Biggest, best, greatest in history. We have heard ad nauseam those words from the mouth of the self-professed greatest President, if you do not believe it—just ask him. Donald Trump’s biggest and greatest problem is that his measurables of success have no moral component. Slap me for mentioning Abraham Lincoln in the same breath as Donald Trump but Lincoln sought to end economic turmoil and fought the separation of the Union, by concluding the legal immorality of slavery. Trump’s answer to “economic anxiety” is to lock up brown children and jail their families fleeing death.
When the military needed men to speed up the end of World War II, Truman signed a desegregation order, albeit with segregated accommodations and service assignments. With the threat of a resurfacing ISIS in the Middle East, Mr. Trump’s answer was discrimination by banning valued interpreters, logistic and communications experts, and soldiers from the military because they are transgender men and women. Even Richard Nixon who violated his oath, the Office and his country started the Environmental Protection Agency. Opposingly, Mr. Trump legalized coal slurry dumping and is seeking to open up acres of pristine land for development and oil drilling.
Throughout history most Presidents, when confronted with their sins, sought out their better angels. Lyndon Johnson dumped his racist friends to sign both the Civil Rights Act and the Voter Rights Act in 1964 and 1965. George W. Bush a month before his debacle with “Brownie” over Hurricane Katrina initiated the effort to wipe out malaria in Africa. The men who have occupied the Executive Office have been both cruel, caring, right and wrong in the execution of their duties, but the presidency is littered with moral corrections, at least up until now. The mass neuroses that the current President is putting the country through is unprecedented.
Mr. Trump has embraced despots and our enemies, Kim Jong-un, Vladimir Putin, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and the Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia. Meanwhile, 70 years of trusted alliances with both France, England and of all places Denmark are being trashed over ego. French President Macron wants to save the planet and Vladimir Putin wants to subjugate it; Theresa May stepped aside because she could not bring her people to heel and Kim Jong-un keeps his people under his.
Even murder is not beyond the qualities Mr. Trump admires in a leader. Statistics, facts, and immorality do not touch the hearts and more importantly the minds of Trump supporters. Their cult-like following of his every damaging tweet, public wrong-headed pronouncements, and insults bring cheers from his personal unwashed because it upsets the “libs.”
Therein lies the secret of an authoritarian; defining who to hate; instructing how to hate them and rallying the haters.
The thing Trump supporters will remember most about his presidency is that he permitted them to hate openly. Only the rich received tax cuts, coal mines are closing, “The Wall” is still a racist dream, farmers have no buyers and our cruelty to children is on the worldwide stage. America’s worse moments were when she remembered exclusivity, its best moments were when she forgot.
Vote in 2020 for Change.