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In the world of sports, there is an old maxim that captures the essence of competitive athletics: “ Play the ball, not the person. ” Play the ball, focus on the competition itself, honor the game, and don’t try to humiliate or hate your opponent.
This is one of the many lessons that our current president appears never to have learned or accepted. President Trump is the classic “play the person” kind of leader. He seems to take pleasure in making everything personal .
His approach does great damage to our culture and politics. It is also deeply destructive of our legal system.
The president doesn’t hide his everything-is-personal approach . In fact, he want

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