely larger, more scandalous iceberg. As a playwright, I wouldn’t be able to write a character like Trump for fear of leaving the realms of the believable. He is a Disney villain but this is no fairytale – it is an 18 rated film where this narcissistic, dangerous antagonist mocks disabled people openly, boasts about groping women and derides and harasses them consistently. This villain possesses a powerful, sinister magic that casts a spell that convinces millions of people that he is something which he is so clearly not.
If you have fallen victim to this spell in any capacity -if there is part of you that believes that this is a strong man who is crass, and crude at times but ultimately has good intentions – I urge you to pause and reflect. Consider the man’s past, evident character traits and ask yourself if these are the admirable traits you want those close to you to aspire to?
This is to say nothing about the people he has chosen to surround himself with for this second term. It is a group of, like himself, proven serial liars, narcissists and individuals who hold such evidently dangerous and disprovable beliefs.
This hypothesis is irrespective of policies and politics. Perhaps Trump’s administration will implement some positive steps towards ‘making America healthy again’ or perhaps his attitude to climate change being a ‘hoax’ will have a detrimental effect on us all. Time will tell.
But if my hypothesis is correct then there are consequences to today that we may not even perceive. It is a sad day for those that care about the example we should set for the youth of today. It is a sad day for people who hold values such as honesty, integrity and humility dear. It is a sad day for people who believe that living by your values truly matters.
Here is my original article:
Trickle Down Ethics
Regardless of your political leanings, it is fairly uncontroversial to state that the senior political figures of the United Kingdom have not covered themselves in glory recently. In the past few years alone, we have had several high-profile political scandals, which have surely eroded faith in those in authority.
Dominic Cummings, the chief advisor to then Prime Minister Boris Johnson, tested his eyesight during lockdown by driving to Barnard Castle, coincidentally on his wife's birthday, when he helped create the rules preventing such a trip. There was also ‘partygate’ where civil servants and members of the Conservative Party held multiple social gatherings in breach of rules, again that they had helped create. Boris Johnson, the then Prime Minister, was implicated in many of these gatherings. Current Prime Minister Rishi Sunak was also implicated, being issued a fixed penalty notice for attending Boris Jonhson’s birthday in breach of lockdown rules.
The scandals are not just limited to breaching Covid restrictions. In 2022, Conservative MP Neil Parish resigned after he was discovered watching pornography in the House of Commons on at least two occasions. That same year, Conservative MP Chris Pincher resigned after an incident where he was alleged to have groped two men. Pincher had previous allegations of misconduct dating from 2017, with the government denying that the Prime Minister at the time, Boris Johnson, had any knowledge of this. Boris Johnson contradicted this, admitting that he knew about the earlier allegations before promoting Chirs Pincher, which ultimately led to his resignation as Prime Minister. Current Prime Minister, Rishi Sunak, was recently issued with another fixed penalty notice for filming a video while not wearing a seatbelt in a moving vehicle.
Some will think that many of these misdemeanours are trivial and unimportant. What matters is what politicians do in government, and the police could be doing more important things than fining a Prime Minister for not wearing a seatbelt. Hasn’t everyone broken some laws at some point in their lives?
I believe this response is wrong. For a start this surely increases voter apathy which will in turn impact voter turnout. I also, however, have an additional hypothesis as to why this is a serious issue. I suspect how people in political power act in their daily lives and what values they hold and stick to has a trickle-down effect on how we all act. This effect is one we are probably not even aware of.
On this view, if people look up to those who hold the highest positions in politics and see serial liars and narcissists who don’t even adhere to the laws they set, then there is a chance they themselves may not feel like adhering to rules. If true, this really matters and can mean the pantomime of political scandals may well be doing more damage than we think. This will also likely have a bigger impact on younger people, who are more prone to rule-breaking and testing boundaries.
Of course, what matters most is what politicians do in power, but we severely lack politicians in the public eye who are deeply principled and act with integrity. It may be the case that the system itself prevents these people from emerging into higher positions of power. Perhaps compromising one’s values and a Machiavellian approach is rewarded within politics. Added to this, it may be that those who are more charismatic and brash and make loud promises they may not keep are much more suited to our media landscape.
This, sadly, all feels somewhat true, but I am also confident that it would be a welcome relief to many if we had someone of principle and integrity in power. If I am right, then this would have a positive flow-on effect on all of us, one of which we may be unaware.