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Trump’s Top Ten Travesties, Week Five

Trump’s Top Ten Travesties, Week 5

Welcome back to our weekly Swamp News chat! Those gators have been well fed this week! Here’s a sampling of goings-on in our nation’s capital during the last 7 days. It was a little challenging to limit the list to only 10.

  1. Sweden became the new Bowling Green. In his February 18 campaign-style rally in Melbourne, Florida, Delusional Donald made this statement: “You look at what’s happening last night in Sweden. Sweden. Who would believe this? Sweden. They took in large numbers. They’re having problems like they never thought possible.” What’s the problem here? Nothing had happened in Sweden, no one knew what Trump was talking about, and our “president” continues to undermine his own authority and credibility with his irresponsible ramblings.
  2. Multiple sources have reported that more taxpayer money has been spent on security for the Trump family in one month than was spent on protecting the Obamas for a year.
  3. Trump reversed President Obama’s guidance intended to protect transgender students in public schools by allowing them to use restrooms which correspond with their gender identity. Trump withdrew that protection on February 22 and designated the individual states as the appropriate agencies for setting such regulations.
  4. On Friday, February 24, the White House made the unprecedented move of barring journalists from The New York Times, CNN, the LA Times, and Politico from attending a briefing by press secretary Sean Spicer. Breitbart News was, of course, among the select groups granted admission. The New York Times’ executive editor said, “Nothing like this has ever happened at the White House in our long history of covering multiple administrations of different parties.”
  5. According to an article in the February 24 Huffington Post, Trump enjoys a strong approval rating among Republicans: “While just 39 percent of all respondents in a recent Pew poll said they approved of the job Trump was doing, 84 percent of Republican and Republican-leaning voters said they felt that way. GOP support for Trump surpasses that for George W. Bush, his father, and Ronald Reagan at similar points in their presidencies.” This is alarming not only because it’s terrifying to know we share this country with that many really deluded people but also because those really deluded people will be voting again in 2020. We have a LOT of work to do!
  6. According to an exclusive report on CNN, the White House issued a request asking the FBI to publicly deny well-documented media reports of communications between Trump’s associates and Russians known to U.S. intelligence. Although the FBI rejected the request, the fact that the request was made is yet another indication of Dictator Trump’s efforts to control information received by the public.
  7. Trump’s media attacks have escalated throughout the week, culminating in Friday’s barring of major reputable outlets from the White House briefing. Most disturbing in this ongoing war with the media is Trump’s continual use of the term “fake news.” That expression was coined as a label for “the publication of hoaxes, propaganda, and disinformation purporting to be real news with the deliberate intent to mislead. Many fake news websites originate from Russia, Macedonia, and Romania” (SemDem, The Daily Sentinel). Referring to such respected outlets as The New York Times and others as fake news delegitimizes the free press in general and undermines their ability to ensure transparency in government. This is the most dangerous thing Trump is doing.
  8. During Trump’s CPAC speech on Friday, February 24, he briefly referred to Hillary Clinton’s “basket of deplorables” comment, which evoked boos and chants of “Lock her up!” from his audience. Trump stood silent during the chants and resumed speaking when the chanting ceased, once again demonstrating his inability to let go of a grudge or to behave in a presidential manner.
  9. Although the angry town hall meetings which have been reported this week were not conducted by Trump, the level of outrage expressed at those meetings is the result of Trump’s actions during his first chaotic month in office and the failure of many members of congress to effectively perform their constitutional duty. According to WhiteHouse.gov, “Oversight of the executive branch is an important Congressional check on the President’s power and a balance against his discretion in implementing laws and making regulations.” Haven’t seen much of that going on.
  10. The ever-creepy, ever-terrifying Steve Bannon, in his CPAC speech, “stressed the importance of Trump’s moves to begin a ‘deconstruction of the administrative state’ by appointing individuals from the private sector to key economic Cabinet positions who will help strip down federal regulations.” Scared yet?

And finally, there is a new travel ban in the works which will no doubt be the centerpiece of next week’s list. According to reports, this ban will be coming soon to a news outlet near you. Of course, you may have to check out Breitbart or Fox, since your usual information source is probably on the hit list.

That’s it for this week’s Swamp News. Keep up the resistance! And let our fine Senator Rubio hear from you this week: tell him the next time he’s up for reelection, we’ll remember his statement that he didn’t hold a town hall during recess because “people get rude and stupid” at those things.

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Trump’s Top Ten Travesties, Week Four

Trump’s Top Ten Travesties, Week 4

Well, I’d like to report that our “president” has made progress on his promise to drain the swamp, but in fact, those gators are getting fatter by the day. This week’s Swamp News includes the following events:

  1. Trump fired Michael Flynn, his National Security Adviser, after evidence of his phone calls with Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak was made public. Trump had known about the calls for weeks but took action only after the information was leaked to the public.
  2. On Saturday, February 11, while dining with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on the open-air patio at Mar-a-Lago, Trump received word that North Korea had launched an intermediate-range ballistic missile. Rather than retiring to a secure location to discuss the crisis, aides huddled around the table—in full view of spouses, wait staff, and fellow diners. One diner posted photos on Facebook, along with commentary on what was happening and even posted a photo of himself with “Rick,” the aide-de-camp who carries the nuclear “football” for Trump. The Facebook account has been deleted, but the damaging photos and comments are still floating around the Internet. And needless to say, the stupidity which led to the mishandling of the situation is still very much intact.
  3. The Office of Government Ethics has recommended disciplinary action against top adviser Kellyanne Conway for giving Ivanka Trump’s clothing and accessory line a free TV commercial on Fox and Friends. Apparently she forgot to read the Emoluments Clause in the Constitution. But who can blame her? Has anyone in this administration read any part of the Constitution?
  4. Trump abandoned decades of diplomacy with Israel/Palestine by announcing that he would consider a one-state solution. This is a devastating blow to Palestinians who suffer under the continued incursions into their territory by Jewish settlers and to the decades of diplomacy that have kept the possibility of an equitable two-state solution alive.
  5. Trump walked out of a joint press conference with Benjamin Netanyahu when he was asked about Michael Flynn and the administration’s ties to Russia.
  6. Trump’s nominee for Labor Secretary, Andrew Puzder, withdrew after it became apparent he could not get the necessary votes for confirmation because of well-founded concern over his past business practices and personal ethics.
  7. Trump has scheduled a campaign-style rally in Florida this weekend to bolster his wounded ego. The screaming, chanting crowds are what he needs to reassure him that everybody likes him and he’s winning. Do we need any more proof that we’ve elected a mentally ill, emotionally crippled, man child to the White House?
  8. Trump’s first choice for a National Security Adviser to replace the fired Michael Flynn was Robert Harward. Harward, however, declined the offer after watching Trump’s chaotic performance in Thursday’s press conference, calling Trump’s offer a “shit sandwich.”
  9. A draft memo which has been circulating for a couple of weeks suggests that as many as 100,000 national guard troops will be militarized to round up immigrants for deportation. The Trump administration has called the report 100% false, but it seems this may be yet another embarrassing leak which they were unprepared to defend.
  10. And the centerpiece of this week’s Chaos in the Swamp is Trump’s first solo press conference since he took office. The conference has been variously described by media outlets as “unhinged,” “chaotic,” “a train wreck”; and his behavior has been called “petulant,” “combative,” “angry.” And these are the kinder descriptions. Aside from utterly humiliating our nation in the eyes of the world with his juvenile tantrums, Trump has declared all-out war on our media, calling such historically respected models of journalism as the New York Times “fake news.” This can’t possibly end well.

So until next week’s edition of the Swamp News, keep watching those waters rise. We’re in for a tidal wave.

 

 

 

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Trump’s Top Ten Travesties, Week Three

Trump’s Top Ten Travesties, Week 3

This week, in our nation’s increasingly chaotic capital, the Trump administration has clearly NOT drained the swamp. Here’s the raw meat they’ve thrown to those swamp gators this week:

  1. Kellyanne Conway (aka, per Keith Olbermann, Kellyanne Conjob) provided Ivanka Trump “a free commercial” for her clothing line, saying during a Fox News interview, “Go buy Ivanka’s stuff.” She has been “counseled” on this violation of ethics laws.
  2. The “president” was defeated in appeals court. The panel of judges voted unanimously, 3-0, to uphold the lower courts’ suspension of Trump’s travel ban. In his usual fashion, Trump expressed his fury via Twitter: “See you in court.” When you think about it, that’s somewhat ironic, since he had already seen them in court, and he lost. The case is almost certain to wind up in the SCOTUS.
  3. Betsy DeVos was confirmed as Secretary of Education, a job for which she has clearly demonstrated her gross lack of qualification.
  4. Jeff Sessions was confirmed as Attorney General, despite his being rejected for a federal judgeship 30 years ago based on his overt racism.
  5. The Senate Majority Leader silenced a fellow senator (a woman) who had begun to read a letter written by the widow of Martin Luther King Jr. citing relevant information regarding Jeff Sessions’ qualifications to serve as Attorney General. “She was warned. She was given an explanation. Nevertheless, she persisted.” This may well be the most important story of the week.
  6. Trump’s SCOTUS nominee called Trump’s Twitter attacks on the judge who imposed the suspension of his travel ban “disheartening” and “demoralizing.” When Sen. Richard Blumenthal reported these remarks, Trump went after the messenger, attacking Blumenthal’s past actions and accusing him of lying about Gorsuch’s comments. It became clear Trump was the one who was lying (again) when Gorsuch and other Republicans affirmed that he had indeed made the comments.
  7. Trump allegedly didn’t know that he had signed the appointment seating Bannon on the National Security Council and unseating the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and the director of national intelligence. Many interpret this to mean that Bannon himself is making the appointments and Trump is rubber stamping them.
  8. Trump attacked Nordstrom on Twitter for dropping his daughter Ivanka’s clothing brands from their stores.
  9. Steve Bannon can’t stop talking about war, making dire predictions about imminent catastrophic conflicts.
  10. White House national security adviser Michael Flynn is in the hot seat for “potentially illegal” phone calls with officials in Russia, some of which took place before Trump was officially president. He of course has lied about his actions.

