President Trump has “jumped the shark”

Use of the phrase “jumping the shark” marks the beginning of the end of an overly long-running TV series when it has reached its peak and begun a downhill slide to mediocrity or oblivion. The term has its origin from a September 1977 episode of the long-running TV show "Happy Days" in which Fonzie jumps over a shark on his water skis. An act interpreted by TV critics as evidence that the series was losing its touch and included the scene as a ratings ploy.

The performance of reality TV star, President Donald Trump, at the Helsinki summit with Vladimir Putin, will surely be counted as one of the most remarkable examples of “jumping the shark” in recent years, as an attempted boost to his faltering presidency.

It later developed that "jumping-the-shark" can also involve adding a "special guest star" in a TV series, to boost ratings. Could this be Vladimir, who is scheduled for a return appearance at the White House this fall?

Joking aside, I sincerely hope we are witnessing the death rattles of Trump’s presidency, and that the likelihood of a visit to Washington by Putin will be nixed by a combination of national public outrage, and damming revelations from the Mueller investigation.

Whether it’s this year or next, I expect we will soon emerge from the dark tunnel of events of the past two years. But we must act to ensure we do not fall victim to the same societal sickness in the U.S. that is to blame for their recent appalling experiences.

Our first order of business should be to enforce a high bar for the standards of behaviour that we will tolerate from our politicians. We do not want the daily shameful conduct of elected representatives in the U.S. to become common practice in our institutions.

We must also shout down leaders attempting to win favour by appealing to the baser instincts of the population….and there are some signs of this occurring already in some isolated instances.

We must also pay reasonable attention to well founded sources of discontent in our communities, caused by lack of decent employment opportunities, minimal family income support, inadequate health services and child care, etc. These are deficiencies that can be exploited by cynical politicians to stir up unrest and create a “base” of support, much as Trump has done.

Perhaps most offensive to us have been Trump’s parade of lies and bogus arguments going unchallenged until recently, by Republican leaders and the reporting media in the U.S.

The poor level of education in the U.S likely contributes to blind acceptance of Trump’s assertions by his base of support. The latest OECD study on schooling shows the U.S., the wealthiest nation in the world, at 28th in the world rankings. Didn’t Trump proudly proclaim on his campaign “I love the poorly educated”, and with good reason?

We Canadians may be better educated, but bogus arguments can still gain traction here unless we sharpen our critical thinking skills, and knowledge of basic “civics” - the rights and duties of citizenship. Some of this gets covered at the university level in political science disciplines, but we can all benefit from smartening up in this area.

More to the point, it’s never too early to start, and I believe we should begin teaching these basic principles at high school level. Presenting 18-year-olds with the opportunity to vote in our elections without bothering to educate them on their rights as citizens seems criminally negligent to me.

A few one-hour classes should do the job nicely and not interfere drastically with the school curricula. And kids would relish the opportunity to educate their parents in what they have learned!

And if we could eventually eliminate the political party system that can provide a platform, and a source of funding and support for demagogues like Trump, that would really be a step forward.

Alan Walter is a retired professional engineer living in Oxford. He was born in Wales and

worked in Halifax. He spends much of his time in Oxford, where he operates a small farm. He can be reached at [email protected].