General Discussion
Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsFrom Stormy Daniels to John Bolton, will America ever recover from Donald Trump?
From Stormy Daniels to John Bolton, will America ever recover from Donald Trump?
From Stormy Daniels to John Bolton, the United States of America will not recover from the presidency of Donald Trump.
This is a bold statement, and in a literal sense, it is not true. The United States will exist long after President Trump either steps down after two terms, is defeated for re-election, or is otherwise removed from office.
-------------------------
Meanwhile, the rest of the world regarded the United States with a mixture of awe and condescension. We were sneered at by European intellectuals, secretly envied by Communist apparatchiks, and hated by less-developed nations who resented our incredible wealth. But friends and enemies both had to accept that America was a serious nation, run by serious people who always rose to the obligations of global leadership.
Donald Trump is different. The 45th president has shown himself to be utterly unserious about foreign affairs. In just the past few weeks he has lied to the Canadian prime minister (or lied about lying, it is now unclear) and suggested, yet again, that America might abandon allies who dont ante up their protection money. He has impulsively thrown out offers to meet with Vladimir Putin and Kim Jong Un, and sent the market plunging at the prospect of international trade wars.
https://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/2018/03/23/stormy-daniels-john-bolton-can-america-recover-donald-trump-column/450827002/
notdarkyet
(2,226 posts)doing. Which is why every one of us in America will be affected by this administration. Next up, trade war with China.
C_U_L8R
(45,021 posts)But Republicans and Conservatism are toast.
vi5
(13,305 posts)...and let bygones be bygones, and "reach across the aisle", or do the usually 5 steps forward after we've been pulled 20 steps backward under a Republican administration.
Especially with as loathed as Trump is, anything less than throwing everything he's touched on a pile and burning it to the ground will not do.
TheCowsCameHome
(40,169 posts)Downtown Hound
(12,618 posts)If Germany can recover from Adolf Hitler, then we sure as hell can recover from Trump.
hedda_foil
(16,375 posts)
All of this reveals a great shift in American politics. By electing Trump and tolerating Bolton, we have shown that we are not a nation that can be consistently trusted with the stewardship of the free world. Its not that Trump, in the end, will collapse NATO, plunge us into a great depression, or start World War III although with Bolton by his side he is capable of doing all of those things but rather that the American voters have shown the world that we are capable of astonishing selfishness and petulance. We have abandoned our civic virtue not just at home, but overseas, and once lost, that position cannot be recovered.
Perhaps this is all too pessimistic. Americans have elected men of weak moral character and shallow political commitment to office before. But not when it mattered so much, and certainly not since the advent of the era in which the President of United States the sole steward of an arsenal of weapons that can extinguish civilization itself became the leader and protector not only of millions of his own citizens, but of the billions of others who rely on America as a friend and ally.
The most optimistic outcome is that decades from now the memory of the Trump years fades away, and both we and the world look upon this period as an aberration, a kind of fever or temporary insanity from which we awoke just before we lost any possibility of an American restoration. But the damage is getting deeper by the day. Healing it will take more than just electing a new president: it will require years of painful self-examination, and calling ourselves to account honestly and transparently. Only then will we begin to earn back the presumption of trust and leadership that was once one of our proudest achievements as a free nation.