No American President in living history has earned the thoroughness of study and the resulting derision as has Donald Trump. Soon to celebrate his first year in office, he has earned the enmity that he himself heaped on his opponents for that high office. He has let down the American people. He has lost the respect for that office earned by his predecessors. He has betrayed the American trust in democracy. Luckily Trump is still a tyrant in training.
It was the role he chose. His was a bitter campaign, based in his belief that he could only lose. He lacked the ground organization of the classy Clintons. He lacked the savvy political advisors and would not have listened to them anyway. He was damned as a womanizer. His lack of ethics was exposed. He flaunted his wealth and let nobody in on its details. He had none of the credentials considered needed for the highest office in the land. The news media hated him and he screamed ‘false news’ back at them. He was as shocked as everyone else when he won.
His transition to the White House reflected Trump’s lack of understanding or concern for the customs, rituals and exigencies of democracy. His rush to serve his base brought him in conflict with the courts and the limitations of the the checks and balances imposed on presidential power. He tried to rule by edict. He tried to use the powers of his office as though he was a tyrant with unlimited possibilities.
Those first months of his administration were a constant war with the news media and a truculent Congress. All it proved was that as much as he despised those Republicans in the House and Senate, he needed them to have his way. It was an imposition on his tyranny.
His solution was to give the Republicans what they wanted. He broke new ceilings on American debt, his tax cuts were extreme for business and the rich while offering short term cuts as a sop to the middle class. Myopic Republican politicos stuck their riders to the bill, adding further pain and suffering to those that their ideology leaves behind. Millions will suffer to enable the millionaire funders of Republicanism to add to their wealth.
Donald Trump signed with a flourish a flawed tax bill he had never read. As a tyrant, need he care?
-30-
Copyright 2017 © Peter Lowry
Complaints, comments, criticisms and compliments can be sent to [email protected]