The morning after President Donald Trump’s March 4 address to a joint session of Congress, and several days after his chaotic White House meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, Sam Sawyer, S.J., editor in chief of America, expressed his dismay at Mr. Trump’s combative, transactional approach to politics. “At its best, the United States defines itself not primarily by its borders, but by its values and principles,” Father Sawyer wrote in an online essay that was also published in our April issue. While the United States has not always lived up to its professed values, he argued, “what we are seeing in Mr. Trump’s bullying and transactionalism is something different. It is not hypocrisy but instead a meanness, a lack of generosity that distrusts the motive for generosity in others. Vice is no longer paying tribute to virtue, but instead holding it for ransom.”
America’s readers took to the comments section to respond.
Thank you, Father Sawyer, for this thoughtful piece. My own father, a Cuban who watched the Soviet Union destroy his country (part of the time from a forced labor camp) and who after migrating to the United States became a Republican, is horrified by what he is watching, as are many of his elderly friends. The spectacle of Elon Musk’s brazen power on display in the Oval Office, and the bullying of Ukraine by repeating Russian talking points, has him and his friends in disbelief. Those who lived through the destruction of a country, as he did, know what this is, and last night’s barrage of lies and insults in the longest speech of its kind since World War II reminded him of someone who was very similar: Fidel Castro.
Cecilia González-Andrieu (contributing writer for America)
Thank you for articulating what I have been feeling deep down but have not been able to put into words. I need a president that I can be proud of, who knows how to handle himself with diplomacy and respect for others as well as respecting our own national concerns. Respect commands respect. I cannot respect someone who blurts out what is on his mind without thinking it through before he opens his mouth. All the more so when this person is the president of the United States of America.
(Rev.) Leo LeBlanc
America deserves a moral leader, not a bully. When I think of how many of the Ten Commandments our current president has broken, I cringe and wonder how so many Americans could have voted for him. I can’t imagine their dinner table conversations with their children justifying the actions of this administration, justifying the bullying and meanness. America deserves better. Our children and grandchildren deserve better. They are watching and waiting for our responses and actions.
Kathleen Zippilli
One thing I’ve been listening for in vain from Catholic authorities for many years is spiritual guidance on how to deal with Mr. Trump’s lies. I’ve not seen an honest reckoning yet with how much damage is caused by his particular style of lying, and the big lies he has perpetrated. Seeing people believe the lies is all the more disheartening. Often giving Mr. Trump the benefit of the doubt feels like casting pearls before swine. He just lies all the more and then turns to destroy you when you finally object.
Matthew Kucera
Catholics must remember that no matter the goodness of the intended end, immoral means are never justified; the ends do not justify immoral, un-Christian, means (Catechism of the Catholic Church, No. 1753). In my mind there is an inherent immorality in the means of this administration—what Father Sawyer deems its “meanness”—regardless of its desired ends, that is distinctly un-Catholic.
David Geislinger
Thank you for this reasonable, calm, fair and on-target reflection. This may be a minor detail, but I think the following was particularly helpful: “...he would never abide bullies, which is how Mr. Trump and Mr. Vance were acting.” I expected the sentence would say they are bullies. It said that is how they “were acting.”
It is so important in opposing evil that we bring energy and clear action, but still maintain character—and Christian hope. People can change. It seems to me that change often requires strong, determined opposition, again without breaking character.
Mike McCue