Overall, from the administration’s inability to find light switches to the mountain of lies they are piling up, the laws they are violating, the constant leaks, the conflicts of interest, and the appointments of unqualified cabinet members, our White House is sitting in the middle of a big, creepy swamp that won’t be drained any time soon.

 

 

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Trump’s Top Ten Travesties, Week Two

Trump’s Top Ten Travesties, Week 2

This week, our new “president”

  1. Insulted the prime minister of Australia, one of our allies, in an angry and thuggish phone conversation which Trump ended abruptly less than halfway into the scheduled time. John McCain and others felt compelled to attempt damage control because of the embarrassment and the potential damage of Trump’s creating a rift between the U.S. and a solid ally.
  2. Hastily orchestrated and sloppily executed a raid on Yemen, which resulted in the deaths of a Navy SEAL and about 30 other people, some of whom were Al Qaeda operatives but the number also included 10 women and 3 children. (Huffington Post)
  3. Continued addressing conflict on his travel ban through Tweets rather than constructive dialogue among government agencies to arrive at an equitable solution. Ended the week in a battle with a federal judge in Seattle who has issued an order blocking Trump’s ban.
  4. Continued to embarrass our country in the eyes of the world through the careless and dishonest remarks of his adviser Kellyanne Conway and press secretary Sean Spicer. This week, Conway added the “Bowling Green Massacre” (an event she fabricated on the spur of the moment) to her book of “alternative facts.”
  5. Swore in Rex Tillerson as Secretary of State despite his receiving the largest number of negative votes for a secretary of state in U.S. Senate history. Tillerson is the former chairman and CEO of Exxon Mobil. From The Atlantic: “His company’s relationships with Russian President Vladimir Putin; a shadowy Russia-U.S. oil venture based in the Bahamas, a tax haven; as well as, allegedly, the governments of Iran, Syria, and Sudan, suggest a pragmatic businessman whose pursuit of profit, while legitimate, leaves him open to difficult questions on his foreign ties.”
  6. Appointed far-right evangelical Jerry Falwell Jr to head an education task force, which “will push to stop regulations coming out of the Education Department, especially those that apply to colleges and universities.” (per Len Stevens, spokesman for Liberty University)
  7. Made plans for his third weekend as “president” to include two events which place his conflicts of interest front and center once again: “Trump will spend Saturday and Sunday nights attending private events where his presence, and the attendant press coverage of the president, stand to directly benefit the properties’ bottom lines. Given that Trump earns income from both of these properties, his decision ― as president ― to attend events there creates the appearance that he may be using the presidency to increase the visibility, prestige and financial value of his clubs.” (Huffington Post)
  8. Threatened Iran. National Security Adviser Michael Flynn, in response to Trump’s criticism of various existing agreements between the U.S. and Iran: “As of today, we are officially putting Iran on notice.”
  9. Made remarks at a Black History Month event which not only managed to praise himself and attack CNN once again but revealed his utter ignorance of important black historical figures such as Frederick Douglass.
  10. Signed a deregulation order requiring administrative agencies to revoke two regulations for every new regulation they propose implementing. This order would apply to a wide range of agencies, including the Environmental Protection Agency and the Department of Energy, which affect public health and consumer protection.

What he did NOT do in Week 1 or Week 2 is show ANY sign at all of “draining the swamp.” Those gators are looking mighty healthy and well-fed to me.

 

 

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Trump’s Top Ten Travesties, Week One

This is a column I’ve been doing for an action group newsletter, and I’m going to start sharing it here on my blog also. Even though conscientious readers will already be aware of the events by the time the list is published, I think it’s helpful to see the full impact of what’s happening in one concise list; and although it’s difficult to limit the list to only 10, these are in my opinion the ones with the greatest impact.

Trump’s Top Ten Travesties, Week 1

During Week 1 of the Twilight Zone “presidency,” #45

  1. Signed 12 executive actions: 4 executive orders and 8 presidential memoranda.
  2. Gave the green light to Dakota Access and Keystone pipelines, removing environmental protections put in place by President Obama.
  3. Reinstated the global “gag rule” which bans U.S. support to foreign organizations that even discuss abortion with their clients.
  4. Issued a “Border Security” executive order which states that Congress will allot federal funds for the “immediate construction” of a southern border wall.
  5. Gave the go-ahead for Congress to begin immediately working toward repealing the Affordable Care Act (which, by the way, is the name we should use consistently from now on, since there are many among our citizenry who don’t know that the ACA and Obamacare are the same thing).
  6. Began managing information output to the public: gag orders on government agencies (Environmental Protection Agency, Department of Transportation, Interior Department, National Institutes of Health, Department of Agriculture, Health and Human Services [which includes the CDC and Food and Drug Administration] and other agencies) and removal of certain topics from the White House website.
  7. “Signed an executive order Friday that bans Syrians from taking refuge in the United States, halts the U.S.refugee resettlement program for four months and temporarily blocks people from a handful of unnamed countries from entering the U.S. at all.” (Huffington Post) It should also be noted that the ban excludes countries with which Trump has business ties.
  8. Imposed a federal hiring freeze.
  9. Lied repeatedly about the size of his inauguration crowd and the fantasy that he lost the popular vote because 3-5 million “illegals” voted for Hillary Clinton and required his press secretary and chief aides to repeat and validate his lie.
  10. Withdrew the U.S. from the Trans Pacific Partnership.

And as a footnote, Trump became the first president in U.S. history to be widely labeled a pathological liar and who made it necessary for news outlets to form policies regarding how they will respond to his lies and what terminology they will use (“falsehoods,” “misstatements,” “false statements,” “lies,” etc.) when referring to his frequent LIES.

 

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What Are We So Afraid Of?

For the last few days, a copy-and-paste post has been circulating on social media, asking those horrified by last week’s election results what it is we’re afraid of. Many of us have expressed fear, along with disbelief and revulsion, and it’s fair to ask why we’re afraid. I was directly confronted by a family member who requested a list of the horrible and tragic events I fear may befall our country in the next 6 to 12 months; again, it’s a fair question. So I’ve given it some thought, and here’s my list.

Because I could easily write a whole book right now on the things that make me angry and/or afraid, I’ll start with these four: Trump’s ignorance, his immaturity, his mental instability, and his association with people who represent the darker side of humanity and of America’s history.

Our president-elect, and I physically shiver every time I read or write those words, is the most ignorant person ever elected to the presidency of our country. There’s a difference between being ignorant and being dumb; I think he’s both, but I can’t document his dumbness since he has never released academic transcripts (or tax returns, etc.), so I’ll stick to ignorance, for which there is an abundance of documentation.

Anyone applying for a job is expected to have the knowledge and skill required to perform that job; this is so basic, I can’t believe it needs to be mentioned. Hiring an “outsider” is a nice way of saying we hired someone who doesn’t have a clue what the hell he’s doing. He doesn’t know how the system works, he doesn’t know the governing charters (in this case, our Constitution), and he doesn’t know what the job consists of. The higher the position the more knowledge is required. There is no higher position than leader of the free world, so we should have been looking for a friggin’ genius; instead, we hired the guy standing on the corner holding a cardboard sign.

Not only is he ignorant of the job but he’s demonstrated a stubborn unwillingness to learn. He lacks intellectual curiosity. He lacks the social consciousness that would cause most of us to strive at least to give the appearance of competence. Look at the photos of Trump’s first meeting with President Obama after the election. He looks scared, as well he should be. He’s in so far over his head that he can’t even fake a look of confidence and competence.

In the absence of knowledge, he can rely only on populist appeal and demagoguery, and so far that’s working well for him among his followers. Matthew MacWilliams wrote in Politico Magazine on January 17, 2016:

If I asked you what most defines Donald Trump supporters, what would you say? They’re white? They’re poor? They’re uneducated? You’d be wrong.

In fact, I’ve found a single statistically significant variable predicts whether a voter supports Trump—and it’s not race, income or education levels: It’s authoritarianism.

That’s right, Trump’s electoral strength—and his staying power—have been buoyed, above all, by Americans with authoritarian inclinations. And because of the prevalence of authoritarians in the American electorate, among Democrats as well as Republicans, it’s very possible that Trump’s fan base will continue to grow.

(http://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2016/01/donald-trump-2016-authoritarian-213533)

There you have it. The people who elected Donald Trump don’t care that he knows nothing about governing. They wanted an authoritarian—an autocrat—and they got one. Some say the comparisons to Hitler are exaggerated; some say they’re spot on. By the time we know who’s right, it will be too late.

According to the Wall Street Journal,

During their private White House meeting on Thursday, Mr. Obama walked his successor through the duties of running the country, and Mr. Trump seemed surprised by the scope, said people familiar with the meeting. Trump aides were described by those people as unaware that the entire presidential staff working in the West Wing had to be replaced at the end of Mr. Obama’s term.

After meeting with Mr. Trump, the only person to be elected president without having held a government or military position, Mr. Obama realized the Republican needs more guidance. He plans to spend more time with his successor than presidents typically do, people familiar with the matter said.

Does it seem unreasonable to say that the Presidency of the United States is NO place for on-the-job training? My fellow citizens have elected the first president in our history with zero government or military experience, and they can’t understand why I and millions of others are afraid of what he’ll do. At a time in the world’s history when we face the greatest global threats and conflicts, combined with the most powerful and sophisticated weaponry that’s ever existed, we have our most unprepared leader. That’s scary as hell!

