Our country’s founders and early leaders generally were men of good character. In his 2019 book, Land of Hope, historian Wilfred M. McClay makes the case for good character being an imperative of leadership. He wrote the following: “Americans were blessed with an exceptional leader in the person of George Washington, a man of such fine character that he automatically commanded the admiration and loyalty of nearly all Americans.” Washington was offered command of the Continental army by Congress in 1775. He accepted, but refused to accept payment for his service.

McClay goes on to describe Washington as “a man of exceptionally noble character who self-consciously modeled himself on the classical republican ideal of the unselfish, virtuous and public-spirited leader, a man who disdained material rewards and consistently sought the public good over private interest.”

In contrast to Washington, Donald J. Trump’s character is gross. In him we have a candidate who was twice impeached as president; is unable to accept his loss in the 2020 presidential election; has been indicted for being instrumental in the January 6, 2021 attempt to overturn the results of the 2020 election by promoting an insurrection at the U.S. Capital; was charged with 32 counts of unlawful retention of national defense documents after leaving office, denying he did so, and concealing them in various locations in his Mar-a-Lago Club residence; has been indicted for coordinating an effort to thwart proper certification of Georgia’s 2020 presidential election; and has been convicted of business fraud in New York. In that case, he was found guilty on 34 counts of falsifying business records in the first degree. According to David Graham in The Atlantic, while president, he accepted at least $7.8 million from the governments of China, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, and 17 other countries trying to influence him by spending lavishly at his hotels, golf courses and condos, in violation of the Constitution’s emoluments clause, which prohibits public officials from taking such foreign payments.

During the current campaign, Trump and his wife, Melania, have engaged in commercial enterprises of a questionable nature for a presidential candidate: endorsing a $60 Bible for $300,000 in royalties, earning $7.4 million selling digital NFT trading cards, and accepting a payment of $237,500 for speaking before a gay Republican group at a Mar-a-Lago event in April.

According to Jonah Goldberg, in an op-ed piece published in this newspaper on January 20, 2019, “…the Trump presidency will end poorly because character is destiny.” He borrowed the phrase from the Greek philosopher, Heraclitus, who wrote: “man’s character is his fate.” Goldberg wrote that Trump’s constant barrages of insults “are not simply an act; they are the product of astonishing levels of narcissism, insecurity and intellectual incuriosity.” He concluded, “Nearly all of the controversies that have bedeviled Trump’s administration are the direct result of his character, not his ideology.” Little has changed since 2019.

Our most respected politicians in the past and today have been and are persons of good character. Clearly, Donald J. Trump is not a man of good character! In my opinion, he is unfit to hold the office of President of the United States.

OSCAR W. KNADE

Montoursville

Submitted by Virtual Newsroom