I find myself feeling disconcertingly protective towards a second United States president in a row. With Obama I had such a strong feeling that here was a good bloke placing himself in an impossible situation with a lot of hard men out to get him, and I had the instinctive response of putting my arms around him to protect him.
With Trump it is obviously different. He reminds me of those school bullies who were physically terrifying but who you could verbally run rings around if you got the chance to engage in conversation. If they realised what you were up to you might get a slap for your efforts, but you both knew who had won. I would end up walking away from such exchanges feeling guilty for having made their failings so obvious. It felt cruel.
Don't get me wrong. Trump is capable of doing incalculable damage to the United States and needs to be stood up to at every available opportunity. But inside that pouting, sneering, malevolent persona it strikes me that there is a very sad, and completely out of their depth, individual.
I don't really feel like putting my arms around him but might it be possible to be compassionate while standing up to him?
The Obvious? 