My next fear is that Trump is the most immature person ever to stand on a presidential campaign platform or debate stage or to be welcomed into the White House as its next resident, which is to say he is temperamentally unfit for the position to which he’s been elected. If your 5-year-old were inaugurated president, given highly classified information including the nuclear codes, given power to make decisions affecting your safety and welfare and that of everyone else in the world, would you be scared?

When was the last time you saw a presidential candidate accuse his opponent of everything she said about him, a weird version of Pee Wee Herman’s comic line “I know you are but what am I?” When was the last time you heard a presidential candidate attack everyone who criticized him, including the SNL actor who impersonated him? When was the last time a presidential candidate had to have his Twitter privileges revoked the week before the election because he has no impulse control? When was the last time you saw a presidential candidate remind himself in a campaign speech to remain calm, be cool? Never. Never!

It was frightening enough to have a candidate bent on wreaking revenge on everyone who threatened his delicate ego, even more frightening now to think how he’ll respond when he’s president and has all the power of that office at his fingertips. For the first time in our nation’s history, we witnessed a presidential candidate threaten to use his presidential power to have his opponent investigated and possibly incarcerated. That alone should scare any sensible person. His Twitter wars, his petty insults, and his mean-spirited attacks on every demographic in our country do not evidence the maturity and gravitas necessary to be president.

Vocabulary is more than a subject we study as part of our elementary-school English classes, it’s an indicator of our ability to process complex ideas. Children’s ideas are generally not too complex, and their vocabularies reflect the simplicity of their lives and scope of understanding. That’s normal and healthy for children but not for adults and especially not for an adult who thinks he should be president. Jack Shafer, in an August 13, 2015, Politico article, rated Trump’s vocabulary at a third-grade level. (http://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2015/08/donald-trump-talks-like-a-third-grader-121340)

Some of his go-to words are “great,” “terrific,” “loser,” “disaster,” “very,” “disgusting,” “unfair,” and “ashamed.” Humans learn words as we need them to communicate our thoughts. Toddlers have a relatively simple world, and the things they want to communicate are basic biological needs: they’re hungry, thirsty, hot, cold, need to use the restroom. As they begin making observations and processing the world around them rather than just their own needs, they have to learn more words to express those more complex ideas.

Trump’s former ghost-writer for The Art of the Deal claims, “He has the smallest vocabulary of any person who has ever run for any kind of office, much less president . . .” Schwartz also says,

“It’s a 200-word vocabulary, so as soon he gets beyond that, you know that he’s reading someone else’s words,” Schwartz said. He theorized that Trump probably doesn’t familiarize himself with prepared remarks before delivering them because of his “incredibly short attention span.”

(http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/donald-trump-vocabulary_us_580d458de4b0a03911ed69b6)

Admittedly, I don’t know how Mr. Schwartz arrived at that figure; but having listened to Trump speak as many times as I could stomach doing so, I think the estimate is pretty accurate. For perspective, child development experts estimate that a 2 ½-year-old should know about 300 words.

Lest someone think I’m being petty by spending so much time on something as seemingly insignificant as a small vocabulary, I believe a person’s words reveal a great deal about the person. They reveal the depth and breadth of what the person has read and studied; reading and study build one’s word bank as they increase one’s understanding of the world–a necessary qualification for a head of state–and it’s safe to assume that someone so verbally bankrupt has read and studied very little and understands very little about the world. Understanding of language, in my opinion, also reflects a person’s ability to process complex ideas as well as the person’s interest in ideas. We learn words as we need them; those who remain at the toddler level, whose worlds consist only of their own needs, have little use for more sophisticated words.

In an excellent article titled “The Seven Broken Guardrails of Democracy,” David Frum begins with this:

The first guardrail to go missing was the old set of expectations about how a candidate for president of the United States should speak and act. Here’s Adlai Stevenson accepting the Democratic nomination for president in 1952:

That I have not sought this nomination, that I could not seek it in good conscience, that I would not seek it in honest self-appraisal, is not to say that I value it the less.

There was a certain quantum of malarkey here—but it wasn’t all malarkey. From the founding of the republic, Americans have looked to qualities of personal restraint as one of the first checks on the power of office. “The aim of every political Constitution is or ought to be first to obtain for rulers, men who possess most wisdom to discern, and most virtue to pursue the common good of the society; and in the next place, to take the most effectual precautions for keeping them virtuous, whilst they continue to hold their public trust.” So argued James Madison in Federalist 57. In Federalist 68, Alexander Hamilton promised more specifically: “Talents for low intrigue, and the little arts of popularity, may alone suffice to elevate a man to the first honors in a single State; but it will require other talents, and a different kind of merit, to establish him in the esteem and confidence of the whole Union, or of so considerable a portion of it as would be necessary to make him a successful candidate for the distinguished office of President of the United States.”

(http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2016/05/the-seven-broken-guardrails-of-democracy/484829/)

Okay, so nobody talks like that any more; but Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, and other leaders speak and act in ways that evidence their knowledge and intelligence in the best 21st-century form. Do I need to point out the contrast with one of Trump’s classic lines, “I’m speaking with myself [on foreign policy] because I have a very good brain”? I rest my case.

Then there are his words from his first televised sit-down interview after the election. Interviewer Lesley Stahl asked for his response to the supporters demonstrating in his name. Here’s what he said:

“I am so saddened to hear that,” Trump [said] when she said Latinos and Muslims are facing harassment. “And I say, ‘Stop it.’ If it — if it helps, I will say this, and I will say right to the cameras: ‘Stop it.'”

Wow, Donald! That’s it? “Stop it”? A five-year-old would say that. You can’t reason intelligently with these people—your own supporters—and express to them that what they’re doing is wrong and you refuse to tolerate or condone that kind of behavior in your name or in our country? Just “stop it”? That’s all you’ve got? And you wonder what we’re scared of? Throughout his campaign, Trump told us how he would fix problems by simply speaking solutions; he would command bad people such as ISIS to cease, and the problem would be solved.

Smart people can see two problems here: First, he sees his position as that of a dictator. He speaks, and people follow his commands. Second, the dark forces have been unleashed and empowered, so they no longer need Trump and have no reason to listen to him except when he is further advancing their causes. There will be a nasty divorce between the demagogue and his adoring fans because they no longer need each other. They helped him get elected; he has no further incentive to keep his promises or live up to their hope that he would be their champion. They’ve been given power and legitimacy to carry on their bigotry and violence with or without his support. Are you scared yet?

The guardrail metaphor resonates with me since I had a few hair-raising moments during my 1996 trip to Israel. On one of our daily excursions, our bus driver took us on a narrow, winding road up a hillside—not one of the roads usually available to tourists. I believe it was called the Old Roman Road, so for obvious reasons, there was no guardrail or any kind of barrier between our bus and the sheer drop-off into the valley below and the road was not engineered to support modern tour buses. We were riding in a large modern tour bus, however; and it seems the distance between its tires and the edge of the road could probably have been measured in inches. Our president is our representative on the world stage; our national security is partly dependent on our representative’s ability to command the respect and cooperation of other world leaders. His mental and emotional stability and his personal restraint are among the guardrails that prevent our plummet into oblivion. So far, the most common caricature of our newly elected top official in publications around the world is a diaper-clad, tantrum-throwing toddler. I was scared on that bus ride, and I’m even more scared now.

Next, I fear the fact that we have elected an extreme narcissist as our president. It didn’t take anyone long to recognize the symptoms once we started hearing from Trump in large doses; his narcissism was the first thing to be noticed and analyzed among anyone with even a Psych 101 class on their transcript. Professional shrinks have said there’s a little narcissism in every leader, that it takes a bit of self-importance to motivate a person to seek high office and extreme power. No one, however, has ever thought Donald Trump’s ego and self-importance are within the normal, healthy range.

Amy Ellis Nutt quotes experts who define narcissism thus:

“Narcissism is a trait all human beings have to one extent or another, so it’s not inherently negative,” said psychologist Margaret Jordan, an expert in personality disorders at Houston’s Baylor College of Medicine. “It’s a part of self-esteem and is important to mental health.”

(https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2016/07/22/is-donald-trump-a-textbook-narcissist/)

Ms. Nutt goes on to ask when self-regard becomes pathological. Her answer:

The most recent edition of the American Psychiatric Association’s Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders describes narcissistic personality disorder as being “characterized by the presence of both grandiosity and attention seeking” and lists nine criteria, of which five are necessary for diagnosis. Among them: a need for excessive admiration; preoccupation with fantasies of brilliance, power and success; and a sense of being special.

Those traits can lead to arrogance and haughtiness, and a single-minded pursuit of status that make close relationships difficult and devoid of true intimacy.

About six clinicians were consulted in the preparation of Ms. Nutt’s article, all of whom refused to specifically evaluate Trump, citing what’s called the Goldwater Rule, which discourages psychiatric professionals from evaluating people with whom they’ve not personally met. A few of them did, however, agree to speak on the process by which they would identify possible signs of narcissistic personality disorder. They shared these examples:

Trump has said that his “IQ is one of the highest,” that he has “the world’s greatest memory,” and that he is “dazzled” by his own creations.

And during his speech Thursday night at the Republican convention, he faulted the government’s “broken system,” then declared: “I alone can fix it.”

Although they declined to say whether these statements qualify as pathological, I’m going to draw my own conclusion, which is that no matter what we call it, that level of grandiosity is dangerous in a president. The professionals did go so far as to say it is unprecedented.

