Thursday, October 22, 2026
Decency is a bedrock human quality, and you know it when you see it. It sets the bar for behavior among people. Decency, especially in an American president, should be a non-negotiable requirement, and in that respect, Donald Trump disqualified himself from the highest office in the land more than 10 years ago.
For the moment, let’s set aside political differences, forget the huge issues of a troubled economy, ignore the war that no one wanted, stop arguing about taxes, data centers, the environment or medical care, all life-and-death issues. Consider just one qualifying attribute for leadership: human decency. If that’s too high a bar for an American president, then who are we?
Can we agree that a flagrant display of indecency should end any candidate’s quest for office, especially the presidency? The president must model moral leadership, compassion, forgiveness and inspiration. How have we spiraled so far away from those American ideals of American excellence?
On Nov. 24, 2015, Trump took the stage at a campaign rally in Myrtle Beach, S.C., and mocked the body movements of a reporter, Serge Kovaleski, who, according to reporting at the time, had a congenital condition affecting joint movement. That was it — the moment the people of this country, whatever their politics, could have and should have said no, not Trump for president. Not ever. We’re better than that.
But history took a sickening twist, and Trump not only gathered support but was elected to the presidency; decency was sacrificed that day in Myrtle Beach, and every day since. From the time of his emergence on the political stage, Trump has infected the public ethos with indecent remarks, attacks on reporters’ behavior and appearance, and shocking insensitivity to others’ feelings. His public humiliation of women is common. Even the people who surround and support him now, from Marco Rubio to Ted Cruz, have been targets of his belittling remarks.
We should have known from the very first time he mocked a physically challenged person that he was unfit. We should have known that a man who would boast of grabbing women by the genitals was not White House material.
We should have known that a man who would sanction the separation of young children from their parents had no place in high office. We should have known that a leader who would denigrate entire populations of people as coming from s-hole countries could not be the standard-bearer for America.
We should have found him unsuitable for office when he was convicted of sexually abusing E. Jean Carroll. We should have turned him out of office when he faced multiple indictments for trying to overturn the 2020 election results, which led to the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol.
We should have considered his sneering, mocking, abusive insults of political enemies patently unacceptable and yes, indecent. We should have found his wrecking of the White House and trashing of its grounds and its honored spaces wrong and indecent.
We should have found his lies, his many outright lies, documented by legitimate fact-checking organizations, profoundly indecent.
Until last week, he approved of livestreaming an execution by firing squad in Maryland. You wonder if someone in Trump’s world spends time conjuring the most heinous, offensive and indecent policies to roll out and distract the voting population from the sad state of this country, in a war with no end, in an economy that is punishing the poorest among us.
Public executions are the tactics of authoritarian regimes and tyrants. If we ever take this next step toward craven indecency, heaven help us. What will we have become?
And who would have watched this execution? Would our teenagers have viewed it as a thrill-a-minute video experience? Would younger children have gotten to see it? How would anyone have controlled the viewership?
According to The New York Times, the last public execution in the United States was in 1936. Are we thinking it’s time to bring back this violent spectacle? In recent history, public executions have become the terror tactic of outlier extremists like ISIS and Hamas. Are these the groups we want to emulate? Do we want to promote violence by taking it public? The death penalty challenges our humanity. To have broadcast it live would have only compounded the offense to human decency.
Copyright 2026 Randi Kreiss. Randi can be reached at randik3@aol.com.
