After the House of Representatives
along a party-line vote passed two articles of impeachment against one Donald
J. Trump, one could wonder how Trump and his familiars could have been so reckless
in allowing events to reach this point. While Trump was successful at appeasing
his base with anti-Hispanic immigrant policies and the use of foul language toward
perceived “enemies,” this was not enough for a man who as a “businessman” knew
only how to cheat and steal; he had to “win” at everything, regardless of the
law. Democratic lawmakers had reached out to Trump on numberless occasions in
the past three years to reach an accommodation on many issues of vital
importance.
But Trump’s actions on a DACA
compromise were instructive of this administration: Trump first claimed that he
had a “heart” on the issue, and appeared ready to sign-off on a bi-partisan
agreement from the Senate. But then his “advisors” got a hold of him, and all
of sudden DACA recipients were from “shithole” countries. Every time Trump was
given an opportunity to show he had a heart for anyone outside his own family,
he instead showed that he was a creature of the far-right and the worst
elements of American society.
And it wasn’t just that. In the
past, most administrations known for their corruption were corrupt due to
underlings taking advantage of their positions in government to “earn” a little
graft, not because the president gave his personal stamp of approval on it.
Ulysses S. Grant and Warren G. Harding were not personally corrupt, but they
seemed purposely blind to the corruption going on around them. The same cannot
be said with the Nixon and Trump administrations: in these administrations,
corruption started at, and was guided from, the very tippy-top of the pyramid.
Still, Trump and his familiars
(like Stephen Miller, who helped compose that protest “letter” to Nancy Pelosi
that was an outrageous pack of lies), have been acting as if the impeachment
was somehow never actually going to happen, like a person who doesn’t believe
the weather reports warning that a hurricane is approaching—and even when they
see it coming, they somehow believe they are “invulnerable,” only to be
“shocked” when it arrives and sweeps them away.
Of course, impeachment doesn’t
mean the end of Trump, since it is a forgone conclusion that Senate Republicans
will make quick work of his “acquittal,” and his “base” is as blindly fanatical
as ever. But that doesn’t mean that it will be “business as usual”’—unless that
business is the business is getting rid of this pestilence that is Trump once
and for all in 2020.
The problem with Trump’s
presidency isn’t just about abuse of power and obstruction in regard to his
dealings with the Ukraine. Although the book hasn’t received much press since
its publication, I have read A Warning
by “Anonymous”—who claims to be, or was, an administration “insider,” and the
book still has some insightful things to say that should convince the
“undecided” that Trump is unfit for office yesterday, today and tomorrow.
One of the interesting items that
Anonymous tells us is about how the immigration issue has all-consumed Trump
and Miller. He describes Miller as “a hard-liner who developed a name for
himself in certain Washington circles with his preachy warnings about illegal
aliens and for filibustering on these themes in conversation.” While Miller’s
own white nationalist views have been well-documented, his influence on Trump
has appeared to be in “encouraging” his “gut” feelings about immigrants, especially
the “Mexican” kind. Anonymous tells us that
The president gets animated on the subject, to say the least, and
somehow it’s part of all of our lives, even when it’s not in our respective
portfolios. Almost anything, any issue, and problem can be tied back to
immigration in his mind. At one point, Trump warmed to a new idea for
solving what he viewed as the biggest crisis in American history: to label
migrants as “enemy combatants.” Keep in mind this is the same designation given
to hardcore terrorists. If we said these illegals were a national security
threat, Trump reasoned, then the administration had an excuse to keep all of
them out of the country. It was unclear if someone had planted this in his head
or whether he had come up with it on his own, but either way, advisors were
mortified.
Trump toyed with the shocking proposal in meetings having nothing to do
with the subject, asking random advisors what they thought. Word got around.