Our new president-elect sees every situation only as if affects him; the rest of the world exists as his supporting cast, and we are useful only as we enhance his ego. Chanting, adoring crowds yield many votes; having the biggest crowds means he’s the best candidate and his message is obviously right. The system is rigged unless it serves his purpose; now he’s no longer whining about a rigged system. The vote would be fair and he’d accept the results if he won, but if he didn’t win it would obviously mean his opponent had cheated and he wouldn’t commit to accepting the results. When crowds of protesters began to throng the streets in protest of his election, he didn’t express concern for anyone’s safety or talk to the protesters and address their concerns—going back to his childish communication ability. Instead, he tweeted some of his favorite words: “very unfair.” Unfair to him, of course, the only effect that matters.

Dan P. McAdams says of Trump’s personality:

More than even Ronald Reagan, Trump seems supremely cognizant of the fact that he is always acting. He moves through life like a man who knows he is always being observed. If all human beings are, by their very nature, social actors, then Donald Trump seems to be more so—superhuman, in this one primal sense.

(http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2016/06/the-mind-of-donald-trump/480771/)

What does all of this mean to citizens of our country, and why should any of us be frightened by it? A man who thinks he alone can solve problems is delusional, autocratic, uneducated, and unlikely to work within the checks-and-balances structure of our government. As President Obama recently said, “A man who can be baited with a tweet has no business with the nuclear codes.”

A president who has threatened to jail his opponent, to “open up the libel laws” to silence and prosecute journalists, whose first response to every problem is to file or at least threaten to file a lawsuit, who shows no capacity for empathy or compassion, who lies and then lies about his lies—all for one purpose: to defend and protect his enormous but fragile ego—is dangerous. When he is president, SNL actors will continue to impersonate him, every journalist in the world will continue to write about him, every scholar will continue to study and analyze him. If he continues his penchant for vengeance and focusing on protecting his ego against every minute affront, he’ll have little time left over for tending to the duties of his office. And we will all be the losers for that: not just the Democrats but ALL Americans.

The overriding fear is that Trump’s election, and the events and movements which made his election possible, have established a new normal, which can’t be accepted if we’re not only to survive but to progress and innovate as Americans have always done.

C. J. Polychroniou prefaces his interview with Noam Chomsky with these words:

On Nov. 8, Donald Trump managed to pull the biggest upset in U.S. politics by tapping successfully into the anger of white voters and appealing to the lowest inclinations of people in a manner that would have probably impressed Nazi propagandist Joseph Goebbels himself.

But what exactly does Trump’s victory mean and what can one expect from this megalomaniac when he takes over the reins of power on Jan. 20, 2017? What is Trump’s political ideology, if any, and is “Trumpism” a movement? Will U.S. foreign policy be any different under a Trump administration? Some years ago, public intellectual Noam Chomsky warned that the political climate in the U.S. was ripe for the rise of an authoritarian figure. Now, he shares his thoughts on the aftermath of this election, the moribund state of the U.S. political system and why Trump is a real threat to the world and the planet in general.

Mr. Polychroniou goes on to quote Mr. Chomsky:

On Nov. 8, the most powerful country in world history, which will set its stamp on what comes next, had an election. The outcome placed total control of the government—executive, Congress, the Supreme Court—in the hands of the Republican Party, which has become the most dangerous organization in world history.

(http://www.ecowatch.com/noam-chomsky-trump-2093271018.html)

Brilliant minds like Mr. Polychroniou and Mr. Chomsky are not given to speaking in hyperbole; they are cautious and measured and don’t venture outside what they can document with fact. When such writers do indulge in hyperbole, it is a loud signal that we should all take notice. And we should be very afraid.

In the face of such dire predictions, our human tendency is to feel overwhelmed and to calm our fears by accepting the new normal and telling ourselves it won’t be so bad. The sun will rise tomorrow, and we’ll be okay. It’s exhausting to be always trying to swim against the current, so we tell ourselves it won’t do any good to try. But that leads to mediocrity and satisfaction with the status quo, and that’s not the America I know. We’ve already lowered our standards to a frightening level; how much lower are we willing to go?

Americans have always been innovators, strivers toward excellence. When our road was too old or inadequately engineered to support our bus, we didn’t shrug our shoulders and sigh “Oh, well!” We brought our creativity and genius to bear and built a new road or re-engineered the old road, because just getting by was not enough. Is our new standard for success going to be just staying on the road without falling off and plunging into the abyss? Will a good day be one on which nobody dies? Will a good day be one on which our president doesn’t do anything stupid or dangerous? Will we no longer even expect excellence or progress? It seems that’s where we’re headed, and that scares a few of us.

My next fear is the mainstreaming of attitudes which we thought we’d driven underground. Racism and bigotry have always existed in America; they’re written into our DNA. The slaves were here before the pilgrims, we committed genocide on the native inhabitants of this continent, and we herded Americans of Japanese ancestry into internment camps. Our hands are dirty, and the last few decades have not eliminated prejudice and bigotry; but dammit, we’d come a long way toward extending equal rights to all Americans; and those who opposed equal rights—who wanted to keep America white—were at least driven underground.

Looking back on it, we should have seen this coming. Underground, things boil and seethe and eventually erupt. Donald Trump released that roiling, bubbling lava; and it will take a long time to contain it again, if we ever can. But it’s probably a bit disingenuous for us to feign surprise. We always knew it was still there, especially during these last 8 years when the ugly vitriol of racism has been spewed every day at our black president. I knew it was there when my black friend told me he was afraid to drive through certain areas between Florida and North Carolina and another black friend is nervous about holding her white husband’s hand in public. We should have spent less time congratulating ourselves on our progress and more time seeking out and confronting the bastions of bigotry that still existed.

But now that time has passed, and what was hiding in bunkers on the fringes of society is now marching down Main Street. Churches are being burned and vandalized, children are being threatened and frightened, teachers are being defied because of their race or ethnicity, hate speech and bullying are rampant, and so are death threats. Signs are reappearing on water fountains which I have not seen since my youth. What’s next? Signs on city buses asking patrons of color to take the rear seats? And the perpetrators of all that evil are celebrating the election of a president who has legitimized and encouraged their bigotry and violence.

Those of us who fear this new normal and the results of Trump’s unleashing the forces of darkness are being told to relax because he’s going to surround himself with good advisers, so it will all be okay. That statement is not reassuring first of all because a president should not need babysitters; he shouldn’t need people to revoke his Twitter privileges at times when a careless remark could spark disaster. He’s not a 12-year-old who needs a break from screen time. He’s a 70-year-old who is supposed to be competent to execute the duties of the office to which he has, however tragically, been elected. Good presidents need good advisers, of course, because no one person can see every aspect of a situation; more minds mean a greater range of perspectives. But good presidents need good advisers to augment their judgment, not to compensate for its lack.

My second response to this most disturbing attempt at reassurance is that it’s a lie. Trump is not surrounding himself with sound advisers. Among his first appointments is Steve Bannon, his campaign manager, as his chief strategist. This one fact alone ought to scare the bejeezus out of anyone with good sense. The person with the president’s ear, guiding his policy making, has been credited with creating a haven for all of the groups loosely affiliated under the umbrella of the alt-right.

According to Mother Jones writer Sarah Posner,

By bringing on Stephen Bannon, Trump was signaling a wholehearted embrace of the “alt-right,” a once-motley assemblage of anti-immigrant, anti-Muslim, ethno-nationalistic provocateurs who have coalesced behind Trump and curried the GOP nominee’s favor on social media. In short, Trump has embraced the core readership of Breitbart News.

“We’re the platform for the alt-right,” Bannon told me proudly when I interviewed him at the Republican National Convention (RNC) in July. Though disavowed by every other major conservative news outlet, the alt-right has been Bannon’s target audience ever since he took over Breitbart News from its late founder, Andrew Breitbart, four years ago. Under Bannon’s leadership, the site has plunged into the fever swamps of conservatism, cheering white nationalist groups as an “eclectic mix of renegades,” accusing President Barack Obama of importing “more hating Muslims,” and waging an incessant war against the purveyors of “political correctness.”

(http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2016/08/stephen-bannon-donald-trump-alt-right-breitbart-news)

We’re also told by many news outlets that the KKK, the American Nazi Party, and other white nationalist groups are celebrating Trump’s victory and praising his appointment of Bannon who they say will hold Trump to the promises he made them during his campaign.

Less dangerous but equally appalling are names on Trump’s short list for cabinet positions, a group who, according to Robert Reich, “reads like a Who’s-Who of rightwing know-nothings (Sarah Palin), dangerous retreads (Newt Gingrich and John Bolton), arch conservatives (Sam Brownback), disgraced hacks (Chris Christie), Wall Street regressives (Steven Mnuchin), and raving opportunists (Rudi Giuliani).”

So much for the knowledgeable advisers! Sarah Palin can’t compose a coherent sentence; the most accurate description I’ve heard of her speech is “word salad.” The good news of Rick Scott’s possible appointment is that it would get him out of Florida, but that’s small comfort when one considers the irony of appointing the man whose name became public for perpetrating the largest Medicare fraud in U.S. history as Secretary of Health and Human Services. One of his first tasks would be assisting in repealing the Affordable Care Act, which he has already obstructed in the state of Florida.

This scary new normal is for me, as an old white woman, not too personal. Yes, there is an age prejudice, and I’ve seen and experienced it; yet it does not cause me to fear for my life. I am nervous about the talk of making changes to Social Security and Medicare, but I’m more frightened for my brown and black friends, my gay friends, my women friends who still work and whose work environment is bound to become more misogynistic and tolerant of sexual harassment and assault. When both the president and his chief adviser have known histories of sexual assault and domestic abuse, those facts lend a certain tacit sufferance of other would-be perpetrators’ actions.

