Worst damage done by Trump was to the people's trust

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

By Ken Dammand / Herald Forum

I submitted a letter to the editor that was published in The Herald on Oct. 26, 2008 and is more relevant today than it was then.

-snip-

That was fourteen years ago, after eight years of what I thought would be the most deceitful and manipulative presidency the United States would ever let itself endure. How little I knew. But my conclusion about trust was spot on. Trust was, and is, the target of every terrorist attack and if anything could bring our country down it would be the destruction of our ability to trust one another and our institutions.

In 2015, Donald Trump asked Americans, “What have you got to lose?” He has since more than answered that question.

He has destroyed our ability to trust our news resources, intelligence and police agencies, justice department, Congress, election officials, the Centers for Disease Control, the courts, science and even our own lying eyes. Of course, he’s had plenty of help doing this. But no one else has played anywhere near as profound a role in putting us in this dangerous situation.

https://www.heraldnet.com/opinion/forum-worst-damage-done-by-trump-was-to-the-peoples-trust/

[Nittersing]

1. No. The worst damage is that the GOP went along with it. nt

[RockRaven]

2. The worst damage, trustwise, was to Americans' opinions of their fellow citizens...

He exposed, enhanced, highlighted -- in ways that GWB, Reagan, Nixon, McCarthy never managed -- how utterly loathsome, contemptible, morally bankrupt, and irredeemable a large swath of the American public is.

[Skittles]

5. THANK YOU

the people who voted for Donald Fucking Trump are not VICTIMS, they were COMPLICIT

[SouthernDem4ever]

7. +1

[Hortensis]

3. Yes, a horrible problem. Destroying belief that we have anything worth protecting

and smearing all others but "him" is what populist leaders do. Where liberal leaders seek to bring out the best in people and inspire them to positive action, populist leaders seek power through grievance-building negativism. filling voids of ignorance with disillusioning anti-establishment deceits. The opportunity to "replace" or destroy "the establishment," ANY establishment, is what they offer to those their toxic messages draw. And that's why most come.

No mistaking both types of leaders or the types of crowds they draw for each other.

Leaders of BOTH populist movements asked the question of "what have you got to lose?," both insisting the answer was nothing that shouldn't be -- mirror images in their anti-establishment negativism while claiming different goals.

The dissonantly positive goals claimed, almost lost behind the angry noise of those refusing to eat establishment shit any more, are heard by and do sweep up idealistic people also. But it's past time for those who still haven't rediscovered what they have and don't want to lose -- and especially what their movements had lead to! -- to look around.

A wonderful gift we can wish them for 2023 would be to look at what Democrats and Biden as president have accomplished over these first two years of the Democratic rescue and reconstruction of our country. They should be inspired at very least, and those who look for it should also find the reason they'd lost to trust. Because, unlike the deceits and disillusionments of populist leaders, it exists and is real.

[Skittles]

4. oh fuck anyone dumb enough to fall for his garbage

he's never hidden the fact he is one arrogant, obnoxious piece of SHIT

[twodogsbarking]

6. The mantra was "how bad can he be" in 2015.