When you let idiots lead, you become one.

It is wrenching to watch a person deteriorate.  Families often have to deal with elderly family members beset with dementia and Alzheimers.  The severity of the situations vary greatly, from forgetfulness and mental fogginess to radical changes in personality in which a once nice and pleasant person becomes angry, malevolent, and dangerous.

My mother had a perspective on dementia that I have discussed with colleagues in psychology who say it has merit.  My mother's mother had severe rheumatism which required her to use a wheelchair.  One day when she was getting out of the wheel chair into her bed, she didn't set the brake firmly, and the wheel chair scooted backward, dumping her on the floor.  She broke her hip, and was not able to walk at all afterward.  For 16 years after her fall, she was an invalid in our house, cared for by my mother.  My grandmother did not have mental issues, and was aware and coherent until her death at 98 years.  My mother had visiting nurses come in and learned much from them in the care of invalids.  After my grandmother died, the nurses encouraged my mother to become an LPN (licensed practical nurse) because they were aware of many instances when elderly needed acute care and they thought my mother was very adept at it.  So, my mother, in her sixties by then, obtained her license and took referrals for helping to care for elderly people.

During her work, she had some difficult cases in which the patients were mean.  Alzheimer's Disease had not been scientifically defined at that time and was barely recognized or distinguished from other forms of dementia.  My mother learned how to handle such patients so that they could receive care and treatment.  However, she made an observation about some that led her to say that the dementia of aging was used to excuse the behavior of people who had been mean and vicious all their lives.  I can remember one case of a man who had been a prominent businessman.  My mother was called to help care for him when a nursing home asked him to be removed because he was disruptive and a menace to other patients.  His family hired an orderly to attend to him, and my mother made daily visits to provide the medical care.  His wife, a frail, aged woman confided to my mother that his children did not want anything to do with him because he had abused them and her all his life.  

My mother encountered other such cases.  She was a devoutly religious woman who never angered or disparaged other people, but she commented how such people strained Christian charity.  She said you can't place the blame on dementia when they have been vile all their lives.

In a conversation I had with a fellow professor in psychology who had also been a minister, we discussed what my mother said.  He said it was true:  people use aging  as a convenient explanation for mean and vicious behavior that is in fact  part of some personalities.  He said such personalities gave him moments as a minister that led him to seek another vocation.

Trump exhibits all those traits that denote a vile personality.  He lies constantly, he insults and defames others, he shows no ability to apprehend facts or engage in rational thought.  A number of articles and a book by mental health professionals have recorded the symptoms in Trump of dementia.  A recent article contrasts his current state of mind with an earlier Trump.  However, his biographers claim he has also been dishonest and intellectually inept.  A retired commercial banker told me stories about how detested he was by the Chicago business community  in the 1980s for his unscrupulous business practices.  One story was about a person bringing him to lunch at an exclusive businessmen's club.  When he came in, the other businessmen there left their lunches and walked out and lodged a complaint with the officers of the club.  Their complaint was that Trump's presence tainted the club and its members with a disreputable association with him.   The lingering detesting of Trump in Chicago was evident when after his election, architects planned to float pig balloons in front of his hotel to block out his name.

Chicago architects' plan to block Trump's name with floating golden pigs.

The evidence is not that Trump has undergone mental deterioration.  As my mother put it, you can't blame his behavior on dementia; he has been a vile person all his life.

Our culture has been one that treats idiots with respect and sensitivity, but has warned against accepting them as competent to engage in public business:

Answer not a fool according to his folly, lest thou also be like unto him. —Proverbs 26:4 

A plurality of Americans chose Trump to be their president.  They can't say they weren't warned.

In the world, there are places where smarter people live.  We can only hope our children find those places, or at least follow their example, while the idiots of America run amok with their version of greatness.