Americans, aside from having a guaranteed fodder for entertainment in the evening news, are completely worn down by the gambits of President Donald J. Trump who is clinging to the gates of the White House with tiresome conviction. In the process the members of the Republican Party have succeeded to contaminate themselves as pusillanimous bastards.
Pence, who has dutifully stood by the President, mustering a devotional gaze rarely seen since the days of Nancy Reagan, serves as a daily reminder that the Constitution offers an alternative to Trump. The worse the President looks, the more desirable his understudy seems. The more Trump is mired in scandal, the more likely Pence’s elevation to the Oval Office becomes, unless he ends up legally entangled as well.
During the 2016 campaign, Trump characterized the Republican Party’s big spenders as “highly sophisticated killers” whose donations allowed them to control politicians. When he declared his candidacy, he claimed that, because of his real-estate fortune, he did not need support from “rich donors,” and he denounced super pacs, their depositories of unlimited campaign contributions, as “corrupt.” Pence’s political career, though, has been sponsored at almost every turn by the donors whom Trump has assailed. Pence is the inside man of the conservative money machine.
The lingering question which flies in the face of every possible credential of authenticity is why Trump was elected in the first place; and – even if his initial success were dismissed as merely reactionary – why so many voted for him a second time. If, as seems to be the case, Trump’s so-called base includes people whom one would normally consider intelligent, the investigation becomes all the more complicated and possibly malignant. No longer is it sufficient to characterize Trump supporters as poor and uneducated, fearful of the impact of technology, immigrants and global trade. What further clouds the analysis is that the GOP has proven itself sycophantic to an Olympic degree. Nor does it assist to pretend they are just trying to protect their jobs. Rather the party and its supporters have the devotion of an army of ants.
The latest kerfuffle of the Proud Boys in Washington DC has left an image of raging insurgency and racism. Meanwhile Trump is forever aligned with stupidity and narcissism.
Trump poisons Americans with a meaningless distinction which he has unilaterally attributed to “radical Democrats” with socialist, Marxist or communist ambitions. As a Canadian I laugh at this archaic definition reminiscent of Bolshevism and the murder of the Russian czars. Trump’s and the GOP’s ignorance of the universal advantage of education and health care is beyond the pale.
In the background the Chinese continue their own steady march towards advancement – which by comparison is dedicated not to trifling innuendo but rather hard work and incremental progress. Already it is common parlance among the informed patriots of Western society that the Chinese represent the next empire. The banner of Republicans to “make America great again” has no more legitimacy than a high school mascot. What is particularly toxic about the GOP is their discredit of the masses for the singular purpose of the oligarchs who have again and again proven themselves in control for their own advantage.
While Americans may put the memory of Trump behind them following last night’s Electoral College decision, the malice of Trump has insinuated not only the GOP but the entire image of “the land of the free and the home of the brave“. Trump’s shallow retrograde has robbed Americans of the very opportunity they once so proudly hailed. This self-proclaimed genius with unparalleled deal-making talent has in fact proven himself the biggest presidential loser in American history. Make no mistake the world is watching. And what the world – and the majority of Americans – have so clearly seen is an assault upon the now delicate fabric of this once dynamic nation. The United States of America – already a seasoned conflict of gated communities and the peasants – is exposed to inevitable crumble if it doesn’t awaken to reality. Trump has exemplified anything but reality. It is one thing to have invited the scoundrel into the house; it is another to permit the vagrant to overtake it.