When I started this blog, the sidebar "About" section focused on admitting my narcissism--that I cared about my thoughts and wanted to talk to myself via my blog and that other folks might find me sufficiently interesting. Indeed, narcissism has been a running theme here as I label posts about myself with "narcissism" label. Yet, Trump makes me recoil as his narcissism is so very destructive that I have a hard time being in the same category. And, yes, I get the irony that I am making Trump's narcissism about me. Anyhow, there is a larger point I am getting at.
Trump's reply to the Khan family about their son's sacrifice included Trump's assertion that he has sacrificed. Examples? Um, he hired people? Perhaps he might think that paying people for their labor is a "sacrifice" but it really shows that he has no conception of the word.
Of course not, because a sacrifice means doing something painful to help others. Like confronting a suicide bomber so that one's buddies don't get hit (Capt. Humayun Khan). Sacrifice is other-regarding, and Trump has never apparently had an other-regarding instinct. He is utterly, pathologically self-regarding. So, yes, the concept of sacrifice utterly eludes him. And we should not be surprised.
We don't need to require presidential candidates to have sacrificed significantly along the way, but requiring them to understand the concept ought to be a job requirement.
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