Trump's coronation as king of America

It's reassuring when young people see through compromised principles and blatant hypocrisies exhibited by adults who pose as role models. Possibly the most notable one during the presidential campaign was the challenge directed at Jerry Falwell Jr., for his undiscriminating support of Donald Trump by a large group of Liberty University students. Their university president prominently led evangelical support of a candidate antithetical to all they were being taught about living the faith.I suspect our young people are the demographic most disillusioned by the realities of the election outcome and for good reason. They watched their elders say, not casually but with their precious votes, that:• Character doesn't matter.• Decency doesn't matter.• Truth doesn't matter.• Instinct is as trustworthy as analysis.• Charlatanism is more compelling, certainly more entertaining, than authenticity.• Extreme wealth is adequate evidence of ability and substance.• Hate mongers are welcome among their number.• Malicious Russian hacking to manipulate our elections is acceptable.• Constitutional constraints and foundational values are disposable.We progressives, regardless of demographic, can console ourselves with one very encouraging fact: the candidate who best represented our values won the popular vote by close to 3 million votes. Our system elected Trump; the people didn't, by a large margin. That's very significant but it does little to blunt the ugly reality, that Trump won by managing a campaign that was a blatant affront to women, anyone who isn't white, who is Jewish or Muslim, responsible news agencies, and those who value tolerance and truth telling.What's hardest is understanding how the unthinkable happened, how the most unpopular candidate ever won the electoral college tally. The editor of Mother Jones phrases it "understanding where a movement like Trump's comes from, and where the countervailing forces (and there are many) originate and gather strength."Early in the campaign when the troubling patterns first started exhibiting, James Fallows, editor of The Atlantic and a pilot, flew with his wife to small towns across the nation where Trump's message was resonating well to discover why. They identified a rather surprising unifying theme. Essentially, folks were not unhappy with their own situations. Their communities were primarily white and most had little or no contact with people who were "different" in color or ethnicity and certainly felt no imminent threat. What they seemed to be buying into was the exaggerated dystopian image that Trump painted of the rest of America.Gullibility was essential to Trump's success, and the evidence grows to show how grossly misinformed many still tend to be. They believe the stock market plunged under Obama instead of surging over 11,000 points, that unemployment soared, and that Trump won the popular vote. They disagree with the large majority that Trump must release his tax returns and separate himself entirely from his business holdings to avoid corruption or appearance thereof. There's much more, just as mindless and certainly non-representative of thoughtful conservatism.I understand the wisdom of giving Trump time to get beyond bizarre campaign rhetoric and let it play out. What keeps getting in the way is post-election performance. He'll obviously not be the "figurehead" president that we'd been assured locally he would be. Trump seems, for all practical purposes, to have already also assumed the role of king of America.He pops out of Trump Tower to make cryptic pronouncements. Traditional norms of behavior aren't for one such as he (like financial transparency, avoidance of nepotism and profiting from the presidency, even attending security briefings). He disdains and bypasses the press, yet tweets ill-thought messages for attention when he isn't the focus of a news cycle.He accepts only favorable coverage and vengefully cyber bullies critics. (Godspeed Alec Baldwin.) His inner circle must bow and scrape, be careful not to upstage him, and run interference to disguise or minimize his continuing lies and questionable choices.His so-called "thank you tour" seems more a very expensive way to satisfy a massive ego's insatiable need for more of the undiscriminating adulation it gorged on for almost two years. (How else to explain the childish boasting, continued demonization of the press, and smug beaming at the same hateful and obnoxious chants from the campaign?) Glimpses of Adult Trump aren't sustained. (Well, I guess one must admit, a petulant three-year-old does get more attention.)Who knows what it means that he's welcomed conspiracy and fake news promoters and hate group supporters into his inner circle, that he's appointed those most likely to damage public education and destroy environmental safeguards for clean air and water, and to threaten public health, the safety nets for our most vulnerable, and seniors' security?I'm embarrassed to admit that I've stooped to concocting my own conspiracy theory that he's setting up straw men to topple when they overstep, Mighty-Mouse-come-to-save-the-day style. He did say, after all, that only he can "save" us. What a dismal thought.Jennie Young of Elizabethton is a retired language arts teacher.