(11-23-2017 10:12 AM)Owl 69/70/75 Wrote:  The behavior rules seem to be that if you're on the left you criticize Trump for any and all things, and if you're on the right you criticize anybody named Clinton for any and all things. The visceral hatred on both sides is IMO counterproductive.

Politics has gotten way too personal for my tastes. Let's discuss issues critically, not pick at every single action just because of the identity of the actor.

I agree to an extent. I’ve always felt that how someone running for President acted behind closed doors (in a legal marriage) was inconsequential. That’s why I never cared about Trump’s multiple marriages, and one reason I hated all of the hullabaloo some made over the made up fact that Obama was a Muslim (religion shouldn’t really matter).

However, how an elected official acts in public, what they say in an official capacity, and the causes they decide to bring attention to DO matter, and even more so when they’re president. The POTUS can move mountains with their words and it’s not a personal attack or criticism when the focus is on what they are doing publicly, especially while in office. Why do you consider it a personal criticism of Trump when I’m commenting on how he engages someone as POTUS? He was discussing a situation in which his status as POTUS wasn’t leveraged.

Also, it isn’t as if I was criticizing Trump’s time on the golf course, his choice of food condiments, or his clothing choices - all of which are on the personal side of the spectrum. Those are also all criticisms that Obama faced by Reps, and that Trump now faces from the left. So when I do go in that direction, feel free to bring out the bipartisan language, but for now, I don’t think that it is too personal to criticize how Trump decides to dress down someone over Twitter.