With the Southern District of New York essentially confirming that we have a felon for a president, the focus of pundits seems to be evolving rather quickly from can he or can’t he be indicted to what the hell happens AFTER Donald Trump.
I read an interesting, if depressing piece shared by Will Martin on Business Insider, predicting that U.S. capitalism and, more importantly, the institutions of its democracy, might be forever changed by the spreading corruption of Donald Trump.
Others are speculating that, despite Trump being exposed as the most dishonest and corrupt American president in modern history, Democrats might actually find it difficult to unseat him should his presidency survive to 2020 for a second go-round. Some say that the only way to defeat him is with a candidate that exceeds or at least duplicates his savage populist style.
I’ve gotta say that, if that is the case, maybe the U.S. no longer deserves democracy.
The shameless Republican Party, with one foot in the Third Reich, has somehow succeeded in redefining basic democratic aspirations like a living wage, universal healthcare and education as “far left” pipe dreams to which only a fool would give allegiance. Why do we let tham do that?
Objectively, they haven’t a leg to stand on, having surrendered every remaining ounce of integrity in the service of the Emperor Who Wears No Clothes. Somehow, though, our tradition of fair play, maintained only on the left, gives the toxic claims of the GOP-in-denial, equal time before the media court of public opinion.
With an entire television outlet (Fox News) and innumerable right-wing tabloids and websites slavishly devoted to defending and promulgating even Trump’s most conspicuously false statements, why does the rest of the media even give GOP talking heads the time of day?
How is it that in the face of multiple ongoing scandals of treasonous portent, and having made innumerable xenophobic and unsavory comments, Donald Trump somehow still enjoys close to 40% approval?
Has our national character descended so far since wartime audiences embraced “Mr. Smith Goes to Washington?”
Instead of asking the question, how can we defeat Donald Trump in 2020, we should be asking the question, how do we defeat him for all-time?
When the GOP began its assault on public education and cultural institutions, we should have paid closer attention. We kind of let that slide. The end result is that we have a population that is progressing toward greater ignorance, which makes them more pliant to populist extremism.
The only insurance against ignorance and lies laying waste to our democracy is a rigorous and liberal education for all. Beyond that, we have some serious fence-repair to do in the legal framework of the presidency.
Even China has recognized the importance of education and made great strides in raising its population from poverty, so that it is now evolving into a technology giant.
We have been doing the opposite. There will ultimately be an overall economic price to pay for concentrating public policy on further enriching the top 1% earners at the expense of better educating the masses and elevating an informed electorate.
Banana Republic or Docent of Democracy? The choice is ours alone to make.