There was a time when the United States of America was looked to for moral guidance to the world, based on how we conducted ourselves in relation to world events. We aided various countries in thwarting aggression by numerous despicable leaders throughout the world, and often responded to natural and man-made disasters with financial and volunteer support that was greatly needed. Our country was idealized by other nations throughout the world because we often exemplified compassion, empathy, and caring. While our country did its share of bad things throughout the world, our moral integrity trumped most of the bad things done by our government, often not widely supported by U.S. citizens.
Morality is defined as the principles that distinguish right from wrong or good from bad behavior. It is becoming clear that the country has lost its claim to be the moral leader of the world. We are respected for our military might, but our status as a clear moral leader on the world stage has faded. Under the current president, our world leadership has declined perceptibly during his two terms. It will take years, if not decades, for our allied nations to trust in our leadership, as was the case in the 20th century.
During my lifetime, presidents were more often revered and held in high esteem for their integrity, trustworthiness (yes, they lied, but by comparison to the current president, it was not with almost every spoken word), wisdom, and care for all the people, not just the very wealthy. Many mothers and fathers used the president as an example of how their son or daughter could emulate as they became adults. Most of the presidential character flaws and unsavory behavior were indeed kept from public view. John F Kennedy was a well-known philanderer. Richard Nixon was a corrupt politician who had to resign amid allegations of misdeeds. Bill Clinton faced impeachment not for a sexual relationship with an intern, but for lying about the relationship. George W. Bush lied to the country about numerous military misadventures in the Middle East that cost trillions of unbudgeted funds, which added trillions to the multi-trillion-dollar federal debt. The country is experiencing a more pervasive moral rot than we have ever experienced before, and it is difficult to see how we recover and how long that recovery might take.
When you take food and health care services to millions in third-world countries experiencing famine, wars, and extreme poverty by eliminating USAID, you are morally challenged. When you decide to make health care much more unaffordable for millions or take away their health insurance, you have little or no morality. When you randomly fire tens of thousands of federal employees and make government operations less responsive to the needs of American citizens, your morality should be questioned. You are severely morally challenged to detain small children in unsavory detention centers for no rational reason. Not to mention, arresting American citizens with no criminal record and, in some cases, detaining them in the detention centers. So many of the actions taken by the current president add to the moral decay of the country.
I personally consider the current president to be morally repugnant (morally repugnant refers to actions, behaviors, or ideas that are deeply offensive or unacceptable from an ethical standpoint); millions of individuals find what he is doing acceptable behavior. From an ethical standpoint, the current president is surely lacking and has openly used the office of the president to dramatically increase his personal wealth by billions in one year while serving his second term in office. Using the Department of Justice (DOJ) as his personal attack dogs to seek revenge on anyone he determines did not support his first term in office, and during the 2020 election. This use of the DOJ in this manner is unprecedented and far from the norm in how the DOJ was intended to function within the operation of government.
The biggest question is whether we have the capacity to regain our moral high ground once this period of corruption, chaos, and cruelty has waned. So many people have been strategically lied to that have gotten us to this point in our history as a country. The current president was documented and verified by the Washington Post to have publicly lied more than 30,000 times during his first term as president. Given that information, that would have doomed any previous candidate for president, millions of people believed it would be fine to give a well-known liar another term in the White House. Albeit the current president won with less than 50% of the popular vote, constituting no political mandate.
Losing collective morality as a country will be something very difficult to recover from in the future. There have been periods in the past of moral decline; however, the widespread nature of the current moral rot will be hard to reverse.
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