Trump Must Go

 Recent Twitter rants and campaign rallies have convinced me that this country can no longer afford the luxury (can you see the sarcasm dripping?) of having Donald Trump or anyone else who shares more than a few of his notions of how to properly lead us forward. Just as almost nobody would care to be driven by a blindfolded cabbie, the people of this country deserve more from their Commander-in-Chief than government of the few, by the few and for the few. The list of faults that make Trump unfit to serve which are widely known only pales in comparison to those which he has managed to keep hidden from us.

The most recent exhibitions of our President’s shortcomings when it comes to dealing with the myriad problems which face us on a daily basis involved a serious of tweets this past weekend attacking four first-term members of the US House of Representatives who happen to be women of color who not only disagree with most of his policy positions but are also not shy of publicly stating such in the course of representing the interests of the people who elected them. This is anathema to the man who seems to firmly believe that those who voted for him in 2016 did so with the understanding that it is acceptable for him to rule as he sees fit – in his own interest and those of his family and cohorts. His bullying and authoritarian nature when faced with opposing viewpoints become more apparent as his campaign for re-election in 2020 begins to ramp up.

His targeting of these four individuals ( Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Ilhan Omar, Ayanna Pressley and Rashida Tlaib) allows him to display his least appealing personal characteristics all at once. His blatant racism, misogyny, lack of any empathy for others less fortunate than himself, determination that the future needs to be his way or the highway all blended nicely for him in his tweets and produced a chant of, “Send her home” at his recent campaign rally in North Carolina, which he paused to enjoy (despite his protestations to the contrary once he knew how it was received in hindsight).

There are many other members of Congress who are white males born in the USA (only Omar among his “squad” was born outside this country, and she IS an American citizen) who share opinions diametrically opposed to those espoused by Trump. He chooses to ignore that fact while accentuating racial and ethnic divisions and  hatred towards those who wish to immigrate from what he refers to as “shithole countries” where they are often in imminent physical danger should they remain there. In fact, it often seems as if Trump is intent on transforming the United States of America into another of his “shithole countries” as he uses heavy-handed tactics to terrorize undocumented immigrants along with their citizen family members while simultaneously creating concentration camps to detain those seeking asylum at the border.

His attacks on these individuals, who unlike him were elected by actually receiving more votes than their opponents, seemed to be having the effect he desired, at least in his most recent rally. He knows he is setting the stage for someone even more unhinged than he is to act violently towards a person he has identified as a nemesis. Will it take an assassination attempt by one of his followers on one or more of his political opponents to get Trump to reassess the way he communicates? I doubt that would be anymore than another excuse for him to throw yet another of his followers, no matter how misguided, under a proverbial bus to escape having to take responsibility for an act which he practically asks them to perform for him.

Since taking office, Trump has done little to advance any policy agenda, with the possible exception of massive tax cuts for big business and the super-rich. His and Congressional GOP health care proposals, such as they were, would’ve provided for less, rather than more, health care for the people living here. Promises of jobs returning from abroad were merely words read from a teleprompter. His foreign policy, such as it. His forays into negotiations with North Korea on nuclear weapons and China on trade have yielded very little, if any, results other than a chance for him to blow his own horn in public speeches. His tariffs have harmed more than helped our economy.

If Trump manages to get through the end of his term without causing massive social conflict in his effort to win another election it will be a minor miracle. His mantra of Make America Great Again promised to take us back to an imaginary time during which our predecessors lived idyllic lives that the passage of time and the hordes of envious illegal immigrants (their term, not mine) have eroded to the sad state of affairs we face today. Given the choice of his way or the highway, the latter would probably be far preferable.

His attitude seems to echo the 1960’s and 1970’s Vietnam era counter-protest notion of “America, love it or leave it”, where to love it meant to acquiesce to American government policy, Many did choose to leave. Plenty of draft dodgers left the country rather than fight in that war. Rich folks like Trump tended to get deferments (some of questionable validity, right Cadet Bone Spurs?) Others chose to do neither, but remained instead to fix the perceived problems through protest and other actions intended to persuade elected officials to change the offensive policies – as permitted by the First Amendment to the US Constitution. US citizens do not need submit silently to misguided government policies. All four members targeted by Trump’s tweets and speeches fall into this category. If Trump wants to accuse anyone who disagrees with him or his Administration’s policies do not deserve to have any President tell them to shut up and do as they’re told – especially when they were elected to a co-equal branch of government Constitutionally charged to check and balance the King, er, Executive Branch.

Fortunately, that particular either/or proposition is not the end of the story. Trump keeps upping the ante on the pranks he is willing to pull in trying to stage an authoritarian coup on our government and way of life. His closets have become so overloaded with skeletons he’s trying to hide that he will be unable to keep them from us much longer. Whether Mueller’s testimony, his income tax returns, his past business practices or even the way he has manipulated the system to make sure he is enriching himself even more at taxpayer expense than he did before he was in office, something will ultimately cause his downfall. I only hope he is stopped before he does too much more damage than he has already caused.

Ideally, Trump would take the Nixon way out. His name being on the 2020 Presidential ballot would be even more of an abomination than it was in 2016. Another four years of Donald Trump’s total disregard for the rest of humanity and the situational ethics which allow him to unabashedly lie concerning just about  anything imaginable while treating the vast mass of humanity as pawns in his insatiable desire for his own personal gratification and financial aggrandizement  would likely produce worse results for the world, and this country, than any previous natural or manmade disaster. His political rallies are already being compared by some to Hitler’s in the 1930’s. I would not care to witness one in person. We certainly don’t want to go down that particular rabbit hole.

Further Suggested Readings:

‘I Stand With Ilhan’: Outpouring of Support for Rep. Omar Counters Racist ‘Send Her Back’ Chant by Trump Crowd

Trump outdoes himself with latest display of rank hatred and rancid bigotry

Trump Readies His Mob for the Race War

Where Will Trump and His Followers Thoughts, Words, and Actions Lead?

Why I’m Glad About Trump’s Latest Twitter Tirade