Criticizing the President

AN OLD HIGH SCHOOL CLASSMATE of mine decided that enough is enough, that he has become sick, tired, and resentful of the scathing criticism being directed at our nation's president, and that it would be a whole lot better, more patriotic, to support the president, rather than constantly criticize and oppose him. To this end he started a petition on Facebook, and all who signed it pledged to, if nothing else, agree with him. What else can one do, other than to personally refrain from presidential criticism, and make enemies by personally chastising those who fail to so refrain? A lot of people, at least several dozen, signed up. The project seemed to fade away; my classmate's posts turned to other matters, but I suspect that if he had persevered, the number of signatories could have become impressive. It may be that all for percent of Trump supporters would have signed on, and that many of these people are the very same folks who relentlessly attacked Obama, and Bill and Hillary Clinton with a constant barrage of verbal salvos. All moral conduct, after all, is relative, it seems. So I posted a question to my classmate: in theory, say, if the president is deemed by duly empowered investigators to have diverted campaign money to hush payments to women with whom he allegedly had affairs, would it be proper to criticize him for violations of campaign finance laws, for infidelity, or anything else? Would it be "unpatriotic" and unsupportive of the president to even mention the matter at all? What about a president who refuses to accept the obvious reality of human made climate change? is this behavior beyond the bounds of negative criticism? To what extent is the president, or the government, beyond the realm of criticism? I would suggest that no amount of criticism is to much, as long as it can be supported by facts. I responded to my classmate that the never ending avalanche of negative responses directed at the government is a glorious manifestation of our sacred American freedom and democracy, and i stand by it.