As the weeks turn to months and each new poll shows Donald Trump’s approval ratings descending to a new record low, the realization seems to be dawning: Oh my gosh, this is who he is. There will be no magical metamorphosis into a polished, presidential leader who will grace the world stage with dignity, poise, and grace. There will never be a speech dripping with elegant rhetoric, depth, and wisdom. There is only the angry, vindictive White House tweeter who awakens every morning to watch Fox News and tweet attacks at his enemy du jour. That cocoon which so many thought held a beautiful butterfly holds only this ugly orange caterpillar.
I’d like to say a word to my fellow citizens who are experiencing this heartbreaking reality for the first time: DUH! Does putting a cat in a cage turn it into a bird? Does putting lipstick on a pig and tying a bow around its neck make it seek a nice grassy spot under a tree instead of the mud hole? Does kissing a frog really turn it into a handsome prince? Does putting someone in a basketball uniform and letting him run onto the floor with the team turn him into LeBron James? Would my getting hired by NASA and given an impressive title turn me into a rocket scientist? No, no, no, no, and NO.
The question which begs to be answered is how on earth anyone could have been foolish enough to believe taking a spoiled rich kid, real estate developer, beauty pageant owner, reality TV star, and years-long dominator of tabloid news; giving him a venerated title; and putting him behind a historic desk would turn him into a real president. That’s the stuff of fairy tales. Those of us who live in the real world knew there would be no pivot, and now others are slowly catching up; but this late reality check comes at an exorbitant price. Our nation is in chaos, more divided than we have been at any time since the Civil War of the 1860s, and inching dangerously close to a war of apocalyptic magnitude.
So now, some members of the infamous “base” are saying, “Oh. But he said . . .” I’m not going to pretend I understand their thinking or how some could have been so slow to see what was patently obvious from the beginning or how some still haven’t caught on. It’s a little late, however, to focus on finger pointing and assigning blame. We’re in it now, and the only sane thing we can do is come together to figure out how to get out of this disaster without blowing up the planet.
Let’s look at some recent events which shouldn’t surprise anyone.
- Why not just begin with the media frenzy over Rex Tillerson’s reputedly calling DT a moron, or according to some sources a f&#%#g moron. Either way, most of my readers would agree the label fits. The question is why this mundane incident dominated a couple of days’ news cycles. Hasn’t everyone at one point or another either called their boss a moron or an equivalent title or at least thought it? Bear in mind that by the time this incident became every outlet’s headlines, it was no longer even news. The alleged insult was spoken at a meeting in July. Remember these campaign-trail statements? “I alone can fix it” (speaking of critical problems in our nation). “I know more about ISIS than the generals do.” “I’m very highly educated. I know words, I know the best words.” “Putin calls me brilliant.” “He [Putin] called me a genius.” Now DT is challenging Tillerson to an IQ contest. Seriously. No, really. And Mensa has offered to provide the testing. So one thing we’ve learned about DT is that he has now and has always had a delusional view of his own intelligence. He doesn’t know what he doesn’t know. Moving on.
- And speaking of intelligence, let’s just talk about the gross ignorance that has been on display since long before DT announced his candidacy for Tweeter-in-Chief. The person who seemed to learn only after Puerto Rico demanded his attention for Hurricane Maria relief that PR is a U.S. territory and its residents U.S. citizens is the very same person who during his campaign pledged his support for Article XII of our Constitution which at last count contains only 7 articles. The same person who during the campaign began calling global warming a “Chinese Hoax” in February of this year appeared to be unaware that Frederick Douglass has been dead for 122 years. For every job there is a required knowledge base, and how this deficiency was okay with his supporters defies explanation. The rest of us continue to be appalled but never surprised by evidence of his profound ignorance. He tried to show us who he is, but some thought he’d magically learn a lifetime of information in the two months of his transition from candidate to “president.”
- The National Anthem. Where to begin? There’s so much to say here. Skipping over the obvious facts that political protest has been a staple of American life from the beginning of our history, the right to protest formalized and protected by the First Amendment to our Constitution, and the psychological traits which guarantee that humans when challenged on their conduct will repeat and magnify that conduct, let’s look at the lunacy of the anthem brouhaha. Colin Kaepernick, one player, began kneeling during the anthem to protest police brutality against blacks. Not raising a fist, turning his back, or giving a middle-finger salute, mind you. He knelt—as people do when praying, seeking forgiveness, begging, and proposing marriage—a sign of deep reverence and humility. Ignored, this behavior would have been limited to one or two players and hardly even noticed by those of us who don’t watch football. But no, the same person who during his campaign rallied his knuckle-dragging base by discrediting John McCain’s military record and brutalizing a Gold Star family has stoked the fire again by attacking football players. While Russia investigations loom, Puerto Ricans suffer and die, families grieve the deaths of innocent gunshot victims, what does our “president” focus on? Why, football players, of course. Although white supremacists demonstrating in Charlottesville, Virginia, are “very fine people,” football players who take a knee during the anthem are “sons of bitches” who should be fired. His actions told us during his campaign that the only people who count in Trump World are those crazed “Lock her up!” chanters, but now some are surprised that he’s still catering to the chanters and tweeting insults about the rest of us. And did I mention that this defender of the flag, the military, and apple pie is a five-time draft dodger? Yeah, he told us that, too.
