They all respect hard work, which it's only going to get more obvious over time is something that I know how to do and like to do. My most difficult obstacles will be not making missteps under the conglomerate's deliberately and viciously inflicted, criminal duress and also practicing what I preach about not gratuitously insulting people even when they have provoked me past human endurance.
Ideologically, I'm a Democrat, so my preference is for a Democrat to be elected.
My formal knowledge of politics is nowhere near as extensive as my informal knowledge of human nature. I'm sure that my observations about the race aren't anything that more astute observers haven't already said.
It's important to have diplomatic skills, even if you don't always use them. I think Hillary Clinton cares about that the most, Bernie Sanders respects it as a concept and Donald Trump displays contempt for it on a regular basis. I understand why there are people who want Mr. Trump to be President. He has the attitude of someone who "tells it like it is." That is something that always resonates for every public, for good reason; it is a human instinct to like a leader who tells the truth and to be intolerant of one who doesn't.
It is the rare leader who is able consistently and effectively to merge honesty with tact. Brashness and equivocation are not opposing sides of a spectrum that has honesty and tact in the middle; they are extremes of the avoidance, maybe even the fear, of that ideal.
I hope that Mr. Trump will recognize that, even if he wins, Mrs. Clinton and Mr. Sanders will not cease to be politically relevant; neither will a lot of other people. Even the most powerful person in the world, which the President of the United States arguably is, has to rely on the cooperation of other people for a lot of things. The more someone does to cause bad feeling when it's not necessary, the more obstacles to cooperation he or she is creating in the future.
It is painful and causes resentment for people to have to cooperate with someone who has sought to personally degrade them. The most intelligent and politically sound people are able to do it gracefully, and, unfortunately, have to do it a lot, all over the world. However, the world of 2016 isn't only about Mr. Trump or Mrs. Clinton or Mr. Sanders. It is a world in turmoil, in which significantly large and destructive groups of people are proving what centuries of chronic, casual, even lethal disrespect toward any group or groups of people always produce.
Respect is at a premium; lives and countries depend on it.
Copyright L. Kochman, May 31, 2016 @ 9:41 p.m./edited @ 10:14 p.m.
