The Whiteboard Jungle: Donald Trump is no role model

Words can inspire or they can injure.

Donald J. Trump’s words do the latter. He gets the loudest ovations for using the most hurtful words. If someone was deliberately trying not to be a role model, Trump has succeeded.

He mocks immigrants, the disabled and women. It’s as if Don Rickles is running for president, except that Trump isn’t that funny, his act isn’t in Vegas, and the audience isn’t in on the joke.

I understand the Mt. Everest-like aversion some have to Hillary Clinton. As an independent voter with no political party affiliation, it is a shame that both the Democrat and Republican parties nominated candidates this election cycle who have high unfavorable ratings.

However, how much anger must you have within yourself to get behind such a despicable person as Trump?

Parents used to encourage their children to pursue their dreams, that one day maybe they could become president of the United States. What parents would want their child to grow up emulating Donald Trump?

In the debates, it appeared that Trump was saying the first thing that came to mind, often interrupting Clinton with a childish “no, you’re wrong” rebuke.

While people continue arguing whether Donald Trump has ever sexually assaulted women or if it was just “locker room talk,” it doesn’t matter.

Words matter.

In order to talk that way, you have to think that way, which is even more disturbing.

If Trump was that comfortable using slang for parts of a woman’s anatomy to a man he barely knew, that means he speaks that way to those intimate with him.

A student of mine told me that her 9-year-old brother heard the Trump tape and asked what some of the words meant.

If a videotape were released with Trump murdering someone, would people still support him?

Even elected Republicans struggle doing the right thing: coming straight out and without reservation rebuking the nominee of their party. It makes one wonder if there are any clear thinking people left out there where a sense of duty to one’s country overrides party loyalty.

When a Twitter hashtag “#repealthe19th” surfaced referencing the constitutional amendment allowing women the right to vote, it became clear the one thing Trump does well is bring out the worst in people.

Like lifting a rock in a backyard to discover bugs underneath, Trump’s hateful messages that receive widespread play in the media he says oppose him have unleashed below-the-surface racism.

The irony is that Republicans, who view themselves as the family-values party, support a candidate who has awful morals.

And this is why I do not belong to any political party. Too many people ignore the character of a person running for office, focusing on the parenthetical letter that comes after a candidate’s name when casting their vote.

It wasn’t that long ago when Republicans and Democrats would work with one another respectfully.

A letter from former President George H. W. Bush written to his successor Bill Clinton on the day of his inauguration on Jan. 20, 1993, has received renewed attention due to Bush’s civility in losing the election and wishing Clinton “great happiness” as “our president” and that “your success now is our country’s success.”

He finishes the handwritten note with “I am rooting hard for you.” Apparently for Bush, “a kinder, gentler nation” was not just rhetoric.

Can you picture Trump using such non-locker room talk in a concession speech?

Instead, Trump threatens to jail his opponent if he wins, and not abide by the will of the American voting public if he loses.

If Trump wants to “make America great again,” he first needs to act as an American.

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BRIAN CROSBY is a teacher in the Glendale Unified School District and the author of “Smart Kids, Bad Schools” and “The $100,000 Teacher.” He can be reached at briancrosby.org.