I lived through the middle decades of the twentieth century, and I saw what life was like under the Jim Crow laws. I heard the N word spoken casually, I saw the signs on the water fountains and entrances to businesses, and I saw the signs in buses and saw them being enforced. I don’t want to return to those times. I don’t want anyone having to live in the closet and fear for their lives and their safety. I don’t want to see loving relationships ended because someone else disapproves of them. Tolerance is not based on approval; it’s based on compassion and empathy, and I want to live in a country where compassion and empathy are the norms. I fear living in a country where they’re not the norms.

I fear for those millions of people who have just become accustomed to having health insurance, and have been able for the first time in their lives to take care of their own and their families’ health, having that ripped away from them. I fear for the millions who as I write are living in fear of deportation, of having their families torn apart, of being removed from their homes and their livelihoods when they’ve been contributing members of society. I fear what will happen to our free press and our freedom of speech. I fear a further stretch of the Second Amendment to allow dangerous people to possess even greater numbers of dangerous weapons. I fear for Muslims, who have already been subjected to abuse, being further marginalized and persecuted. We interned Japanese Americans; it’s not a stretch to think an intolerant government might do the same to Muslim Americans.

I fear a president who, according to the repugnant Ms. Conway, is considering convening a special session of Congress on Inauguration Day to immediately repeal Obamacare. Inauguration Day? Go dance with your wife, for God’s sake, and enjoy the pageantry and adulation you so crave. You can start destroying people’s lives tomorrow. What’s the rush? Are you so petty and mean-spirited that you must give the finger to your predecessor before all of his personal belongings have even been moved out of the house? (http://www.cnn.com/2016/11/13/politics/kellyanne-conway-trump-special-session-congress/)

A president with no respect for tradition and custom, who will destroy decades- or centuries-old institutions and practices on a whim is a frightening president. A president who steadfastly refused to honor the tradition of releasing his tax returns, who refused to be transparent about his foreign ties, who seems unfazed by FBI and Russian interference in our election because the results benefit him is a dangerous president.

I also fear the false equivalence that has prevailed throughout the campaign and now into the transition period. A simpler way of understanding false equivalence is apples and oranges. Comparing Donald Trump to Hillary Clinton is comparing apples to oranges. Comparing this election to any other election in our history is comparing apples to oranges. Expecting the same acceptance of this new president that should be accorded to any other qualified winner of the office is comparing apples to oranges. This election was not a normal election, yet it has to an alarming degree been treated like one by everyone from the media to the least informed voters.

As a result, we have normalized things that are not and should not be normal. We’ve made it normal and acceptable for a con man to become a serious candidate for our highest office and to garner enough votes to win that office. We’ve made it normal and acceptable for one of our two major political parties to allow that to happen and to use its power and resources to support that candidate. We’ve made it normal and acceptable for a presidential candidate to threaten and intimidate his opponent and anyone else who got under his very thin skin.

This is not the America I want to live in. I’m fearful and angry that I no longer know my country.

Last of all, I fear that many people will read the 5000 words I’ve written and still not understand what I and others like me are scared of. We’ll still, in their minds, be sore losers, crybabies, and hypocrites. None of this will make any impression, just as each revelation of Trump’s degenerate past made no impression. This is my greatest fear of all: the fear that we now live in an America so deeply divided that we’re not just trying to reach across the aisle any longer; we’re trying to reach across a chasm so wide that there’s no common ground for coming together and living as brothers and sisters. Bridging that chasm has to be our primary goal. It’s not negotiable; it must be done, because failing in this “great experiment” is just not an option.

“When you teach a man to hate and to fear his brother, when you teach that he is a lesser man because of his color, or his beliefs or the policies that he pursues, when you teach that those who differ from you threaten your freedom or your job or your home or your family, then you also learn to confront others not as fellow citizens but as enemies.”

Robert Kennedy

Categories
Politics

What Are We So Afraid Of? Part Three

churchsignvandalism-1

My next fear is the mainstreaming of attitudes which we thought we’d driven underground. Racism and bigotry have always existed in America; they’re written into our DNA. The slaves were here before the pilgrims, we committed genocide on the native inhabitants of this continent, and we herded Americans of Japanese ancestry into internment camps. Our hands are dirty, and the last few decades have not eliminated prejudice and bigotry; but dammit, we’d come a long way toward extending equal rights to all Americans; and those who opposed equal rights—who wanted to keep America white—were at least driven underground.

Looking back on it, we should have seen this coming. Underground, things boil and seethe and eventually erupt. Donald Trump released that roiling, bubbling lava; and it will take a long time to contain it again, if we ever can. But it’s probably a bit disingenuous for us to feign surprise. We always knew it was still there, especially during these last 8 years when the ugly vitriol of racism has been spewed every day at our black president. I knew it was there when my black friend told me he was afraid to drive through certain areas between Florida and North Carolina and another black friend is nervous about holding her white husband’s hand in public. We should have spent less time congratulating ourselves on our progress and more time seeking out and confronting the bastions of bigotry that still existed.

But now that time has passed, and what was hiding in bunkers on the fringes of society is now marching down Main Street. Churches are being burned and vandalized, children are being threatened and frightened, teachers are being defied because of their race or ethnicity, hate speech and bullying are rampant, and so are death threats. Signs are reappearing on water fountains which I have not seen since my youth. What’s next? Signs on city buses asking patrons of color to take the rear seats? And the perpetrators of all that evil are celebrating the election of a president who has legitimized and encouraged their bigotry and violence.

Those of us who fear this new normal and the results of Trump’s unleashing the forces of darkness are being told to relax because he’s going to surround himself with good advisers, so it will all be okay. That statement is not reassuring first of all because a president should not need babysitters; he shouldn’t need people to revoke his Twitter privileges at times when a careless remark could spark disaster. He’s not a 12-year-old who needs a break from screen time. He’s a 70-year-old who is supposed to be competent to execute the duties of the office to which he has, however tragically, been elected. Good presidents need good advisers, of course, because no one person can see every aspect of a situation; more minds mean a greater range of perspectives. But good presidents need good advisers to augment their judgment, not to compensate for its lack.

My second response to this most disturbing attempt at reassurance is that it’s a lie. Trump is not surrounding himself with sound advisers. Among his first appointments is Steve Bannon, his campaign manager, as his chief strategist. This one fact alone ought to scare the bejeezus out of anyone with good sense. The person with the president’s ear, guiding his policy making, has been credited with creating a haven for all of the groups loosely affiliated under the umbrella of the alt-right.

According to Mother Jones writer Sarah Posner,

By bringing on Stephen Bannon, Trump was signaling a wholehearted embrace of the “alt-right,” a once-motley assemblage of anti-immigrant, anti-Muslim, ethno-nationalistic provocateurs who have coalesced behind Trump and curried the GOP nominee’s favor on social media. In short, Trump has embraced the core readership of Breitbart News.

“We’re the platform for the alt-right,” Bannon told me proudly when I interviewed him at the Republican National Convention (RNC) in July. Though disavowed by every other major conservative news outlet, the alt-right has been Bannon’s target audience ever since he took over Breitbart News from its late founder, Andrew Breitbart, four years ago. Under Bannon’s leadership, the site has plunged into the fever swamps of conservatism, cheering white nationalist groups as an “eclectic mix of renegades,” accusing President Barack Obama of importing “more hating Muslims,” and waging an incessant war against the purveyors of “political correctness.”

(http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2016/08/stephen-bannon-donald-trump-alt-right-breitbart-news)

We’re also told by many news outlets that the KKK, the American Nazi Party, and other white nationalist groups are celebrating Trump’s victory and praising his appointment of Bannon who they say will hold Trump to the promises he made them during his campaign.

Less dangerous but equally appalling are names on Trump’s short list for cabinet positions, a group who, according to Robert Reich, “reads like a Who’s-Who of rightwing know-nothings (Sarah Palin), dangerous retreads (Newt Gingrich and John Bolton), arch conservatives (Sam Brownback), disgraced hacks (Chris Christie), Wall Street regressives (Steven Mnuchin), and raving opportunists (Rudi Giuliani).”

So much for the knowledgeable advisers! Sarah Palin can’t compose a coherent sentence; the most accurate description I’ve heard of her speech is “word salad.” The good news of Rick Scott’s possible appointment is that it would get him out of Florida, but that’s small comfort when one considers the irony of appointing the man whose name became public for perpetrating the largest Medicare fraud in U.S. history as Secretary of Health and Human Services. One of his first tasks would be assisting in repealing the Affordable Care Act, which he has already obstructed in the state of Florida.

This scary new normal is for me, as an old white woman, not too personal. Yes, there is an age prejudice, and I’ve seen and experienced it; yet it does not cause me to fear for my life. I am nervous about the talk of making changes to Social Security and Medicare, but I’m more frightened for my brown and black friends, my gay friends, my women friends who still work and whose work environment is bound to become more misogynistic and tolerant of sexual harassment and assault. When both the president and his chief adviser have known histories of sexual assault and domestic abuse, those facts lend a certain tacit sufferance of other would-be perpetrators’ actions.

I lived through the middle decades of the twentieth century, and I saw what life was like under the Jim Crow laws. I heard the N word spoken casually, I saw the signs on the water fountains and entrances to businesses, and I saw the signs in buses and saw them being enforced. I don’t want to return to those times. I don’t want anyone having to live in the closet and fear for their lives and their safety. I don’t want to see loving relationships ended because someone else disapproves of them. Tolerance is not based on approval; it’s based on compassion and empathy, and I want to live in a country where compassion and empathy are the norms. I fear living in a country where they’re not the norms.

I fear for those millions of people who have just become accustomed to having health insurance, and have been able for the first time in their lives to take care of their own and their families’ health, having that ripped away from them. I fear for the millions who as I write are living in fear of deportation, of having their families torn apart, of being removed from their homes and their livelihoods when they’ve been contributing members of society. I fear what will happen to our free press and our freedom of speech. I fear a further stretch of the Second Amendment to allow dangerous people to possess even greater numbers of dangerous weapons. I fear for Muslims, who have already been subjected to abuse, being further marginalized and persecuted. We interned Japanese Americans; it’s not a stretch to think an intolerant government might do the same to Muslim Americans.

