Yes, people remain responsible for their own actions, but too many are viewing his behavior as carte-blanche permission to unleash their inner jerk.

He bears some responsibility for the second part, and full responsibility for name-calling and personal attacks on others. He's in a leadership position. He should lead. And at least try to set a better example.

But this gets back to the underlying temperament concerns we've been talking about for two years now. He is who he is and he's not going to change.

of a trend that has reached its obvious conclusion.I suspect it will get worse before it gets better but hopefully this is the beginning of the conversation that trends it back the other way.

For that to happen people will have to bury their hatchet and quit trying to be the winner in every discussion or we will all continue to lose. I have said it before and I will say it again, my marriage became stronger and what it should be when we both quit trying to win every argument. Once we focused on the solution instead of the problem it got much easier. We have to get our ego out of the way. When you boil it all the way down, most of the problems in the world come from selfishness.