I’m trying to move past hysteria, depression and anger over the
election. Focus on Thanksgiving, I tell myself. Focus on the turkey. Or write
about concerts, shopping, other topics. After all, I said this blog was to be
about the amusing things of life with only an occasional burst of seriosity. But
I’m having trouble finding the usual things amusing.
Why this sense of doom? After all, our nation has survived many
things: terrorist attacks, ill-thought-out wars, outrageous wrong-doings by our
chief executive, assassinations, and dangerously ill-informed Presidents. No doubt
some previous Presidents were narcissists and money-grubbing.
But this is somehow different. Never before have we teetered
into banana-republic, alternate time-line reality. Biff Tannen has been elected
President in “Back to the Future 4.0”. Trump is just as grabby, greedy, and dangerous
as Biff only somehow this is real life.
The broken promises to Trump supporters are almost too numerous
to name. Trump acknowledges there is a connection between human activity and climate
change. Bringing back coal, torture of suspects or lost American manufacturing jobs
are all pretty much the things dreams (or in some cases, nightmares) and campaign
promises are made of. So why am I not reassured?
And as for all those chants of “lock her up”? Those were
reality TV theater. Trump commonly called Hillary crooked. But he now admits he
has no plans to prosecute Hillary. I should be satisfied.
But there never were any grounds to lock up Hillary. She has been
investigated as extensively as any public figure and no criminal acts were ever
found. So, the dropping of that campaign
promise is surprising only in its rapidity. The real reason the “lock her up” promise
has been dropped like a hot potato is Hillary’s alleged wrongdoing is so
miniscule compared to the crookedness of all things Trump.
Not just America but the whole world is up for grabs as Trump
begins to stamp his giant Trump logo everywhere.
The campaign promises have fallen with record-breaking speed by
the way side. But what is really scary is that Trump’s world view and policy positions
are as thin as his skin. Whatever he has heard most recently is what he’s planning
to do next. Whomever he’s speaking to now is whom he agrees with. If he’s at the
NY Times, they are a jewel of a newspaper. Well that’s just fine. Until he goes
back and talks to the racist, anti-Semitic, anti-Muslim, anti-gay and otherwise hate-filled advisers he’s selected.
Trump is not yet President and already we have a daily
competition to see what is the worst to spew from the Trump carnival.
The Trumpster has an amazing ability. He creates so many controversies
that the talking heads and pundits are issuing statements about how many
positions Trump has flipped on in the last twenty-four hours. Which of the
disasters are real (the conflicts of interest) and which are just sleight of
hand and a distraction (twitter battles with the cast of “Hamilton” and the New
York Times).
Meanwhile Trump brags the value of his brand has greatly increased
since the election. The Trump “charity” admits to the IRS its self-dealing and violations.
Trump easily makes time while selecting a Cabinet to meet with foreign
dignitaries and ask for special deals for his investments.
Trump has no fears. He will be President so no one can do anything
about his conflicts of interest. In fact, he declares, much like Nixon, that as
President he cannot break the law or have conflicts. That is what one would
expect from Biff. Or the “President” of a banana republic.
You wanted our infrastructure rebuilt? That is one of the main
functions of government. The Republicans refused to fund it under Obama. Under Trump
get ready for infrastructure re-building. That is, if you want to privatize
that infrastructure and slap tolls on America so Trump’s family and cronies can
start collecting double-digit returns on investment at our expense.
I just can’t stomach the idea of our roads, bridges and
airports bearing a big Trump logo as we pay our tolls to the Trump Enterprise
to enter public spaces. Can you?
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