The Trump Dilemma: Where do we go from here

           

He hit the campaign trail campaigning for himself and Vladimir Putin. “Wouldn’t it be nice if we got along with Russia?”  As time moved on, Trump continued to extol the virtues of Putin and Russia. He hired Paul Manafort, a person that he said he didn’t know prior to bringing him on board as his campaign chairman on the suggestion of other parties. At the time of his hiring, Manafort is reported to have been broke, yet he came on board to work for free.

Once installed as campaign chairman, Manafort is reported to have modified Trump’s platform in favor of Russia.  Upon winning the presidency Trump fired Salley Yates, Preet Bharara, and James Comey, all who were in a unique position to bring him to justice on a number of possible infractions.

Trump continued to campaign for Putin, and was slow to institute congressionally mandated sanctions against Russia. After procrastinating for a long time, Trump instituted some sanctions against Russia; however, many on Capitol Hill felt that it was too little too late as they thought that the sanctions should have been applied more quickly and more severely.

Throughout his presidency, Mr. Trump has continually praised Putin and disrespected our allies, including May of England, Trudeau of Canada, and Merkle of Germany.  He also dispatched his cronies like Nunes, Sanders, and Hannity to spread his propaganda against such revered institutions as the FBI and Department of Justice, headed by his one-time supporter and hand-picked Attorney General, Jeff Sessions of Tennessee. After Sessions correctly recused himself from anything concerning the Russian investigation, Trump soured on him and has since constantly demeaned Sessions to the extent that a lesser person would have “stepped down” from his position by now.

I have said before that Trump has brought “lies to a new high and America to a new low”. Indeed he has done that, but more seriously is the fact that his fellow-Republicans have continually walked “lock step” with him come “hell or high water” in order to maintain his allegiance to them and hopefully maintain their congressional seats. They have sold their souls to the devil for the selfish purpose of maintaining their seats by aligning with a president with a Republican approval rating of over 80%.

When the Founding Fathers formed this government and created its constitution, they did not foresee that we would have an amoral self-absorbed president with multiple legal actions against him who would sacrifice the government and its institutions to save himself no matter what. However, we now have such a person and his presidential victory is still questionable given Comey’s anti-Hillary disclosures, Russian election meddling, and WikiLeaks. But I digress, the important thing is, he is the president despite losing the “popular” vote to Clinton by some three million votes.

We find ourselves now in a political situation in which the nation is governed by an arrogant and impulsive man who some have said is the “least prepared” president in American history, who ascended to his office under questionable circumstances. As, I said earlier, he embraces our long-term enemies while denigrating our long- term friends. His economic policies, inclusive of tariffs, have made some Americans wonder whether he is trying to save America or bury it.

Donald J. Trump’s ducking and dodging and trying to throw shade on the Russian Investigation and all entities associated with it, does more to highlight his probable guilt than dispel it. Common sense tells us that if he is innocent, as he professes, he would simply sit down with Mueller, state his case, and thus prove his innocence. It would be that simple! Yet, Trump continues to “toy” with the idea of a “sit-down” with Mueller- shedding more doubt on his sincerity and veracity. Many people in the media and other pundits are now calling Trump an outright liar after dancing around this term for some time.

When Trump is called a liar in any forum or in print, there is no basis for a legal suit for slander or libel because the proofs of his lies are so abundant.  If folks at home or abroad can’t believe him, or believe in him, it diminishes our nation’s ability to negotiate “anything” at home or abroad due to our “shattered” believability caused by our president. One way to shatter a country is to have no one believe it, or believe in it, anymore.  (Some have said, “As Putin hurts the country from without, Trump hurts the country from within).

Would a rational democratic leader with good intentions denigrate our friends and embrace our enemies, disrespect a gold star Muslim family, insist on the guilt of a group of minority boys when DNA and acquittal proves otherwise, create a bogus “knee issue” regarding minority NFL players for political purposes, impugn the integrity of the FBI and DOJ in order to throw shade on them to save his hide, disrespect the human rights and dignity of women for his selfish pleasure,  and lie continually in the face of irrefutable proof to the contrary-among other things?

Sooner or later, we will be forced to come to grips with the fact that at the head of our government is an impulsive and irrational man who would throw anyone under the bus to save himself- a man who knows no empathy and shows no believable sympathy for most people. His chief accomplishment is his uncanny ability to mesmerize a certain group of people and keep them loyally on his side. He has routine rallies to insure that he doesn’t lose his base, as well as to re-energize his own batteries. His purpose was never to rally or unite all Americans.  He sought and obtained a group of “like thinking” Americans who at the “drop of a hat” would be willing to come to his defense if he told them he was wronged. This Trumpian strategy further divides Americans along cultural and racial lines.

So, where do we go from here? Logic dictates that the dysfunctional reign of Trump will end either through the Mueller findings, the findings of the courts, the dictates of the ballot box, or some combination of these things. In the meantime, we must keep the faith and stay the course. I believe that at the end of the day, true justice will prevail. When that happens, we will finally be Trumpless!

I’ll see you at the Ballot box.