I fear a president who, according to the repugnant Ms. Conway, is considering convening a special session of Congress on Inauguration Day to immediately repeal Obamacare. Inauguration Day? Go dance with your wife, for God’s sake, and enjoy the pageantry and adulation you so crave. You can start destroying people’s lives tomorrow. What’s the rush? Are you so petty and mean-spirited that you must give the finger to your predecessor before all of his personal belongings have even been moved out of the house? (http://www.cnn.com/2016/11/13/politics/kellyanne-conway-trump-special-session-congress/)

A president with no respect for tradition and custom, who will destroy decades- or centuries-old institutions and practices on a whim is a frightening president. A president who steadfastly refused to honor the tradition of releasing his tax returns, who refused to be transparent about his foreign ties, who seems unfazed by FBI and Russian interference in our election because the results benefit him is a dangerous president.

I also fear the false equivalence that has prevailed throughout the campaign and now into the transition period. A simpler way of understanding false equivalence is apples and oranges. Comparing Donald Trump to Hillary Clinton is comparing apples to oranges. Comparing this election to any other election in our history is comparing apples to oranges. Expecting the same acceptance of this new president that should be accorded to any other qualified winner of the office is comparing apples to oranges. This election was not a normal election, yet it has to an alarming degree been treated like one by everyone from the media to the least informed voters.

As a result, we have normalized things that are not and should not be normal. We’ve made it normal and acceptable for a con man to become a serious candidate for our highest office and to garner enough votes to win that office. We’ve made it normal and acceptable for one of our two major political parties to allow that to happen and to use its power and resources to support that candidate. We’ve made it normal and acceptable for a presidential candidate to threaten and intimidate his opponent and anyone else who got under his very thin skin.

This is not the America I want to live in. I’m fearful and angry that I no longer know my country.

Last of all, I fear that many people will read the 5000 words I’ve written and still not understand what I and others like me are scared of. We’ll still, in their minds, be sore losers, crybabies, and hypocrites. None of this will make any impression, just as each revelation of Trump’s degenerate past made no impression. This is my greatest fear of all: the fear that we now live in an America so deeply divided that we’re not just trying to reach across the aisle any longer; we’re trying to reach across a chasm so wide that there’s no common ground for coming together and living as brothers and sisters. Bridging that chasm has to be our primary goal. It’s not negotiable; it must be done, because failing in this “great experiment” is just not an option.

“When you teach a man to hate and to fear his brother, when you teach that he is a lesser man because of his color, or his beliefs or the policies that he pursues, when you teach that those who differ from you threaten your freedom or your job or your home or your family, then you also learn to confront others not as fellow citizens but as enemies.”

Robert Kennedy

 

Categories
Politics

What Are We So Afraid Of? Part Two

fountains

In an excellent article titled “The Seven Broken Guardrails of Democracy,” David Frum begins with this:

The first guardrail to go missing was the old set of expectations about how a candidate for president of the United States should speak and act. Here’s Adlai Stevenson accepting the Democratic nomination for president in 1952:

That I have not sought this nomination, that I could not seek it in good conscience, that I would not seek it in honest self-appraisal, is not to say that I value it the less.

There was a certain quantum of malarkey here—but it wasn’t all malarkey. From the founding of the republic, Americans have looked to qualities of personal restraint as one of the first checks on the power of office. “The aim of every political Constitution is or ought to be first to obtain for rulers, men who possess most wisdom to discern, and most virtue to pursue the common good of the society; and in the next place, to take the most effectual precautions for keeping them virtuous, whilst they continue to hold their public trust.” So argued James Madison in Federalist 57. In Federalist 68, Alexander Hamilton promised more specifically: “Talents for low intrigue, and the little arts of popularity, may alone suffice to elevate a man to the first honors in a single State; but it will require other talents, and a different kind of merit, to establish him in the esteem and confidence of the whole Union, or of so considerable a portion of it as would be necessary to make him a successful candidate for the distinguished office of President of the United States.”

(http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2016/05/the-seven-broken-guardrails-of-democracy/484829/)

Okay, so nobody talks like that any more; but Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, and other leaders speak and act in ways that evidence their knowledge and intelligence in the best 21st-century form. Do I need to point out the contrast with one of Trump’s classic lines, “I’m speaking with myself [on foreign policy] because I have a very good brain”? I rest my case.

Then there are his words from his first televised sit-down interview after the election. Interviewer Lesley Stahl asked for his response to the supporters demonstrating in his name. Here’s what he said:

“I am so saddened to hear that,” Trump [said] when she said Latinos and Muslims are facing harassment. “And I say, ‘Stop it.’ If it — if it helps, I will say this, and I will say right to the cameras: ‘Stop it.'”

Wow, Donald! That’s it? “Stop it”? A five-year-old would say that. You can’t reason intelligently with these people—your own supporters—and express to them that what they’re doing is wrong and you refuse to tolerate or condone that kind of behavior in your name or in our country? Just “stop it”? That’s all you’ve got? And you wonder what we’re scared of? Throughout his campaign, Trump told us how he would fix problems by simply speaking solutions; he would command bad people such as ISIS to cease, and the problem would be solved.

Smart people can see two problems here: First, he sees his position as that of a dictator. He speaks, and people follow his commands. Second, the dark forces have been unleashed and empowered, so they no longer need Trump and have no reason to listen to him except when he is further advancing their causes. There will be a nasty divorce between the demagogue and his adoring fans because they no longer need each other. They helped him get elected; he has no further incentive to keep his promises or live up to their hope that he would be their champion. They’ve been given power and legitimacy to carry on their bigotry and violence with or without his support. Are you scared yet?

The guardrail metaphor resonates with me since I had a few hair-raising moments during my 1996 trip to Israel. On one of our daily excursions, our bus driver took us on a narrow, winding road up a hillside—not one of the roads usually available to tourists. I believe it was called the Old Roman Road, so for obvious reasons, there was no guardrail or any kind of barrier between our bus and the sheer drop-off into the valley below and the road was not engineered to support modern tour buses. We were riding in a large modern tour bus, however; and it seems the distance between its tires and the edge of the road could probably have been measured in inches. Our president is our representative on the world stage; our national security is partly dependent on our representative’s ability to command the respect and cooperation of other world leaders. His mental and emotional stability and his personal restraint are among the guardrails that prevent our plummet into oblivion. So far, the most common caricature of our newly elected top official in publications around the world is a diaper-clad, tantrum-throwing toddler. I was scared on that bus ride, and I’m even more scared now.

Next, I fear the fact that we have elected an extreme narcissist as our president. It didn’t take anyone long to recognize the symptoms once we started hearing from Trump in large doses; his narcissism was the first thing to be noticed and analyzed among anyone with even a Psych 101 class on their transcript. Professional shrinks have said there’s a little narcissism in every leader, that it takes a bit of self-importance to motivate a person to seek high office and extreme power. No one, however, has ever thought Donald Trump’s ego and self-importance are within the normal, healthy range.

Amy Ellis Nutt quotes experts who define narcissism thus:

“Narcissism is a trait all human beings have to one extent or another, so it’s not inherently negative,” said psychologist Margaret Jordan, an expert in personality disorders at Houston’s Baylor College of Medicine. “It’s a part of self-esteem and is important to mental health.”

(https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2016/07/22/is-donald-trump-a-textbook-narcissist/)

Ms. Nutt goes on to ask when self-regard becomes pathological. Her answer:

The most recent edition of the American Psychiatric Association’s Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders describes narcissistic personality disorder as being “characterized by the presence of both grandiosity and attention seeking” and lists nine criteria, of which five are necessary for diagnosis. Among them: a need for excessive admiration; preoccupation with fantasies of brilliance, power and success; and a sense of being special.

Those traits can lead to arrogance and haughtiness, and a single-minded pursuit of status that make close relationships difficult and devoid of true intimacy.

About six clinicians were consulted in the preparation of Ms. Nutt’s article, all of whom refused to specifically evaluate Trump, citing what’s called the Goldwater Rule, which discourages psychiatric professionals from evaluating people with whom they’ve not personally met. A few of them did, however, agree to speak on the process by which they would identify possible signs of narcissistic personality disorder. They shared these examples:

Trump has said that his “IQ is one of the highest,” that he has “the world’s greatest memory,” and that he is “dazzled” by his own creations.

And during his speech Thursday night at the Republican convention, he faulted the government’s “broken system,” then declared: “I alone can fix it.”

Although they declined to say whether these statements qualify as pathological, I’m going to draw my own conclusion, which is that no matter what we call it, that level of grandiosity is dangerous in a president. The professionals did go so far as to say it is unprecedented.

Our new president-elect sees every situation only as if affects him; the rest of the world exists as his supporting cast, and we are useful only as we enhance his ego. Chanting, adoring crowds yield many votes; having the biggest crowds means he’s the best candidate and his message is obviously right. The system is rigged unless it serves his purpose; now he’s no longer whining about a rigged system. The vote would be fair and he’d accept the results if he won, but if he didn’t win it would obviously mean his opponent had cheated and he wouldn’t commit to accepting the results. When crowds of protesters began to throng the streets in protest of his election, he didn’t express concern for anyone’s safety or talk to the protesters and address their concerns—going back to his childish communication ability. Instead, he tweeted some of his favorite words: “very unfair.” Unfair to him, of course, the only effect that matters.

Dan P. McAdams says of Trump’s personality:

More than even Ronald Reagan, Trump seems supremely cognizant of the fact that he is always acting. He moves through life like a man who knows he is always being observed. If all human beings are, by their very nature, social actors, then Donald Trump seems to be more so—superhuman, in this one primal sense.