- DT is proof that mental and emotional maturity does not necessarily increase with chronological age. One would be hard-pressed to find a more immature 70-year-old in the world, much less in a position of national leadership. During the campaign, when he steadfastly refused to speak a negative word about Vladimir Putin, he told NBC’s Matt Lauer that he says nice things about Putin because Putin says nice things about him. Trump alleges that Putin called him a genius, and he likes the compliment, so he doesn’t want to jeopardize the flattery train. This month, after hearing the news that Rex Tillerson had called him a moron, he challenged Tillerson to an IQ contest. We’ve all seen these kinds of reasoning and responses among our classmates in first through third grades, but never in a presidential campaign or—God help us!—in the White House. Now that House Republicans are making public statements about 45’s unfitness and frightening recklessness, it’s tempting to say, “DUH! How did you not see this a year ago?” However, the more urgent question now is “What are you going to DO about this national emergency?” Tweeting isn’t going to save us from nuclear annihilation. Neither is recommending Trump and Senator Corker sit down and discuss their differences, Paul Ryan. Mr. Ryan needs to remove his head from the dark place and lead the House toward impeachment proceedings, though we shouldn’t expect that kind of leadership from him any time soon.
- DT’s recklessness is well documented. During the campaign, he incited crowds to violence, led his rabid supporters in chants of “Lock her up,” and repeatedly proposed a Muslim ban and building a wall on the U.S.-Mexican border–all without regard for the millions of lives which would be affected. Now congress critters are “shocked” by their leader’s recklessness, which Senator Bob Corker fears could precipitate World War III. DT’s tweets against North Korea and its leader Kim Jong-un should come as no surprise to anyone who’s been paying attention; his reckless disregard for wisdom, diplomacy, and sane advice has been on full display throughout his public life. No one should be shocked by juvenile tweets calling Kim “rocket man,” blustering threats of “fire and fury like the world has never seen,” and vague but ominous references to “the calm before the storm”; however, everyone should be terrified. And congressional leaders should take immediate action beyond tweeting and saying scary things in interviews. Get him out of there now! Our lives quite literally depend on it.
- When was the first time you noticed DT’s lack of compassion and empathy, the complete absence of those genes from his DNA? Was it when he mocked the disabled reporter? Was it when he discredited John McCain’s heroism, saying he prefers heroes who don’t get captured? Was it when he relentlessly doubled down on attacking a Gold Star family grieving the loss of their son? Was it on inauguration day when he strode up the White House steps to greet the Obamas, leaving his wife to find her own way? Fast forward to the natural and humanly orchestrated disasters of his first summer in office, and it shouldn’t be shocking at all when he offered “warm condolences” (via tweet, no less) to the grieving families of the Las Vegas shooter’s victims, as if they were someone’s 95-year-old grandma who’d passed peacefully in her sleep rather than young lives mowed down by a vicious and senseless act of violence. His criminal negligence of Puerto Rican Americans’ plight in the aftermath of Hurricane Maria, his constant reminders of Puerto Rico’s debt, and his “having fun” tossing “beautiful” paper towels to the crowd gathered for his long-delayed visit should seem like perfectly normal behavior for a narcissist whose only goal in life is to soak up as much praise and adoration as he possibly can. Even Bounty, the quicker picker-upper, can’t absorb as much adulation as this guy expects and demands! How I miss President Obama’s wise, eloquent words of comfort and guidance during national crises. How I long to once again have a real president.
- Someone please lock up this man’s phone! Tweeting has from the beginning been the go-to mode of communication for this guy who prefers “modern-day presidential” to the more traditional presidential characteristics like knowledge, diplomacy, intelligence, gravity, and decorum. It’s so much easier to send out a 140-character zinger than to write and present a well-thought-out, intelligent, insightful speech. And one can zap out tweets sitting on the edge of the bed in one’s pj’s without all the fuss of researching, writing, practicing, and thoughtfully delivering coherent thoughts and ideas. The pivot people thought his tweeting was just a fun thing to get attention and be entertaining during the campaign but that the Oval Office would magically transform him into an FDR/Ronald Reagan/Barack Obama-style communicator. Many of the tweet haters lament his insistence on retaining twitter privileges, yet–as with everything else–they don’t DO anything. Surely there’s someone up on that hill with the authority to limit such reckless and dangerous, and juvenile, abuse of the POTUS Twitter account.
