Is This Where We Want to Go?

I worry that my posts sometimes seem like just another critic whining about where our country is heading, but I have become more and more concerned about the overall picture of what is happening with America’s place in the world and how Trump’s destructive behavior is changing the global power alignment.

Trump’s antics and perception of the world and America’s place in it is really unsettling, isn’t it?  

Today we were treated to another of Donald’s verbal diarrhea moments at his press conference in Brussels.  Listening to him over the past two days harping and blathering how wonderful he is for making all our NATO allies pay more for their defense, while completely ignoring any of the really substantive issues and concerns that the NATO members have is embarrassing. However the really nefarious reality is that the world’s power balance is changing at the hands of this man.  And he is doing it without challenge from anyone currently in power in American politics.

He is accelerating his attacks on all our allies while sucking

up and giving credibility to dictators all over the world….and he is dragging all of us along with him into this new nether world where our country has no friends and lots of new adversaries.  He is positioning the United States of America as an autocratic state, wanting alliances with leaders who subjugate their people, encourage violence and force to retain their power, and deal in deception as an instrument of power.  He is single handedly destroying alliances we as a country have nurtured for 7 decades since the end of WWII.  He is dismantling treaties and economic relationships with democratic allies and has withdrawn from global efforts to speak as one with regard to climate change. 

And for what gain?

For all of you who righteously feel that climate change is a ‘hoax’, I would encourage all of you to watch Al Gore’s encore documentary: “An Inconvenient Sequel: Truth to Power”.  I am sure all you climate deniers will recoil at this suggestion, but in the spirit of being open-minded, please evaluate the veracity of the scientific facts he presents.  If you have any shred of intellectual honesty, you will come away from that film with some real questions about your own fallaciously based beliefs.

What is the real danger here?  Let’s imagine what will happen over the next couple of years leading up to Trump’s attempt to be re-elected.

Trump will continue to make a fool of himself on the world stage.  He will lie and self-aggrandize all the time, issuing ultimatums to former allies to do what he wants or he will simply destroy the alliances that remain.  He and his sycophants will continually undermine efforts to finish the Mueller investigation, and denigrate law enforcement institutions we have relied on for literally 100 years.  He will bully Republican legislators to promote his agenda of hate, limited immigration, and attempts to undermine the press.

I think you can look for a meme that will appear claiming that our elections are all rigged by the ‘deep state’ which is trying to undermine his Presidency.   This will accelerate as we approach the election in 2020, leading to claims that whomever he opposes has sabotaged his campaign.  In fact we might expect that claim this year at the midterm elections, which Trump will then propose should justify re-evaluating the Bill of Rights.

There will be continued attacks on the press as the enemy and continued denial of Russian interference in our electoral process.  Look for incessant misdirection as he pushes for continued dismantling of our institutions. 

His latest maneuver to protect himself from danger from Mueller and Michael Cohen’s investigation is to select Brett Kavanaugh as a Supreme Court nominee.  Of all the potential candidates, Kavanaugh has expressed clear support for protecting the sitting President from investigation, indictment, subpoenas, etc. Cagey eh?

The frightening part of all this is that it is working.  Trump’s base does not care about what is happening.  Mostly, they don’t have the awareness of where this is leading. They all believe in his fearless and inexorable efforts to dissemble.  They don’t truly understand the ripple effects happening now and how it will ultimately change the world for our children. 

Unless we can stop Trump’s agenda by changing control of the House of Representatives in November, we are headed for a realignment of the world’s power centers and America becoming a client state of Vladimir Putin.  (Can you imagine writing that statement during the Presidencies of Clinton, Bush or Obama?)  Do we as citizens really want to move our country into that kind of scenario?

This pivotal vote approaching in November may be the only moment we as Americans have to halt the march toward autocracy.

We have a real sickness in America right now…a denial of responsibility for honoring truth and humanity.   Tolerating, and in some cases endorsing, the detention of infants without their parents is the mark of a society truly in decline. 

Where are the children?  Our government and this administration will not tell us; hides it actions from us; promoting cruelty in the pursuit of a misguided hatred of immigrants and asylum seekers.  The administration neither had, nor HAS any plan to return the children to their parents.  The government is extorting asylum seekers to accept deportation or they won’t get their children back..What does that have to do with American ideals?  It’s just one horrific symptom of disintegrating American values.  Signs of additional destruction are all around us. 

How do you feel about that?  How are we able to accept this redefinition of the American dream, our democracy and most of all our human compassion?

We must recognize the critical nature of this moment and not simply throw up our hands and leave the responsibility to protect our ideals and morality to someone else.  WE must do it.