Everything that we have loved and admired about the United States of America seems to be under assault under Mr Donald Trump’s scorched-earth approach to this most caustic of presidential election campaigns.
The latest of these is the high sense of national pride which has been a key element of the character of the American nation. This appeared to mean nothing to the Trump campaign based on several comments made after the president of the Philippines, Rodrigo Duterte, insulted US President Barack Obama by calling him the “son of a whore”.
A White House spokesman said talks scheduled between the two leaders at the ASEAN Summit in Laos had been scrapped after Mr Duterte’s crude remarks, which came in response to a reporter’s question about what would be his response if Mr Obama criticised his anti-drug policies.
More than 2,000 alleged drug dealers had been killed in the Philippines since Duterte took power in June, sparking severe criticisms from human rights organisations and the United Nations.
After being shown the folly of his ways, President Duterte said he regretted that his comments came across as a personal attack on the US president.
But what is worse is that, instead of indignation and outrage, the insult of President Obama was immediately seen as an opportunity by the Trump campaign to attack Mr Obama, saying he was weak and suggesting that the Filipino’s comments were deserved because the US president had criticised the anti-drug campaign.
Republican vice-presidential candidate Mr Mike Pence, the former Indiana governor, described the president’s presence in Laos as “amateur hour on the world stage”.
It is conventional wisdom that a nation’s elected leader represents the entire country, especially when travelling abroad. It is one thing to criticise them at home, but to embrace an insult of them overseas is unbecoming to say the least. Unless, of course, there is something to the view that the first African-American president is being treated worse than all previous presidents, a view that we have always felt was below the dignity of Republicans.
Mr Trump is known for his “Birther” campaign alleging that Mr Obama was not born in the US, but in Kenya from which his father came, as part of a bid to disqualify him as president. He has yet to apologise after the original birth certificate proved him wrong.
No election campaign is to be mistaken for a stroll in the park, but the Trump campaign has made it clear that nothing is off-limits, including all that is morally and ethically good and right and the pillars of decency which transformed America from the Wild West to the greatest nation on Earth.
Attacking what it calls “political correctness”, Trump and his surrogates have found it okay to jeer the disabled, insult women about their looks, call Mexicans rapists and criminals, and indulge in bigotry. Its formal and informal campaign staff includes out and out racists and the former Fox News CEO Roger Ailes, for whom the network has agreed to settle claims of sexual harassment alleged by 20 women.
America, as the bastion of democracy, must be able to have elections and come out of them relatively unscathed. Winning the White House must not be at all costs. Mr Trump has truly summoned America to its worst self.