Setting an Example

  It is a sad day for American values when a president uses an audience of Boy Scouts to brag about his victory, attack his opponents and threaten those who are not sufficiently loyal to him and him alone, rather than to the Constitution.
  Those who care can launch a web search and get a more complete accounting of his highly politicized speech and the comments of the many parents who are taking their sons out of the organization.
   In any case, the president's appearance at the Boy Scout Jamboree, held only every four years, and this time in West Virginia, was but the latest in a series of events where he uses the cameras and the audience to spout his own greatness and to attack those he perceives as enemies.
   For example, he reminded the audience of 35,000 Boy Scouts that his victory last November was "an unbelievable tribute to you and all of the other millions and millions of people that came out and voted for Make America Great Again."
   Fact check: Most Boy Scouts are teenagers under 18, and therefore were unable to vote in last year's election. He also noted that he went to Maine four times during the election campaign "because it's one vote, and we won." The state of Maine has four electoral votes, matching the number of senators and members of the House of Representatives the state has.
   Last week, at the launching of a new aircraft carrier named after former President Gerald R. Ford, he urged military personnel to back the proposed new health care plan stumbling its way through Congress. By doing this, he ignored the fact that military personnel already have complete health care while on active duty, and veterans have access to health care through the Veterans Administration. And he said nothing about Ford's accomplishments as president.
   Incidentally, Ford was himself an Eagle Scout.
   These are just the most recent examples of his habit of using a public appearance and TV cameras to preach his own political agenda, while saying nothing about the purpose of the gathering. For example, he said nothing about the value of Boy Scout membership in contributing to American values. To be fair, he did mention the Boy Scout Law, but only got as far as the second term, Loyalty, which he used as a pivot to stress his own need for complete personal loyalty to him from others in government.
   Somewhere there is a bottom to this pit of diatribe and vilification from which this president hurls insult and abuse at those who do not show absolute, unquestioning loyalty and devotion to him and him alone, thus ignoring their oath and responsibility to defend and protect the Constitution.
   Some example to set for the rest of the nation.

A Scout is trustworthy, loyal, helpful, friendly, courteous, kind, obedient, cheerful, thrifty, brave, clean and reverent.
-- The Boy Scout Law

   How many of these apply to this president?