I was deeply saddened by Trump’s performance in the Presidential Debate on Sunday October 9, 2016, as well as his “locker room bravado.” Trump’s comments would have disappointed many of us mothers if those words had come from our adolescent sons. Yet they came from a 59 year old presidential candidate!
I have long upheld the qualities of the Divine Masculine. He is a leader for everyone. He holds sacred the right for everyone to experience freedom from oppression, the right to happiness, and for equality for all races, genders, and sexual expressions. He leads by inspiring creativity, beauty, and truth seeking. He uplifts the highest ideals and principles, not just through words and aspirations, but through example.
This prominent political leader missed a great opportunity to model the Divine Masculine. How sad that he “goes low” when he has numerous opportunities to “go high.” How disappointing that he is known among educational leaders and many parents for the “Trump Effect.” The Trump Effect is “…the phenomenon of an increase in bullying behavior on school campuses — where kids as young as first graders are feeling encouraged to bully,” says Lily Eskelsen Garcia is the president of the National Education Association.”
Rather than reassuring a Muslim Woman who asked a question about Islamophobia and how she and other Muslims can feel secure under the new presidential regime, Trump basically accused her and other Muslims for not reporting suspicious activity. Even one tweet by a viewer has gone viral that said “I’m a Muslim, and I would like to report a crazy man threatening a woman on a stage in Missouri. #debate” (https://twitter.com/BayoumiMoustafa)
Rather than being reflective and genuinely remorseful about his 59-year-old adolescent behavior, he went on the attack dredging up Bill Clinton’s mistake. He even exhibited three of Clinton’s “victims” front and center in the audience. Indeed, Bill Clinton was guilty of those indiscretions. Yet they weren’t Hillary’s indiscretions. She was no more at fault for Bill’s indiscretions than Melania Trump was at fault for her husband’s.
Trumps response to his indiscretion left me, and probably many others, wondering just how truly remorseful he was. This saddens me to realize that a man who is so prominently in the public eye, and who is being studied by so many school age children, has so little integrity. He had an opportunity to “go high” by showing remorse and the commitment to be a better person. Instead he chose to “go low” by dredging up the mistakes of others as a defense. When did two wrongs ever make a right?
Hillary was not at her best performance either and frequently went on the defensive. This is understandable when Trump was “…seen stalking a woman in front of millions of television viewers,” says Susan Kaufman of the Washington Post. Kaufman went on to say that “…Donald Trump, looming behind Hillary Clinton like a mob boss, 
only reinforced his perception as a schoolyard bully in the second presidential debate Sunday night. And then Trump began lurking behind Clinton when she spoke, with his carefully planted stance, his narrowed eyes and his frown.”
How many women have been badgered or humiliated into submissiveness by that kind of treatment from the masculine? Hillary is a fighter! She believes we as a nation can be stronger when we are united. She is persistent in her vision. How unfair that she had to be labeled by Trump as “evil” and “the Devil?’ How distressing to hear Trump threaten to prosecute Hillary and put her in jail? How sad and disappointing that Hillary was maneuvered toward defensiveness by masculine aggression. How long must women have to submit to this kind of treatment by the masculine?
Even more sadly, Trump is inspiring fear and anxiety among children.
Between March 23 and April 2, 2016, Teaching Tolerance surveyed approximately 2,000 teachers, asking them how the presidential campaign was affecting their student and their teaching. The results indicated that the campaign is having a profoundly negative impact on schoolchildren across the country, producing an alarming level of fear and anxiety among children of color and inflaming racial and ethnic tensions in the classroom. Many students worry about being deported. Many educators fear teaching about the election at all. (http://www.tolerance.org/publication/trump-effect-impact-presidential-campaign-our-nation-s-schoo)
Trump missed the opportunity to present himself as a leader for all Americans, regardless of gender, race, ethnicity, and sexual expression. Instead, he continues to deliver rhetoric that is divisive creating more separation and intolerance. He presents himself as a leader only for the elite: the white, affluent, power hungry masculine of our society.
Summer landscape with a field of red poppies blooming
Where are those who exemplify the Divine Masculine? Where are those who are willing to stand up to defend and protect the young and vulnerable? Where are the good stewards of our land who are strong and stand in their power yet are also inclusive, open, welcoming, heart-centered, supportive and inspirational?
I know you are out there. I know you are the sons, brothers, husbands, fathers, uncles of many of us. I have faith in you. I believe your values will prevail.
We need YOU to come forward NOW to demonstrate the integrity and honorable power of the Masculine.