Commie Lover

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“America will never be a communist country,” Trump says with words. ‘But I will grovel before the world’s communist dictators and do all I can to emulate them, while giving them whatever they want,’ says he with actions. Figuratively belly-up like a dog submitting to its alpha male, Trump, as no president had done for decades, made a pilgrimage to Andrews AFB to stand below Xi as he exited his plane, to walk on a red carpet cleaned by American troops on their knees, while Chinese diplomats looked on. 

Then he honored the dictator, the man providing weapons and other support to Iran for use against America in Trump’s stupid war, with a White House ceremony on the South Lawn involving more than 400 military personnel, both national anthems, a military review, and a flyover by a B-2 bomber and four F-22 Raptors, the latter of which kinda scared our “president” as he saluted the Chinese anthem while Xi didn’t.

It was supplication akin to what he’d previously orchestrated for “President” Putin, in Alaska. The “president” of the United States lowered himself before a dictator actively aiding our enemy and another actively attacking our friend. And, because he’s blinded by all-consuming jealousy of President Barack Obama and, in his role as HOTUS (no need to guess what the H stands for), he put on the most lavish state dinner for Xi, having, years ago, blasted BHO for doing the same. 

Last week’s column mentioned Trump banning mainstream media from the White House, immediately struck down, on Constitutional grounds, by a Trump-appointed federal judge. Over the weekend, Attorney General Todd Blanche, sworn to defend the Constitution and the rights of American citizens but not, as he does, to excuse Trump’s lawlessness, lied that the ban hadn’t been a ban, and denied that Trump described it as such, which he had. How dutiful are Trump’s appointees, no matter the needs of our country.

Laughably, after the courts reminded him of the Constitution, Trump went on to say, “CNN shouldn’t be allowed into the sacred White House.” Sacred! So sacred does he hold it that he illegally took a wrecking ball to it, intent on desecrating it with a monstrosity, a tastelessly towering, gilded, and, as it turns out, unsafe ballroom. To Trump, nothing is sacred but his own gratification and greed. Certainly not American law or its foundational tenets, or the honorable obligations of his office.

Not laughable is the clearly illegal, self-promoting television ad Trump has been running; illegal because it was paid for by our tax dollars, bannered as such, proudly. But it’s not just about confirming his dictatorial dismissal of American law, which is bad enough. It’s about its chilling content: Walking down a dark hall, scowling like his post-arrest mugshot, he warns, “With you at my side we will demolish the deep state. We will expel the warmongers from our government. We will drive out the globalists. We will cast out the communists, Marxists and fascists. We will throw off the sick political class that hates our country. We will rout the fake news media, and we will liberate America from these villains once and for all.” 

That’s exactly that mendacious, undemocratic authoritarianism that animates the straggling still-approvers; but to anyone who actually loves America as aspired to by our founders, it’s sickening. Close your eyes, and you’ll hear Mussolini. Open them, and see a straight-arm-saluting and hateful cult. Watch newly-launched “Trump TV,” managed by the White House and, therefore, paid for by us, and imagine it in Russian, Chinese, or Korean.

What our country has become under Trump isn’t America, and it’s far from certain it retains the will to do the work to make its way back. If many of us consider ourselves separate from what it now is, can the rest of the world also separate America from Trump, believe it to be a one-off malfunction that will, as long as we continue to have free and fair elections, self-correct?

The thing is, “we” elected him. Within our constitutional system, conceived, in large part, to prevent a Trump from descending to power, it happened. For exposing the weakness of a Constitution that presupposes virtuous politicians and reasonably educated citizens, we owe him embittered thanks. But now, with limitless money from an unimaginably wealthy and selfish American oligarchy controlling what people see and hear, who can say it’s reversible? It was the inevitable result of compromised courts, cowardly Congressdwellers, and shamelessly propagandistic, dishonest media. America has let itself and the world down, and may no longer have the means to lift itself back up.

For a sobering view of the worldwide impact of Trumpism, spend a few moments watching this video, from Rufus Gifford, Ambassador to Denmark under presidents Obama and Biden. These links are ignored by many, but this one is worth a click. In it, he analogizes a heartbroken person finding, with great sadness, that their best and most trusted friend is stabbing them in the back.