It’s times like these when people freeze and don’t know what to say. They’ll
give him one of those polite smiles reserved for a deranged relative who thinks
you want to hear about his soul-searching solo retreat to the Rockies. Not
receiving too much resistance, Trump went further and mused about shipping the
migrants to Guantanamo Bay, where hardened terrorists were jailed. In his mind,
the deterrent would be a powerful one: Come to the United States illegally, and
you will be sent to a remote U.S. detention facility in Cuba to live alongside
murderous criminals.
Migrants seeking shelter in the United States are not “enemy
combatants.” They are not engaged in hostilities toward the United States on
behalf of foreign states or terror groups. Rational people know that the vast
majority are innocent people trying to get to America for a better life.
The implication, of course, is
that Trump isn’t “rational,” at least not in any human sense. Anonymous notes
that Trump was unbelievably narcissistic; for a while he would go about
carrying around maps of his electoral victory and show them to anyone and
bragging about his “win.” But it wasn’t enough that he “won,” he had to really “win”:
Only days into office, he invited congressional leaders into to the
White House to meet. This was supposed to be a bipartisan show of goodwill. But
at the outset of the meeting the president railed against what he claimed were
“millions” of people who voted illegally in the election, depriving him of
winning the popular vote. The assertion had been debunked previously, and it
was so clearly false on its face that no one could believe he was raising it
again. After the meeting, we tried to brush it off by joking that the president
was off his rocker. But it wasn’t a joke. We were genuinely worried by the tone
he was setting. Then there were his actions.
Trump’s propensity for abuse of
power was evident early, as was his inexperience and incompetence in even the
simplest of administrative processes. He is like someone who because they are incapable
of reason, chooses to batter an issue into submission. Anonymous noted that “He
couldn’t focus on governing, and he was prone to abuses of power, from
ill-conceived schemes to punish his political rivals to a propensity for
undermining vital American institutions.” Early on Trump signed a barrage of
executive orders whose sole purpose was to undo Obama era policies, “and the
president didn’t really seem aware of what he’d done.” Some early orders, such
as the Muslim travel ban that was drafted by Miller, “backfired spectacularly…The
administration was only a few weeks in, and already the mayhem made everyone
look foolish.”
Trump’s governance by “tweet” and
by “gut” meant that “Policies are rarely coordinated or thoroughly considered.
Major issues are neglected until a crisis develops. Because there is no
consistent process, it is easy for the administration to run afoul of federal
laws, ethics guidelines, and other norms of behavior.” The chaotic nature of
Trump’s presidency was in fact “encouraged” by the likes of Miller, who
believed that Trump’s impulses should be “encouraged, not tempered.” Miller
“agitated” to “flood the zone” with “as many dramatic policy changes as possible”
to confuse the opposition, in order to “draw fire away from what the real
policies hard-liners cared about”—meaning, principally, immigration matters.
But regardless of what the policy issue was, “About a third of the things the
president wants to do are flat-out stupid.
Another third would be impossible to implement and wouldn’t even solve
the problem. And a third of them would be flat-out illegal.”
Anonymous tells us that while
Trump claims to be an expert on every issue, in reality he comes off as an
“idiot” or “moron” with the “understanding of a fifth or sixth grader,” with
little appetite for learning. Trump was not a “reader,” but rather a “visual
learner.” People who came with what they thought were important documents for
“robust policy discussion of momentous national topic” were usually greeted
with “What the fuck is this this? These are just words. A bunch of words. It
doesn’t mean anything.” Instead of being presented with papers to read, Trump’s
advisors had to present “visual” representations of the information they felt
the president needed to know to make proper decisions based on the available
facts. This proved to be a difficult proposition. PowerPoint displays had to be
“slimmed down” because Trump couldn’t “digest too many slides.” He needed to
see more “images” to keep his “interest—and fewer words. Trump couldn’t even
digest three points—you had to come in with one point and keeping banging
Trump’s head with it until he “gets it.”
