Before Donald Trump and his wife glided down that grotesque golden escalator to announce his candidacy, the free world looked up to us. Since then, we elected (twice!):

A vindictive, vile, vulgar, convicted felon found liable of rape by a jury.

A draft-dodging commander-in-chief who called veterans “suckers” and “losers.”

The only president whose campaign theme was “hate and fear.”

A president who told his chief of staff that Adolf Hitler “did some good things.”

A “leader” who mocks people with physical disabilities and stutterers.

A leader who, according to the New York Times, has repeatedly called Kamala Harris a “b….”

A leader who, quoting Atlantic writer Tom Nichols, “has the soul of a fascist and the disordered mind of a child.”

A leader who not only sparked an insurrection, but, watching the mayhem on TV, said this when the rioters threatened to hang Mike Pence: “So what?”

A commander-in-chief who told his chief of staff that he didn’t want “any wounded guys” in an Independence Day parade because “it doesn’t look good for me.”

A president who said American revolutionary troops “took over the airports” from the British 250 years ago, wondered why Abraham Lincoln didn’t “settle” the Civil War, and suggested terminating the Constitution.

A president who cozies up to Vladimir Putin in a way that would have horrified real “leaders of the free world” like Presidents Eisenhower and Reagan and statesmen like John McCain.

So much for Reagan’s and Barack Obama’s “city on a hill” and American exceptionalism.

Dave Griffiths, Mechanic Falls

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