(http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2016/06/the-mind-of-donald-trump/480771/)

What does all of this mean to citizens of our country, and why should any of us be frightened by it? A man who thinks he alone can solve problems is delusional, autocratic, uneducated, and unlikely to work within the checks-and-balances structure of our government. As President Obama recently said, “A man who can be baited with a tweet has no business with the nuclear codes.”

A president who has threatened to jail his opponent, to “open up the libel laws” to silence and prosecute journalists, whose first response to every problem is to file or at least threaten to file a lawsuit, who shows no capacity for empathy or compassion, who lies and then lies about his lies—all for one purpose: to defend and protect his enormous but fragile ego—is dangerous. When he is president, SNL actors will continue to impersonate him, every journalist in the world will continue to write about him, every scholar will continue to study and analyze him. If he continues his penchant for vengeance and focusing on protecting his ego against every minute affront, he’ll have little time left over for tending to the duties of his office. And we will all be the losers for that: not just the Democrats but ALL Americans.

The overriding fear is that Trump’s election, and the events and movements which made his election possible, have established a new normal, which can’t be accepted if we’re not only to survive but to progress and innovate as Americans have always done.

C. J. Polychroniou prefaces his interview with Noam Chomsky with these words:

On Nov. 8, Donald Trump managed to pull the biggest upset in U.S. politics by tapping successfully into the anger of white voters and appealing to the lowest inclinations of people in a manner that would have probably impressed Nazi propagandist Joseph Goebbels himself.

But what exactly does Trump’s victory mean and what can one expect from this megalomaniac when he takes over the reins of power on Jan. 20, 2017? What is Trump’s political ideology, if any, and is “Trumpism” a movement? Will U.S. foreign policy be any different under a Trump administration? Some years ago, public intellectual Noam Chomsky warned that the political climate in the U.S. was ripe for the rise of an authoritarian figure. Now, he shares his thoughts on the aftermath of this election, the moribund state of the U.S. political system and why Trump is a real threat to the world and the planet in general.

Mr. Polychroniou goes on to quote Mr. Chomsky:

On Nov. 8, the most powerful country in world history, which will set its stamp on what comes next, had an election. The outcome placed total control of the government—executive, Congress, the Supreme Court—in the hands of the Republican Party, which has become the most dangerous organization in world history.

(http://www.ecowatch.com/noam-chomsky-trump-2093271018.html)

Brilliant minds like Mr. Polychroniou and Mr. Chomsky are not given to speaking in hyperbole; they are cautious and measured and don’t venture outside what they can document with fact. When such writers do indulge in hyperbole, it is a loud signal that we should all take notice. And we should be very afraid.

In the face of such dire predictions, our human tendency is to feel overwhelmed and to calm our fears by accepting the new normal and telling ourselves it won’t be so bad. The sun will rise tomorrow, and we’ll be okay. It’s exhausting to be always trying to swim against the current, so we tell ourselves it won’t do any good to try. But that leads to mediocrity and satisfaction with the status quo, and that’s not the America I know. We’ve already lowered our standards to a frightening level; how much lower are we willing to go?

Americans have always been innovators, strivers toward excellence. When our road was too old or inadequately engineered to support our bus, we didn’t shrug our shoulders and sigh “Oh, well!” We brought our creativity and genius to bear and built a new road or re-engineered the old road, because just getting by was not enough. Is our new standard for success going to be just staying on the road without falling off and plunging into the abyss? Will a good day be one on which nobody dies? Will a good day be one on which our president doesn’t do anything stupid or dangerous? Will we no longer even expect excellence or progress? It seems that’s where we’re headed, and that scares a few of us.

To be continued.

Categories
Politics

What Are We So Afraid Of? Part One

swastika

For the last few days, a copy-and-paste post has been circulating on social media, asking those horrified by last week’s election results what it is we’re afraid of. Many of us have expressed fear, along with disbelief and revulsion, and it’s fair to ask why we’re afraid. I was directly confronted by a family member who requested a list of the horrible and tragic events I fear may befall our country in the next 6 to 12 months; again, it’s a fair question. So I’ve given it some thought, and here’s my list.

Because I could easily write a whole book right now on the things that make me angry and/or afraid, I’ll start with these four: Trump’s ignorance, his immaturity, his mental instability, and his association with people who represent the darker side of humanity and of America’s history. (By the time I finished writing this article, it was about 5000 words long, so I’ve divided it into three parts. I’ll post parts two and three by the end of the week.)

Our president-elect, and I physically shiver every time I read or write those words, is the most ignorant person ever elected to the presidency of our country. There’s a difference between being ignorant and being dumb; I think he’s both, but I can’t document his dumbness since he has never released academic transcripts (or tax returns, etc.), so I’ll stick to ignorance, for which there is an abundance of documentation.

Anyone applying for a job is expected to have the knowledge and skill required to perform that job; this is so basic, I can’t believe it needs to be mentioned. Hiring an “outsider” is a nice way of saying we hired someone who doesn’t have a clue what the hell he’s doing. He doesn’t know how the system works, he doesn’t know the governing charters (in this case, our Constitution), and he doesn’t know what the job consists of. The higher the position the more knowledge is required. There is no higher position than leader of the free world, so we should have been looking for a friggin’ genius; instead, we hired the guy standing on the corner holding a cardboard sign.

Not only is he ignorant of the job but he’s demonstrated a stubborn unwillingness to learn. He lacks intellectual curiosity. He lacks the social consciousness that would cause most of us to strive at least to give the appearance of competence. Look at the photos of Trump’s first meeting with President Obama after the election. He looks scared, as well he should be. He’s in so far over his head that he can’t even fake a look of confidence and competence.

In the absence of knowledge, he can rely only on populist appeal and demagoguery, and so far that’s working well for him among his followers. Matthew MacWilliams wrote in Politico Magazine on January 17, 2016:

If I asked you what most defines Donald Trump supporters, what would you say? They’re white? They’re poor? They’re uneducated? You’d be wrong.

In fact, I’ve found a single statistically significant variable predicts whether a voter supports Trump—and it’s not race, income or education levels: It’s authoritarianism.

That’s right, Trump’s electoral strength—and his staying power—have been buoyed, above all, by Americans with authoritarian inclinations. And because of the prevalence of authoritarians in the American electorate, among Democrats as well as Republicans, it’s very possible that Trump’s fan base will continue to grow.

(http://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2016/01/donald-trump-2016-authoritarian-213533)

There you have it. The people who elected Donald Trump don’t care that he knows nothing about governing. They wanted an authoritarian—an autocrat—and they got one. Some say the comparisons to Hitler are exaggerated; some say they’re spot on. By the time we know who’s right, it will be too late.

According to the Wall Street Journal,

During their private White House meeting on Thursday, Mr. Obama walked his successor through the duties of running the country, and Mr. Trump seemed surprised by the scope, said people familiar with the meeting. Trump aides were described by those people as unaware that the entire presidential staff working in the West Wing had to be replaced at the end of Mr. Obama’s term.

After meeting with Mr. Trump, the only person to be elected president without having held a government or military position, Mr. Obama realized the Republican needs more guidance. He plans to spend more time with his successor than presidents typically do, people familiar with the matter said.

Does it seem unreasonable to say that the Presidency of the United States is NO place for on-the-job training? My fellow citizens have elected the first president in our history with zero government or military experience, and they can’t understand why I and millions of others are afraid of what he’ll do. At a time in the world’s history when we face the greatest global threats and conflicts, combined with the most powerful and sophisticated weaponry that’s ever existed, we have our most unprepared leader. That’s scary as hell!

My next fear is that Trump is the most immature person ever to stand on a presidential campaign platform or debate stage or to be welcomed into the White House as its next resident, which is to say he is temperamentally unfit for the position to which he’s been elected. If your 5-year-old were inaugurated president, given highly classified information including the nuclear codes, given power to make decisions affecting your safety and welfare and that of everyone else in the world, would you be scared?

When was the last time you saw a presidential candidate accuse his opponent of everything she said about him, a weird version of Pee Wee Herman’s comic line “I know you are but what am I?” When was the last time you heard a presidential candidate attack everyone who criticized him, including the SNL actor who impersonated him? When was the last time a presidential candidate had to have his Twitter privileges revoked the week before the election because he has no impulse control? When was the last time you saw a presidential candidate remind himself in a campaign speech to remain calm, be cool? Never. Never!

It was frightening enough to have a candidate bent on wreaking revenge on everyone who threatened his delicate ego, even more frightening now to think how he’ll respond when he’s president and has all the power of that office at his fingertips. For the first time in our nation’s history, we witnessed a presidential candidate threaten to use his presidential power to have his opponent investigated and possibly incarcerated. That alone should scare any sensible person. His Twitter wars, his petty insults, and his mean-spirited attacks on every demographic in our country do not evidence the maturity and gravitas necessary to be president.

Vocabulary is more than a subject we study as part of our elementary-school English classes, it’s an indicator of our ability to process complex ideas. Children’s ideas are generally not too complex, and their vocabularies reflect the simplicity of their lives and scope of understanding. That’s normal and healthy for children but not for adults and especially not for an adult who thinks he should be president. Jack Shafer, in an August 13, 2015, Politico article, rated Trump’s vocabulary at a third-grade level. (http://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2015/08/donald-trump-talks-like-a-third-grader-121340)

Some of his go-to words are “great,” “terrific,” “loser,” “disaster,” “very,” “disgusting,” “unfair,” and “ashamed.” Humans learn words as we need them to communicate our thoughts. Toddlers have a relatively simple world, and the things they want to communicate are basic biological needs: they’re hungry, thirsty, hot, cold, need to use the restroom. As they begin making observations and processing the world around them rather than just their own needs, they have to learn more words to express those more complex ideas.