Trump's America

Riots, anarchy, demonstrators and military-grade militias killing each other, cities on fire. This is what Trump wants you believe is “Biden’s America.” How many voters are that stupid? 

Because he’s describing his America. We’ve seen Joe Biden’s, when he was with President Barack Obama. You might not have liked their policies, but you didn’t see protests with armed citizens shooting at them; nor would they have been praised. Whoever fired the first shots in the recent horrors, it’s only from Trump and rightwing media that we’ve heard laudatory words for confrontational caravans and the Kenosha killer. 

All of it – Americans facing Americans with eyes full of hate, fingers full of triggers – is on Trump and his media deplorables. His campaign began it, and they’ve promoted it ever since.  

Who wouldn’t want to kill demonstrators if they were terrorists who hate America, planning to destroy everything you value, who rape your children before eating them? Other than the sex/cannibal thing, the believers of which Trump has refused to disavow, because “they like me,” that’s what he’s peddling. 

Encouraging mindless fear and hate works, but only for Trump. With his malicious, self-serving encouragement, carloads of the deluded are pouring into “Democrat” cities, ready to defend against … graffiti, mostly.  

This isn’t Biden’s America, nor is it Kamala Harris’ or AOC’s or Rachel Maddow’s. It’s Trump’s and Pence’s. McConnell’s, Hannity’s, Ingraham’s, Limbaugh’s. And Putin’s, who poisons opponents, to Trump’s silence. 

If we can’t say who all the instigators of violence among the peaceful protestors are, investigators found rightwing agitators, aiming to discredit BLM and validate Trumpists’ rage, behind much of it. If lawful demonstrators could control the infiltrators, they would. It’s not what they want. Trump loves it, though. Kellyanne confirmed it.  

It’s helpful to remember these encounters are in a few blocks of a few cities. There’s been some destruction, but neither those cities nor America are in flames. That’s not what Trump tells us, though, and it’s not what his angry and armed disciples like to believe. Unfortunately for us all, including them, the country they’re defending isn’t America. It’s Trump’s amoral autocracy.  

In Trump’s America, like his rallies, his party’s convention was a festival of fear, loathing, and blatant lies. In his America, there’s no more briefing Congress on Russian election interference. His DOJ, we’ve just learned, quashed investigations into his financial ties to Russia. Crowdfunding sites are raising hundreds of thousands for a propagandized teenager who, illegally-armed, went looking for trouble and found it, in the lives of two citizens. 

This is the greatness Trump has made. Every arm of government designed to protect us has become an instrument of “presidential” power, not the people’s. Even as we approach two-hundred-thousand dead from a mismanaged pandemic, people defend a “leader” still pushing fake cures and hasty vaccines, while refusing to call for the minor personal sacrifices that would end it. 

Forced to become science-free, the CDC and FDA are mouthing falsehoods, and Trump just hired an unqualified, fringe doctor as his pandemic adviser. Trump’s America is ignorance.  

In Trump’s America, stoking of racial animus is coming from inside the White House. And the Kremlin. Lacking attractive policies, Republicans are silent, because they think it garners votes. Two per person, if Trump has his way. Falling for the lies, Trumpists willingly pave the ever-shortening road to authoritarianism, while Putin does this. 

Think it can’t get worse? How about an amoral, Constitution-ignoring, would-be despot gone fully unglued? If you saw someone raving as Trump did to Laura Ingraham, you’d back away. People in “dark shadows.” Planes filled with “thugs, wearing these dark uniforms, black uniforms, with gear and this and that.” 

Never psychologically sound, Trump has descended into babbling lunacy, even as he questions Biden’s mental health and pushes faked videos to prove it.  

It’s straitjacket-time, except his V.P. just said he “can’t remember” if he was told to prepare to take over when Trump was hospitalized. Right. That’d slip anyone’s mind. Pence is just another corrupt liar with whom Trump has surrounded himself. Barr, Pompeo, Wolf. Ratcliffe, Navarro. The ones not yet indicted.  

Ignoring the obvious, many will vote for him anyway. No sane person can, though, without lying to themselves about an unfit promoter of division, now further unloosed from reality. 

In Trump’s America, it’s lose-lose: if he wins, the Constitution becomes repudiated parchment; if he loses, believing his “rigged” lies, Trumpists will take to the streets, murderously deceived, ready to bring it all down.

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