Presidential politics as if it was recess at an elementary school

Play with Bernie Sanders and you risk getting berned. When Donald Trump tweeted insults at the Independent Senator from Vermont during his Democratic National Convention speech Monday, his social media team responded in style. It used just two simple words to shut the GOP’s presidential candidate down…. Trump appears to have been glued to his Twitter account during the first day of the DNC in Philadelphia. But instead of constructively criticizing his rivals and their policies, he predictably fired off a series of degrading tweets. He again called Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) “Pocahontas,” a derogatory term he likes to use to question her claim that she has Cherokee ancestors. Meanwhile, Trump claimed to know more about Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.) “than he knows about himself.”

One of the things I’ve found most fascinating about this Presidential campaign has been Donald Trump’s predilection for shutting down those who stand in his way with cheap personal insults. Rather than attempting to engage in intelligent, rational, fact-based debate, he defaults to “bully mode,” insulting and degrading those whom he has no hope of engaging on an intellectual level.

The equally fascinating (and, frankly, terrifying) aspect of this campaign is that Trump seems undamaged by his childish antics and repartee. In fact, a significant portion of the electorate seems to be reveling in The Donald’s devotion to insults and denigration, as if Presidential politics was some sort of romper room, where anything- no matter how childish or immature- is out of bounds. Thus we have “Crooked Hillary,” referring to Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) as “Pocahontas,” and the list goes on. Perhaps he understands that intellectually speaking he can’t hold a candle to Hillary Clinton and other Democratic voices. In this case, he decided to ridicule Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) for his endorsement of Sec. Clinton…and in so doing, revealed himself to be a bully who uses verbal aggression and bluster to camouflage his (not inconsiderable) shortcomings.

As someone who takes pride in being able to discuss issues intelligently and on their merits, I find Trump’s mean-spirited bullying offensive and beneath the dignity of the office he believes himself entitled to hold. Being President isn’t about settling scores. It’s not about belittling those who offend your tender sensibilities. It’s not about trying to bully those possessed of dignity, intellectual candlepower, and gravitas in quantities you could never hope to approach.

And yet a significant chunk of the American electorate plans to vote for Donald Trump…which really, truly frightens me and makes me wonder what sort of idiocracy we’ll be turning over to future generations.

(Editor’s note: Donald Trump regularly incites political violence and is a serial liar, rampant xenophobe, racist, misogynist and birther who has repeatedly pledged to ban all Muslims — 1.6 billion members of an entire religion — from entering the U.S.)