"I can tell you without hesitation: Being president of this country is entirely about character."
Dialogue by Aaron Sorkin, written for President Andrew Shepherd character, "The American President," 1995
President Trump is the way he is because Americans are the way we are.
We elected him, knowing what he was.
A majority of GOP officeholders in the House and Senate accept and enable Trump's corruption, flagrant dishonesty, presidential wars, crypto grift, cronyism, sale of pardons, shredding of alliances, midnight tweeting, Epstein coverup, and the whole Trump Era experience. GOP voters are along for the ride. A commenter wrote yesterday that he would vote for Trump "in a heartbeat -- as would millions of others. Ignorance or malevolence have nothing to do with it. . . . All Democrats have to offer is higher taxes and bigger, more intrusive and ineffectual government."
It is a democracy and we have made our choice.
Today's guest post is by John Coster. He reflects on the damage done to America and Americans as Trump shapes our political and moral expectations. Coster studied theology at Regent College while continuing his career managing multimillion-dollar development projects for high-volume users of electricity. He tried to retire but has been pulled back into work because his expertise is so valuable during this build-out of artificial intelligence infrastructure.
Guest Post by John Coster
Healthy free market capitalism and democracy, or just living in a free society relies on social contracts of trust. My high school teacher once said that “locks are designed to keep honest people honest.” I think that’s true of laws and systems to make and enforce them too. Trust is implicit to some degree.
Trump’s biggest damage to the soul of our country isn’t just that he has normalized and even glorified cruelty, greed, lies, and contempt for the weak -- as horrible as that is. It’s that his still-high approval ratings among the GOP faithful show that he has lured a big part of our population (even supposedly people of faith) into celebrating his untrustworthiness as smart. Enforcing agreements is based on power and leverage, not mutual trust. Trickery, deceit, and gaslighting are his tools.
But he has feet of clay, and his reign will end one way or another, like that of every other lying and thieving megalomaniac in history, leaving a hollowed-out world of needless suffering that will have a long tail for generations. Or setting us up for someone as bad or worse.
I don’t know whether to blame him for leading our collective moral decay, or to regard him as a mirror of who we really are. I suspect our former allies are starting to think it’s the latter.
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America has adopted the prison code of morality as their compass. All those years of telling inmates they need to change their way of thinking were wrong, they were just a head of their time. In the coming elections do we keep showing that is who we are?
ReplyDeleteSometimes Trump makes me ashamed to say I'm an American. I want to scream at the world that I don't like him! We're all not like him! He'll be done in a couple of years and you will like us again!
ReplyDeleteAt least the shadow is out front.
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ReplyDeleteAs a postscript to my own essay, what is especially dispiriting is that people would blindly follow such a morally treacherous leader (who daily violates his own promises by systematically impoverishing his own country while he enriches and builds extravagant monuments to himself, and punishes his political enemies). And their loyalty is all because of a vague false commitment to “small and unintrusive government”. They cant see he’s stealing their money, but more importantly their liberty, which is truly priceless.
John C’s post and postscript are too right. My only quibble would be with the statement: "And their loyalty is all because of a vague false commitment to small and unintrusive government.” For some, it’s more like a cult. As morally, mentally and physical repulsive as Trump may be, many of his supporters revere him. I’ve heard it said that he has charisma. I’m deaf and blind to it, but they respond to him as the Nazis did to Hitler.
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