October 15, 2017
Trump World: What needs to be done
By Arthur Kane Scott
The Trump presidency has been steadily marginalizing the American Dream of Democracy envisioned by the First Republican President, Abraham Lincoln, in his Gettysburg Address, November 19, 1863, in which he concluded with the moving words “and that government of the people, by the people, for the people shall not perish from the face of the Earth.”
Lincoln had just defeated the rebellious Confederacy on the grounds that a minority did not have the right or power to force its views on the majority.
Ironically, this is what is happening today in America. About 35 percent of the country primarily drawn from the rural South, the Southwest, and the Rocky Mountains, who are white, rural, evangelical, traditional, and nationalistic are critical of the new America that is emerging: urban, multi-racial, science-based, global and futuristic.
Trump’sbizarre and delusional actions over the last 10 months has emboldened his white nationalist baseto feel that they can dictate to the rest of us.Best exemplified by President Trump’s adviser Steve Bannon of Breitbart, who actually threatens those who disagree with the White House. Bannon Leninist style of terrorism is a far cry from Lincoln’s democratic eloquence.
Let’s look at the Trump record:
- Coddling White SupremacistNationalist, skin-heads, pseudo-Nazis of the Far Right by stating that their actions were no worse than the actions of the Far Left at University of Virginia at Charlottesville.
- Continuing the Monument debate by implying that there was a moral equivalencybetween Robert E. Lee and the founding fathers,Washington and Jefferson, as they too were slave owners. Lee was anotorious racistwho led a rebellion over preserving the South’s ‘peculiar institution.’Washington and Jefferson gave birth to a nation.
- Calling for the continued elimination ofthe Affordable Care Act,otherwise known as, Obamacare, despite the repeated failure of the Republican party to ever develop aviable alternative.Republicans wish to turn Medicaid over to the States, as a get rich scheme for state coffers, by lopping off millions of Americans from health benefits, especially thosewith pre-existing conditions.
- Criminalizing the Dreamers by first eliminating DACA (Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals), and then forcing Congress to resolve the issue. Dreamersare in limbo with no legal protection against arbitrary deportation from the Justice Department’s ICE(Immigration and Customs Enforcement).Waiting for this Congress to act is like waiting for Climate Change to be normal.
- Ignoring climate change and its devastating impacton Houston (Harvey), Miami (Irma), and Puerto Rico (Maria). Costs are in the billions, and the Environmental Protection Agency instead of advocating for Mother Earthhas,under the machinations of Director Scott Pruitt, becomea Trojan Horse for the coal,petrol-chemical and oil industry as it continues to jeopardize the planet.
- Insisting on expanding the US-Mexico Wall, which will cost billions, at the very time there is no money for rebuilding Houston, Miami and Puerto Rico. Another sound bite for his rabid white nationalist base.
- Ratcheting up the tensions with North Korea, which would have horrific effects on the millionswho live in Seoul, Guam and other nearby Asian countries. Possibly leadto a nuclear war involvingChina, Russia, and the United States. His shrill rhetoric and saber rattling could pave the way for another version of MAD, ‘Mutually Assured Destruction’.
- Ignoring infra-structure programs at the very time that America is plagued by inadequate roads, tunnels, bridges, sewers, water, rail and airline systems.These problems impact the poorest American as Flint Michigan demonstrates.
- Allowing the income gap between the 1 percent and the rest of the country to balloon more. The gap has already reached obscene levels. The 1 percenters control 20% of the wealth, and the Trump Tax reform is simply another get-rich scheme for the wealthy and their minions on the grounds that it will stimulate the economy.
- Continuing to saddle university and college graduates with a trillion-dollar indebtedness which prevents them from fully contributing to socio-economic growth of America.Being bogged down with debt makes it difficult for graduates to participate creatively,to be innovators.Banks insist on bilking education.
- Trump’s connection to the Russians, both financially and politically, continues to unfold. Trump’s tax returns have never been released.Suspected real estate collusion surrounds Trump Enterprises (Trump Tower in Moscow), and even perhaps money laundering through real estate purchases and off-shore accounts by Russian oligarchs.
- Similarly, the election scandal, in which Russian interference in favor of Trump is being rigorously investigated by special counsel, Robert Mueller, grows with simultaneous House and Senate hearings on the matter. So far 27 nations have been cyber infiltrated and attacked by Russian hackers.
- Pardoning Sheriff Joe Arpaio, a notorious racist, who discriminated unmercifully against Mexican-Americans in Tucson on the grounds of their being outsiders, or the ‘others.’Trump’s Twitter feeds inspire his macho, alpha male base followers to rally and applaud his nationalistic America first policies.
- Questioning the National Football League patriotism over the question of itsrespect for the flag, when in point of fact the overriding issue that led players to kneel rather than standwas the twin matter of racial justice, that `Black Lives Matter, ` and police violence. It constituted another ruse used by Trumpto cover his demeaning remarks about Puerto Ricans as outlaws, who had ripped off Wall Street, and were being punished by nature, Hurricane Maria, for their default.
As can be seen, Trump’s presidency has reached a critical watershed of absurdum reminiscent of Charlie Chaplains’ portrayal of Hitler in the Dictator. He is simply the wrong person, at the wrong time. He is a ‘clear and constant danger’ to our National security, our position in the world, and the American values of equality and liberty.
The Republican Congress enablers still will not impeach Trump despite how his anti- Barack animus has morally compromised the Presidency, and tragically, nor has his Cabinet shown the tendency to exercise the Constitutional Amendment XXV that allows them to declare the president unfit for office.
It is left to us, the American people, to act vigorously in the 2018 election, to restore sanity to Washington, to replace the enablers with a new Congress that believes in true democracy and the Constitution, in the rule of law and reason, a free press, and in the principle of Unity and Oneness by which “this nation under God will have a new birth of freedom.”
Arthur Kane Scott is Professor of Humanities and Cultural Studies at the Dominican University of California and Board Member of Museum of the American Indian Novato, California
The Journal of America Team:
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Abdus Sattar Ghazali
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