- Lies, lies, and more lies. Habitual lying results from a disregard for truth, for fact, and for the effects of one’s words on the hearers; it begins with lying to oneself. Self-delusion erases the dividing line between fact and fiction and makes possible the fluid crossing to whichever side of that line best suits the immediate purpose. Add in a massive dose of narcissism, and the liar believes he speaks truth into existence, that his decreeing a statement makes the statement true. The New Testament book of John declares “Your [God’s] word is truth” (17:17). The extreme narcissist, with his god complex, acts on the assumption that “my word is truth.” Our narcissist-in-chief lied his way along the campaign trail and has told well-documented lies nearly every day he has defiled the office of president, and everyone except his most hard-core base acknowledges his mendacity. Yet this simply gets added to the list of talking points which cause people to fume, sigh, or shake their heads–including those on Capitol Hill who might actually exercise their responsibility to act as a balance to keep the executive branch from overstepping its bounds.
- Any system of morals or ethics includes certain bedrock values and convictions which form the yardstick by which actions and attitudes are measured; they form the True North of one’s moral compass. A person whose every action and choice is governed by opportunism and self-aggrandizement clearly has no bedrock set of values, no True North. His or her moral compass is flawed or broken, and life is reduced to a series of what’s-in-this-for-me decisions. I’d wager all of us have known a person or two like that in our lifetimes, but never before have we had a president who fits the description. While the Access Hollywood tape dominated the news for days and days, the immediate assumption was that DT’s campaign was over, that no one would continue seeking the presidency with such damning personal revelations now public knowledge. Everyone remembered past scandals which caused an immediate withdrawal from candidacy or from office because even the disgraced person saw it as the decent thing to do. Hell, even Richard Nixon said he was resigning because he had to put the interests of America ahead of his personal interests! We soon learned DT has no such decency, altruism, or moral compunction. He announced there was “zero chance” of his resigning, and he didn’t resign. After swallowing that big transgression, Americans became inured to 45’s lack of morality and hardly blinked an eye when the Steele Dossier alleged he frolicked with Russian prostitutes and in a newly released tape 45 is heard recounting to Howard Stern his refusal to help an elderly man who once fell off a stage at Mar-a-Lago. No ethical or moral concern, and certainly no empathy are apparent amid the laughter–only disgust that the man bled profusely on his marble floor. Nice guy, that Trump!
- In one small positive note regarding this train wreck of a presidential administration, Americans’ vocabularies would now make our English teachers proud! Never in our history have so many citizens known the definitions and spellings of words such as “narcissism” and “collusion.” DT’s narcissism is so glaring and so troublesome, it’s led mental health professionals to break their self-imposed taboo on diagnosing a person with whom they’ve had no in-person consultation. Steven Buser, Leonard Cruz, Jean Shinoda Bolen, and Nancy Swift Furlotti have gone so far as to publish a book on the subject. The book was first released during the campaign, under the title A Clear and Present Danger: Narcissism in the Era of Donald Trump; the title has been updated in the 2017 edition to A Clear And Present Danger: Narcissism in the Era of President Trump. Had more people heeded these writers’ warnings, the update would never have been necessary. The book was published four months before the election. We were warned. Supporters had access to the truth, even though they’ve in multiple ways demonstrated their disregard for facts. We still have the facts. The only question is “What are we doing with them?”
Many times during my career, I taught the Nathaniel Hawthorne novel The Scarlet Letter, and one haunting line from that novel has been etched into my mind. Everyone remembers the story: the young, beautiful Hester Prynne stands on a scaffold wearing a bright red A (for adultery), being interrogated by the village elders intent on forcing her to reveal the name of her partner in crime/sin (one and the same in the theocracy of colonial New England). Hester steadfastly refuses, to the great relief of Arthur Dimmesdale, the minister who fathered the infant in Hester’s arms. In the crowd gathered to witness her humiliation is a face known only to Hester: her aged husband who had sent her to the New World ahead of him. Under the alias Roger Chillingworth, Mr. Prynne torments young Dimmesdale, driving Dimmesdale ultimately to his death.
The CliffsNotes summary of Chillingworth’s eventual epiphany about his relationship with Hester wraps it up succinctly:
“He does, however, see his role in her downfall. Because he married her when she was young and beautiful and then shut himself away with his books, he realizes that their marriage did not follow ‘the laws of nature.’ He could not believe she, who was so beautiful, could marry a man ‘misshapen since my birth hour.’ He deluded himself that his intellectual gifts dazzled her and she forgot his deformity. He now realizes that from the moment they met, the scarlet letter would be at the end of their path.”
“From the moment they met, the scarlet letter would be at the end of their path.” Some are finally realizing that from the moment DT descended the escalator at Trump Tower to announce his candidacy, the chaos, turmoil, and division which now exist were at the end of that path. I’m tired of chaos, turmoil, and division; I’d like to go back to my peaceful life. I don’t want to wake up every morning fearful for the future and trying to figure out what I as an individual can do today to help turn the tide. But I don’t have that luxury, and neither do you. As Thomas Paine said, “These are the times that try men’s souls.” History will remember us for what we do right now. The hammock is for later; the resistance is for now. It’s all we can do.