When is Enough ENOUGH?

Caricature via Flickr, DonkeyHotey.

By Jill Chapin

July 2, 2017

Although it seems preposterous to compare effective parenting with setting presidential parameters regarding behavior, these unique times lend themselves to doing so. Letting our children – or our president – get away with vindictive retaliations does little to foster decency and accountability in either. So when something is not right, it is our moral responsibility to speak up.

I did so with President Obama. I really admire and like the guy, yet that did not stop me from calling him out on issues when I felt he was on the wrong side of the argument, as shown in the many critical articles I’ve written about him. I have even admonished him in song on You Tube. If you can tolerate a really bad singing voice, go to YouTube and type in Obama, Get Angry the song. My new version of Johnny Get Angry spoke to my irritation with the direction he had taken on several matters. As self-conscious as I was about my singing debut, respectfully criticizing those you care about is a compelling way of showing support.

But despite President Trump’s wildly inappropriate and crude comments, they are met with only muted or constrained responses from our top government officials. Why? Our Oval Office occupant is clearly obsessed with himself, and we the people are scarcely an afterthought in his self-consumed mind. With so many serious domestic and international issues that need intense attention, our president nevertheless continues to tweet non-stop to skewer those he feels do not admire, agree with or respect him. Why is no one speaking with a louder voice to condemn not only his crudeness but his near abdication of doing the people’s business? Is only whining and wishing he would stop now the new syllabus for parenting?

We have been living on borrowed time since his inauguration, having yet to confront a serious crisis that would call for a calm, measured response from our commander in chief. Yet his wife and press secretary both admit that when he is dissed, he will lash out ten times harder. So, Kim Jung Un insults him and . . . what? Will he respond ten times harder with a nuclear attack on North Korea?

I understand why people voted for the guy, but they should be very worried about what they wished for because they actually got more than they bargained for. His bombastic words are working their magic in accomplishing what Putin never thought he could achieve – the ceaseless chaos in our government and the diminished stature of the U.S. in the eyes of the world.

So when will our Congress decide that this truly dysfunctional man-child should not be at the helm of our government? When will they put party aside and begin to think of our country first? To those who don’t yet want to admit that this woefully equipped Tweeter-in-Chief is incapable of steering us through a morass of life and death issues, what are you waiting for?

Someone needs to acknowledge the elephant in the room. Congress needs to start a conversation about impeachment before a calamity occurs with a president who admitted he had no idea this job would be so hard. Waiting for the proverbial other shoe to drop is no way to represent their constituents.

Even if they should remove the 45th president of the United States, it will not be met with celebration because a President Pence will replace him with his own disturbing baggage. But at least he is of sound mind and we will just have to accept the creepy sense that Trump will be replaced by a televangelist.

But if they are not yet ready to act, then they should tell us what needs to happen before enough will finally be enough.

Jill Chapin

Jill Chapin has been a guest writer and columnist in several Los Angeles area papers for over fifteen years. She has written a bilingual parenting book titled, "If You Have Kids, Then Be a Parent!" and a children's book entitled, "My Magic Bubble."

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