Trump’s former ghost-writer for The Art of the Deal claims, “He has the smallest vocabulary of any person who has ever run for any kind of office, much less president . . .” Schwartz also says,

“It’s a 200-word vocabulary, so as soon he gets beyond that, you know that he’s reading someone else’s words,” Schwartz said. He theorized that Trump probably doesn’t familiarize himself with prepared remarks before delivering them because of his “incredibly short attention span.”

(http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/donald-trump-vocabulary_us_580d458de4b0a03911ed69b6)

Admittedly, I don’t know how Mr. Schwartz arrived at that figure; but having listened to Trump speak as many times as I could stomach doing so, I think the estimate is pretty accurate. For perspective, child development experts estimate that a 2 ½-year-old should know about 300 words.

Lest someone think I’m being petty by spending so much time on something as seemingly insignificant as a small vocabulary, I believe a person’s words reveal a great deal about the person. They reveal the depth and breadth of what the person has read and studied; reading and study build one’s word bank as they increase one’s understanding of the world–a necessary qualification for a head of state–and it’s safe to assume that someone so verbally bankrupt has read and studied very little and understands very little about the world. Understanding of language, in my opinion, also reflects a person’s ability to process complex ideas as well as the person’s interest in ideas. We learn words as we need them; those who remain at the toddler level, whose worlds consist only of their own needs, have little use for more sophisticated words.

To be continued.

Categories
Politics

Democracy in Immokalee

Immokalee, Florida, is one of the more unlikely places on the planet where one might expect to have a soul-impacting experience; but that’s just what happened to me on Tuesday of this week. As I was standing in the second row from the fence separating the waiting crowd from the speaking area set up for the feature attraction—a campaign speech by Hillary Clinton’s number-one surrogate, former President Bill Clinton—my feet were firmly planted on the spot of soil which I had claimed to place me in a prime spot for at least a handshake and hopefully a selfie after the speech. Alas, only the first row got selfies, but I did succeed in getting the treasured handshake. While I was waiting for the event to begin, my eyes scanning the growing crowd, the gentleman behind me suddenly voiced the thoughts that were spinning in my mind: “LOOK at the diversity in this crowd!”

Indeed, it would be almost impossible to conjure in your mind the diverse group gathered there. For those unfamiliar with the Florida map, Immokalee is just under an hour’s drive from Fort Myers; it’s an agricultural community east of Naples. Both carved out of the Florida Everglades, and both in Collier County, the differences between Naples and Immokalee could not be more stark. Naples is the Palm Beach/Grosse Pointe/Hamptons of Southwest Florida. Many homes in downtown Naples could cover football fields, and there’s that “certain something” about the people one meets there on the streets.

Immokalee, on the other hand, is an unincorporated community, belonging to the Naples-Marco Island Statistical Area. It is home to a large migrant population: farm workers and produce pickers, whose main crop is tomatoes. The poverty and human rights abuses have for decades been the subject of documentaries and calls for change.

Since Collier County sits on the edge of the Florida Everglades, the county also remains the home of some Seminole Indians, who were forced to move south during the Seminole Wars in northern Florida during the early 1800s. Thanks to the Seminoles, Immokalee is not without its bright spots, especially the large Seminole Casino where people from all of South Florida enjoy gambling and dancing.

There in the middle of the Roberts Ranch, all of those wildly diverse populations were represented in what almost felt like a scene out of Nathaniel Hawthorne’s “Young Goodman Brown.” But instead of highlighting the dark heart of human nature as in Hawthorne’s fiction, this gathering highlighted the very best, most enlightened impulses of our common humanity: love and respect unbounded by skin color, race, age, or socio-economic status. With one voice, Naples elites, Immokalee farm workers, local politicians, old people, young people, black people, brown people, red people (Seminoles), and white people peacefully chanted “I’m with her!”

When President Clinton appeared, he seemed every bit as much at ease on a makeshift stage at the Roberts Ranch as he would have been at a white-tie dinner with high-rolling donors. He spoke lovingly and kindly to the audience, making every individual feel the same warmth and good humor as if he were speaking only to them.

He spoke with great knowledge and command of fact on the economy, health care, gun concerns, and other issues of significance to all; but his central theme was something even more important. He said he began this campaign expecting a “normal” scenario of two candidates stating their different views on issues and choices facing Americans; but as the campaign progressed, he said, he became increasingly aware that this campaign was going to be about far more than issues and choices. It was going to boil down to what it means to be an American.

Simple yet profound, that phrase—“what it means to be an American”—has occupied my thoughts these last few days. And here’s what I’ve decided: To me, being an American means living life on the Roberts Ranch. Oh, not literally, of course. I like my creature comforts too much, and I have no desire to start picking tomatoes. But I’d like to see that gathering become a microcosm of our country at large. Yeah, that’s idealistic, and that kind of goal will never be fully realized; but here are some things which I think are doable and which I think we must do if we are to reverse the damaging legacy of 2016.

The subculture which has found legitimacy and a public voice through the Trump campaign must be sent back to the underbelly where it belongs. According to an investigative report by Luke O’Brien (http://highline.huffingtonpost.com/articles/en/alt-right/), the alt-right movement was only a loosely connected group of white supremacists and violent Neo-Nazis until Trump came along and saw a chance to latch onto a strong support group. Thanks to Trump, Steve Bannon, and the communication technology of Breitbart, this group has now infected the mainstream and has been emboldened to pursue their twisted dream of forming white ethno-states. They have even identified their “next David Duke,” a 25-year-old man named Matthew Heimbach who aims to lead the group forward toward a “future of organized hate.”

Sadly, racism is written into America’s DNA: the kidnapped Africans were here before the Pilgrims, and the white Europeans’ (from whom most of us are descended) genocide of the Native Americans is a national disgrace. But those better parts of our nature had gone a long way toward rectifying our original sins until this ugly uprising. We all have to be the people we want our fellow Americans to emulate. More than ever, being an American means being informed. We no longer have the luxury of living with our heads in the sand and assuming smart people will lead us in ways of righteousness. We must accept the responsibility of being part of the solution.

Americans of the present and the future have to heed the advice of President John F. Kennedy:

Let us not seek the Republican answer or the Democratic answer, but the right answer. Let us not seek to fix the blame for the past. Let us accept our own responsibility for the future.

Party loyalty must give way to a vision for the common good. The last decade has demonstrated the dire consequences of fierce party loyalty: obsession with obstructing our president has become the driving force behind every decision in Congress, rather than accepting the mandate of constituents who elected those representatives to legislate solutions to problems facing everyday citizens. Millions of the people voting to elect a demagogue as president are doing so simply because he is the nominee of their party. That doesn’t work any more! Better for your party to lose the White House, the Senate, and the House than for all of us to lose our country! Unlike Trump’s bigoted “America first” mantra, we need to be Americans first.

More than anything else, having a Roberts Ranch culture requires all of us to look around us and truly believe that we are stronger together—not just repeat it as a catchy campaign slogan, but really internalize the fact that cracks and divisions weaken any vessel. The glue that can keep us all in one piece is love and compassion, not hate and desire to conquer and destroy. We don’t need any more David Dukes! We need some more Martin Luther Kings who believe

Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that. Hate multiplies hate, violence multiplies violence, and toughness multiplies toughness in a descending spiral of destruction. The chain reaction of evil –hate begetting hate, wars producing more wars –must be broken, or we shall be plunged into the dark abyss of annihilation.

John Winthrop, one of the leaders in the founding of the Massachusetts Bay Colony and its governor for 12 of the first 20 years of its existence, said in 1630:

For we must consider that we shall be as a City upon a Hill, the eyes of all people are upon us; so that if we shall deal falsely with our god in this work we have undertaken and so cause him to withdraw his present help from us, we shall be made a story and a byword through the world . . .

Now 386 years later, the eyes of the whole world are still upon us; and what they’re seeing is pretty embarrassing some days. They’re seeing an emotional toddler impersonating a presidential candidate, they’re seeing huge rallies where angry people spew hatred for our democracy, they’re hearing angry white people calling for the incarceration of their leader’s political opponent, they’re hearing a “presidential candidate” threaten his opponent with investigation and incarceration if he wins the high office, they’re seeing the rise of a subculture that could destroy everything the last 386 years has established, and they’ve heard a candidate threaten not to accept the voters’ decision in a major election. In other words, the whole world is seeing the United States of America do the unthinkable: give serious consideration to electing a demagogue who has no respect for our history and our institutions.

Winthrop warned, “We could become a story and a byword through the world.” In today’s language, that means “We could make asses of ourselves in front of the whole f&^%ing world. Is THAT what we want?” Of course, none of us wants that, but some are hell bent on trying to make it happen. And not only do we make ourselves look foolish, but we jeopardize all of those other countries whose security is at least partially dependent on our not losing our minds.

The government our founders envisioned was a great experiment that was supposed to determine whether humans could live as equals and be trusted to govern themselves, to prove that we didn’t need a monarch. Every now and then, we have to stop and ask ourselves the question, “So, how’s that working out for us?” Abraham Lincoln did a reality check in his Gettysburg Address:

Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.

Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure.

And today we’re in another civil conflict of sorts; we’re facing another test. Can our system work in the long term? Can we be trusted to elect smart, capable leaders? Can our two-party system function for the good of all? Can we maintain the peaceful transfer of power on which we’ve always prided ourselves? Can we get along with each other even when we disagree? Can we let the better parts of our nature dictate our actions and choices, or will we live by our base instincts?

We ARE stronger together. Do you want to live in a perpetual Trump rally, or would you rather live on Roberts Ranch? I’m voting for Roberts Ranch: love, peace, equality, and cooperation. Please join me!