Bob Schwartz

There are a lot of adjectives we attach in describing people, some commonly, some not so much. The same applies to our description of the American president.

Watching his obsession with prosecuting a decent man, a former Olympian, for the made up crime of vandalizing the Reflecting Pool, brought another word to mind.

Petty. It doesn’t have the harsh power of so many other descriptions of the president. It is something we might toss at a friend or loved one, when they’ve made something big out of something that didn’t deserve it.

Many don’t consider the president a friend or loved one. Another difference is that with this obsession comes the power to prosecute and potentially jail a demonstrably innocent person, so innocent that the prosecutor dropped the bogus charge.

This is where petty becomes a useful word. Petty plus power is an apt description of one aspect of the situation, though far from the only one. Petty people with power are nothing new, but in every case contradict our basic sense of fairness. The legal system for one, since that is the topic here, is built to prevent unsupported pettiness, a very human trait, from having dire effect. That is the guardrail that keeps personal obsession and vengeance from becoming vendetta or policy.

The most petty president is also the most powerful person. An unfortunate combination.