William Marvel: Tone Deaf

Even many of those who support the Trump administration are furious over the president’s indifference to public opinion. Using public office as an opportunity for personal gain, treating public property as though it were his own, he plays favorites in the dispensation of executive indulgence, ignores the mounting burden of government expense, and seems oblivious to the backlash. President Joe Biden was guilty of all that, too, but his puppeteers regurgitated benign reinterpretations whenever he exposed his Senate-trained instinct for privilege. Republicans make no excuses for Trump, but fume privately because his unapologetic behavior so weakens support for the party and its policies.

I wonder if similar anxiety is circulating within SAU 9, or among the school boards of the districts that compose it. A headstrong tone-deafness has also afflicted that office from the outset of the current administration.