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Kitchen Table Kibitzing: Abusive Presidents and No Kings [1]
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Date: 2025-05-08
Wow! Maybe this sheds some light on what’s going on here!
A friend sent me an article from Robert Reich’s Sunday Thought in which he writes about the current president as an abusive parent. Psychological research, Reich states, reveals how much our experience with our parents echoes how we respond to presidents. It is also a determinant in who we elect to the office.
UC Berkeley linguistics professor George Lakoff notes there are two models: The strict or the nurturant parent, with the strict president presenting a vision of the world as a dangerous place in need of strong oversight. The nurturant president focuses on empathy and a model of governing with fosters mutual responsibility. Reagan, Reich says, was a strict president whereas Obama was a nurturant one.
The current president, Reich maintains, represents a new model, namely the cruel and abusive parent, a person so “malignantly narcissistic” that he wields punishment for his own satisfaction, often in unpredictable ways that make him even more terrifying.” People who are “emotionally devastated” by the president often have a history of growing up with an abusive parent.
I suspect some are overwhelmingly drawn to him for the same reason, but instead of being shattered by him they are fanatically loyal. This would include the sycophants now surrounding him in the White House and Cabinet who appear to share his cruelty and sadism. Research shows that abusive parents often become more abusive over time — more enraged, more paranoid, and less predictable. Hence, the children of cruel and abusive parents tend to abandon them as soon as they are able. Or cling to them ever more desperately.
Flag Day June 14 is shaping up to be a day for the history books as the president basks in his viewing station for the military parade and resistors, under the banner “No Kings,” take to the streets across the county in protest of the current administration. The four hour parade will feature nearly 7000 soldiers, 50 aircraft, 150 military vehicles and seven bands. It will culminate with a fireworks display.
Reich writes in George Washington would have thrown up:
If any day deserves to be celebrated as the 250th anniversary of the U.S. Army, it’s the following day, June 15, when George Washington was appointed its commander-in-chief. When in 1782 Colonel Lewis Nicola, writing on behalf of army officers, proposed to Washington that he become the king of the newly formed United States, Washington vehemently rejected the idea, responding that he would not become “George the First” after fighting against “George the Third.” The giant military parade planned by Trump dishonors the memory of the Army’s first commander-in-chief. We have no kings in America.
Newsweek reports on Nationwide 'No Kings' Protest Planned for Parade on Trump's Birthday that the next nationwide rallies will be held in conjunction with the parade on June 14.
The June 14 event is shaping up as a flash point for tensions between Trump's critics and supporters. Opponents of the planned parade have compared it to authoritarian displays of military power, but the president has defended the value of the "big, beautiful" parade to celebrate the country.
For information on where to rally on June 14 visit the NoKings website or 50501.
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