Who was this man who would be
“president”? For one thing, “Not everyone sees the full Trump, especially the
one who is red-faced, consumed with fury, and teetering at the outer limits of
self-control…In the history of American democracy, we have had undisciplined
presidents. We have had incurious presidents. We have had inexperienced
presidents. We have had amoral presidents. Rarely if ever before have we had
them all at once. Donald Trump is not like his predecessors, everyone knows
that. But his vices are more alarming than amusing…He stumbles, slurs, gets
confused, is easily irritated, and has trouble synthesizing information, not
occasionally but with regularity…The president also can’t remember what he’s
said or been told (recall close-up photos of Trump’s notes that keep repeating
a simple word or phrase).”
As far as his character is
concerned, “Donald Trump is not a paragon of justice. He is not worried about
maintaining ‘good fellowship’ with people, treating others fairly, keeping his promises,
or demonstrating generosity. While he sought to cultivate the image of an
unselfish billionaire, he is not. Many of us who’ve joined his administration
recognize he is a vindictive and self-promoting person, one who spends an
inordinate amount of time attacking others to advance his interests. Those
qualities translate into governing. As a result, we have all learned the hard
way that the president’s modus operandi emphasizes combat over peacemaking,
bullying over negotiating, malice over clemency, and recognition over true
generosity. In sum, he is the portrait of an unjust man.”
That Trump is a bullying coward
is also something that is not difficult to discern. Anonymous notes that “Cicero
defines courage as the mark of someone who is ‘unperturbed in difficult times,’
a quality I cannot assign to President Trump. When faced with tough challenges,
he becomes unglued and bombastic…When he is angry about an issue, Trump will
let the frustration in his mind boil over, no matter where he’s at or what he’s
doing.” Quoting Aristotle, “‘he who exceeds in confidence when it comes to
frightening things is reckless, and the reckless person is held to be both a
boaster and a pretender to courage.’ Trump is not brave, nor unswayed by the
crowd, nor uncommanded by money and pleasure, nor stable through crisis. He is
a ‘pretender to courage,’ and that should give everyone pause.”
While Anonymous is unsure if
Trump is a born racist or just says or does racist things, he says “what
difference does it make if the effect is the same? When he makes statements
that encourage racists and knows full well he is doing so, it is wrong. More
damning than that is his aloofness. The American public can see that the
administration is not doing enough to counter racially motivated violence. Why
is that? Because ultimately the man at the top doesn’t show interest. In the
minds of Trump boosters, problems such as white supremacy are an invention of
the Left to push an identity-politics agenda (as if white nationalists are not
pushing a “white-identity” line). As a result, the president is reluctant to
act, hesitant to lead the charge on an issue that might alienate some of his
supporters, all the while ignoring the brushfire sweeping the hearts and minds
of a small but menacing faction here at home.”
Anonymous criticizes
conservatives who “dream” that Trump is “our savior.” “Not only is he not conservative, he represents a
long-term threat to the Republican Party and what it purports to stand for.” He
goes on to say that “The Trump presidency is one of the biggest challenges to
our nation’s checks and balances system in modern times. Donald Trump has
abused his power to undermine all three branches of the government (including
the judicial, nominating unqualified, partisan candidates), at times flagrantly
and at times in secret.”
Anonymous also notes that Trump’s
fixation with the “Deep State” conspiracy is wrapped around his disdain for
democratic institutions. “Do you think that your mail carrier I having secret
meetings to destroy Donald Trump? Do you think federal law enforcement agents,
whose culture leans conservative, sit around trying to find ways to get
Democrats elected? Is the Pentagon’s librarian a mole for Bernie Sanders? The
president’s claim of a Deep State sounds preposterous because of it. The person
intent on destroying democratic foundations is Donald Trump, not the honorable
public servants who go to work every day to make our government run—to get
Social Security checks out on time, to protect communities from criminals, to
keep food and prescription drugs safe from contamination, to uphold our
Constitution.”
A Warning is just one of many tomes “warning” us of the dangers
that Trump presents now, and these dangers will become only worse if Trump’s
moral and ethical corruption is “validated” by reelection. Impeachment on his
record is not enough to defeat Trump; voters need to wake-up to who and what
Trump is, and that goes far beyond the impeachment articles.
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