Trump the monster
The U.S. government is, as a matter of policy, literally ripping children from the arms of their parents and putting them in fenced enclosures (which officials insist aren’t cages, oh no). The U.S. president is demanding that law enforcement stop investigating his associates and go after his political enemies instead. He has been insulting democratic allies while praising murderous dictators. And a global trade war seems increasingly likely.
What do these stories have in common? Obviously they’re all tied to the character of the man occupying the White House, surely the worst human being ever to hold his position. But there’s also a larger context, and it’s not just about Donald Trump. What we’re witnessing is a systematic rejection of longstanding American values — the values that actually made America great.
America has long been a powerful nation. In particular, we emerged from World War II with a level of both economic and military dominance not seen since the heyday of ancient Rome. But our […]
Is this writer forgetting the endless wars we’ve been fighting and funding in the Middle East? Iraq is mentioned, but I think they missed a few other major ones. How about the endless spying on Americans and foreign citizens by the NSA? Didn’t our previous administration lie endlessly about that one? How about public school lunches, or the state of our foster care system, aren’t those childrens’ safety and health as important as the immigrants being detained at the border? I could go on and on… This country has been sliding in the wrong direction for decades, and calling out Trump isn’t any more helpful than blaming the Clintons, Bushes or Obama. It would be nice to read an actual deep dive into the systematic failures of our country, and how we might fix them, rather than a negative opinion piece on a president most of us agree can be a real horses ass.
You want to fix all those things without blaming any President? Then get money out of politics. That’s underpinning every one of your issues; from the endless wars to the state of public school lunches.
You must be a new reader, Eric. I have been arguing since Citizens United that the first step to restoring American democracy is getting money out of the election process, replacing it with public financing.
Trumps bullying is going to have a very profound effect on all of our friends in the international arena and it will put us on a track to being the bully of the world which everyone hates and this is already happening, making us an international disgrace. The wars we have created openly are only part of the hegemonic overreach of our country in other countries where we have imposed our will using the CIA to overthrow governments by infiltrating their governments to force them to do our bidding. We are the greatest threat to world peace, as the great philosopher Noam Chomsky has repeatedly said, and we will suffer from losing all of our former friendly nations, who have now become our enemies, because of our stupidity. Only the ballot box can change our course of action.
The wheels of karma turn slowly but turn they do. And while the US has done much good in the world we have done much bad. And as happened to many rich societies over time hubris grows like cancer until it destroys the host. Do we go the way of the Soviet Union or maybe Yugoslavia, Syria perhaps or do we refocus, reflect and decide we are better than this????