In 1976, President Gerald Ford and his Democratic challenger Jimmy Carter debated at the College of William and Mary where I was in my senior year as a Government and Philosophy major. The debate took place at Phi Beta Kappa Hall on campus, but like millions of other Americans, I watched it on television.

The most memorable moment in the debate occurred when President Ford referred to Poland as a democracy. The audience in that small theater and millions of viewers across the country gasped at Ford’s gaffe, and that one misstep might very well have cost Ford a nail-biter election.

How far our standards and our expectations for the competency and decorum of a president have plunged in four decades! Nowadays, a little mistake like Ford’s would probably not even earn a mention on the evening news, as American citizens, media members and onlookers throughout the world watch numbly while President Trump continues to baffle, astound and/or embarrass us on a daily basis.

Where to begin in a recap of Trump’s recent clumsy stumbling footprints around the globe? If we look to our southern border, we’ve seen Trump trying to stop illegal immigration by separating parents and children, and warehousing the children in huge buildings like the converted Walmart in Texas operated by private contractors who denied access to Oregon Senator Jeff Merkley.

Thousands of these kids have been shipped to various cities across the nation while their parents are being held in custody and are even being billed for the costs of being re-united with their own children.

Mexico, Canada and our allies in Europe have also been reeling from Trump’s new and impetuous wave of tariffs, and their retaliation against those measures will ultimately be felt by consumers on all sides of international borders.

Perhaps Trump assumed that Canadian Prime Minister Trudeau and his European counterparts would simply accept these tariffs meekly, and when they didn’t, Trump reacted by scolding Canada for having burned down the White House in the War of 1812 (which Canada did not, by the way).

Of course, that allegation made about as much sense as claiming that Germany was totally controlled by Russia or advising British Prime Minister Theresa May to sue the European Union or standing on the same stage with brutal North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un while the two nations’ flags stood on equal display, and while Trump deferentially saluted North Korean generals.

That public demonstration of “respect” for a communist tyrant stood in sharp contrast to Trump’s embarrassing breach of etiquette when he recently walked in front of Britain’s 92-year-old Queen Elizabeth II as they inspected the Queen’s guards.

Meanwhile, Trump has blown hot and cold against China, first negotiating deals for the benefit of his own trademarks there then hitting China with various waves of new tariffs. This is an especially dangerous game to play against a nation that exports more goods to us, produces more items and parts for American companies and buys more U.S. Treasury notes than any other country.

But all this insanity pales in comparison to Trump’s behavior toward Russia. At his recent summit with Vladimir Putin in Helsinki, a few days after Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein had announced the indictment of 12 Russian agents for their alleged interference in our 2016 election, Trump chastised his own FBI and Justice Department while placing his faith in the denials of a former KGB agent.

Even Congressional Republicans found this behavior tough to swallow, and many joined their Democratic colleagues in criticizing Trump, but their criticism was short-lived and inconsequential. The harsh truth is that every Republican in Congress who is running for reelection is terrified of Trump right now, and their complicity and silence will be unlikely to end unless their majority in Congress does in November.

To return to the theme of former times under better and more dignified Republican presidents: Remember when Reagan boldly challenged the Soviet leader by saying, “Mr. Gorbachev, tear down that wall!” Now Trump is afraid to utter a peep against Putin, but instead tears down western alliances and free trade while pledging to build a wall of his own.

John McColgan writes from his home in Joseph.