Trump is the beginning of the end of the Democratic era that was ushered in by WWII and the fall of fascism. The entire world is in a slump towards the same bad habits it had before, which is to lean toward a problem solver that usually and ultimately does not solve the problem and consumes all the power the previous generations fought so hard to gain in the first place. While I want to remain hopeful and vigilant, we are definitely leaning into an era of right-wing authoritarianism, in other words: Nazis, Commies and Dictators with their own picture everywhere.
Dictators
While the big bad Soviet Union was able to live on another 40 or so years after World War II, the world trumpeted the end of authoritarianism. That promise was not served to places like Spain, Italy or the Philippines among many others. Yet it was mostly at the hands of America that these places were allowed to be run by self-interested assholes. FDR once said of Batista, Cuba’s awful dictator before Castro, that ‘he was a bastard but he was OUR bastard’. So was Marcos and Franco (The Philippines and Spain respectively), none of those turned out well, and Batista turned into Castro.
Yet America always tried to set a standard (mostly ushered in by Eleanor Roosevelt in her UN years), that democracy, free speech and rights for all, regardless of race, color or creed, be pressed on the dictatorial nations. That was the policy through Truman, Eisenhower, Kennedy, Johnson, Nixon, Ford, Carter, Reagan, Bush I, Clinton, Bush II and Obama… that is, until ‘this fucking guy’, Trump.
The rest of the world has elected, through democratic processes, the biggest assholes that money can buy. Putin is at the top of the list (more on him later), though from Duterte (Philippines), Xi (China), the British right-wing turn with the Brexit, the rise of LePen in France, the new Nazis in Germany, the Eastern European slate moving further into dictatorial territory, even Greece has Neo-Nazis and friendly Denmark and Sweden (mostly in response to the Muslim invasion coming from the wars in the Middle East). We are seeing a massive shift into right-wing (fascist/nazi) territory and I don’t see an end to it. Most of them ARE puppets for big money corporations that see profit in the demise of humanity, care little for the common man/woman and care even less for the state of the world unless it allows them to profit. It’s actually quite disturbing when you get down into the nitty-gritty. Especially since people who point fingers are something your mama taught you never to do.
Scapegoating is at the heart of right-wing authoritarianism. It’s not YOUR fault, it’s THEIR’S. While there are lazy losers in society, race, religion, sexuality or creed has little to do with it, at least in my experience (and I have experienced a lot). Perhaps I should hand it to a better traveled and smarter person to say it best:
Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness, and many of our people need it sorely on these accounts. Broad, wholesome, charitable views of men and things cannot be acquired by vegetating in one little corner of the earth all one’s lifetime.
-Mark Twain
Decline
That brings us to America. The rot and destruction that is happening in America is not because of Obama. He was barely born when the USA began it’s decline. It was the corporate and Industrial Complex mentality (warned by Eisenhower) that was to take us off the great New Deal (FDR) programs real purpose. Health care is declining because of all the ‘profit holes’ they can exploit. It’s not your friendly doctor, though he is a problem, it’s not your insurance carrier, though they are a problem, it’s not your pharmaceutical problem, though they are a problem… etc. It’s CAPITALISM, which is not the free market. Profit molded into a massive industrial machine. A form of Human Selection.
President Trump, is a product of that machine. He believes in the system, rose through the Reagan bullshit myth and became a Wall Street star, that went bankrupt 4 times, and used his marketing persona to create an image that a bunch of good, honest, ignorant folk fell for.
Notice I didn’t say stupid. No, these people are not stupid. I have stood by their side helping to feed the hungry, helped to house the homeless, yet stay out of politics. They are living in a malaise of despair. The world they new is gone and that is mostly because once bombed out Europe, Japan, India and China came back online, the competition was bound to end the world they once knew. It’s easier to blame the Mexicans, not the Asian immigrants (that are coming in droves) for example. Though it’s really the corporations that went to Asia and Mexico for cheap labor that shut down steel factories in Pennsylvania and Ohio. It’s not Obama that shut down the coal industry, it’s the marketplace… Capitalism.
