It’s not about the President anymore. Maybe it never has been but we’ve been so distracted by his behaviour that we didn’t notice. With each and every day, he continues to display his absolute and historical unfitness for what is perhaps the hardest job in the world. There are still some believers but their numbers are diminishing with every word he speaks. There is no good ending for this. Only the possibility to limit the damage.
The damage may be repairable and it may not be but what’s been done already will take decades to fix. Degrading science, education, environmental protections, healthcare, gender equality protections, gay rights, the media, free speech, international treaties and friendships, the judiciary, these are institutions and endeavours that took decades to construct and need to be nurtured constantly. They really can be dismantled with one squiggly stroke of a pen by someone who doesn’t care or doesn’t care to understand what he’s signing.
America’s soul is at a crossroads. That racism and sexism and bigotry of every kind has been perpetuated by the highest office in the land is dispiriting. I doubt the poor black kid who died in Vietnam would have a problem with athletes kneeling during the Star Spangled Banner if he’d lived long enough to see his children or grandchildren gunned down by police on the streets of St. Louis, by police who would go unpunished. Flags and songs and symbols only mean something if they actually mean something.
It didn’t have to be this way but it’s been a long time coming. I think the last good and generally moral and thoughtful Republican president was Eisenhower and that was almost sixty years ago. Nixon, Reagan, Bush, Bush II, Trump? Is this really the best the “Greatest Nation in the History of the World” has to offer?
But no president becomes president alone and none of them stay president alone. America is on the brink. And it’s not because Donald Trump is in control of things. It’s because the people who are in control of things think it’s better for their interests that Donald Trump be out of control.
These are the people who will live in infamy. Any one with an (R) behind their name. Anyone who voted for him. Any senator or congressperson who actively or passively supports him or his actions. Amoral cowards, all of them. May their wealth, legacy and names be sent to the dustbins of history.
Satire isn’t going to fix this.
Sometimes there’s a right side and sometimes there’s a wrong side. It’s time for them to stand up and be counted. Today.