On the cusp of the Summer of 2015, a new candidate for the presidency of the United States took an escalator ride down from an upper floor of Trump Tower. Since that day the country has been fighting a ride into the abyss with him. Like a man on his way to a dinner engagement, with wife in tow, Trump perused the menu. Let’s see, I’ll have a little red meat — raw, not even lightly browned, I need a barrier for privacy, put the wall right there and I want some “very fine people” for dinner guest.
Donald Trump delights in pulling back the scabs from the healing wounds of America and re-exposing the raw flesh to the bacteria of hatred. We have heard lots of false narratives about anxiety and economic fears but what Trump used were plain old race baiting, xenophobia, and religious bigotry. He painted caricatures, in front of cheering fans, about banditos, rapist, hombres, and wall climbing trespassers. He adhered to his philosophy of “truthful hyperbole” with idyllic visions of a Great [protective] America Wall, to separate us from the non-Christians. In case you were not fully convinced that Make America Great Again is an exclusive club he labeled the bedrock of historical racism, White Supremacy, as being a part of, “some very fine people.”
The levels of political discord in this country used to center on ideological differences, not debates of truth and ‘alternative facts’. From the moment former Press Secretary Sean Spicer lied and told us Trump’s Inauguration crowd was the biggest in history, “PERIOD!” That downward escalator sped up. We collectively sort of laughed and thought the White House was drawing a line in the sand, but their real intent was throwing it in our eyes and we have been blinking ever since. A line made in the sand that can usually be wiped away is becoming more defined and entrenched. The American public is allowing this president to redraw the boundaries of truth and civility and now he wants to obscure justice. Trey Gowdy (R-SC), soon to be a former congressman, did what is becoming the norm for outgoing Republicans, he spoke with even-handed fairness, and said of Mr. Trump, “when you are innocent… act like it.”
We are getting closer and closer to war or wars with Syria and North Korea, led by a man perfectly willing to not only wag the dog but kick it across the street if necessary. For a man who supposedly demands allegiance, pledges of loyalty and someone to be his parenthetical ‘fixer’ he shows little in return. Ask Trump lawyer and “fixer” Michael Cohen, who professed he would take a bullet for Trump and is now watching his legal license and freedom swing over his head like the sword of Damocles. Ask the aptly nicknamed, by Trump, ‘sloppy Steve’ Bannon, who is offering advice to the man who hung him out to dry after a stunning Conservative failure in Alabama. A message to Republicans Jeff Sessions, John Kelly, and Rod Rosenstein keep a pen ready, those goodbye postcards from the edge are on your desk.
Vote in ’18 for Change