Tyrant
Trump’s recent attacks on the media are also textbook Dictator. Get rid of the media and nobody can call you on your un-Constitutional moves. The less they know, the better. That’s the dictatorial rule! Putin did it and it worked.
I recently moved to Northern Nevada. Since, I have seen more of this mentality to blame everyone else for the economics that are too complicated for economists to even understand. Do you throw rocks at Mexicans when we have a drought? If you do, Trump is for you! Do you throw rocks when we have a massive economic rot that demands more attention from the population, at large? If you do, Trump is for you!
He is the symbol of the Rot. The very essence of the Rot. He is The Rot! So don’t go expecting any fixes from him. He’s a charleton failed business moron with a brilliant marketing sensibility. He will run this country into the ground, and this, I promise.
It takes a real special kind of person to run his administration into the ground in less than a month. He’s basically caved on every Republican wish list idea, so prepare yourself for the death of Medicare, because it’s coming.
Once they have what they want, they will impeach him (there is ample evidence already that is criminal), then they will throw him over the sides like a used towel. That is all he is… a tool. The moron just wants to be loved so much he would sell out his ideals and evoke racism to get it. Did I say he was a tool? No. Fool!
To Do List
If America want’s to get anything that’s good, we actually need this idiot to fulfill his empty promises:
- Medical Insurance for all? CALL YOUR CONGRESSMAN! YES! Medicare for all is more like it!
- Jobs in America? CALL YOUR CONGRESSMAN! Tell them you want to keep the Import/Export Bank, especially if you work for Boeing!
- More Infrastructure in America? CALL YOUR CONGRESSMAN and tell them to approve any High-Speed Rail Bills, Bridges, Highways and Ports. The wall is a joke. Seriously. Live with it (don’t get me started on tunnels that already exist).
- Veterans that are receiving the respect they deserve?
- Protecting the endangered animals from getting shot from people like his sons?
- Jobs with a decent wage?
- Good schools that don’t require you to pay out of pocket?
- Fresh Drinking water minus the coal sludge?
- Decent high-speed bullet trains like China has?
- No Russian involvement even if they got him elected
CALL YOUR CONGRESSMAN! Don’t send an email or sign some lame petition. CALL! And this is just the tip of the iceberg. If you like pollution in your drinking water, trump is your man. I, don’t. Though there is so much you don’t even want to know about already. This isn’t Bill Clinton getting a blow job or even W. starting a war that would ultimately kill a million people and start ISIS. This is far scarier. This man has the nuclear codes and has probably never read a book from cover to cover.
We are all, mostly, on the same page, us Americans. We all want jobs that pay a decent wage, we all want roads and bridges, well-funded education, clean drinking water, less hustle/more reward for all of our hard work! Yet the Republican party is the enemy of everything on that list. Don’t sell out your rights to a decent life in the defense of a pretend attack on gun rights or trying to stop abortion from happening when it will anyway (in a back alley, though it should be mentioned the rich will have doctors).
The Honest Rundown
This country is in decline. Though it is not because of any President. It is because of decades of corporate corruption on our elected officials, the decline of the unions and the over-all decline in education. The last one is important because the decline of education is the decline in jobs. They call it a brain-drain, as all the smart people go else where. I used to think it was Europe. Now I think it’s going to be China.
Which brings us full circle:
“Democracy is the worst form of government, except for all the others.”
-Winston Churchill
We are going to end up with Authoritarianism, in it’s many forms, everywhere. If the people don’t stand up… Get used to Fuhrer Whatever, and hailing whatever in the defense of whatever for the sake of the glorious revolution of whatever. Oh and get used to things being a lot worse. Also, learn Russian and Chinese, because the American Empire is coming to an end with a leader like this.