The time away has given me the opportunity to process the last week...
And I'm not optimistic for, at least, the next couple of years.
I do have some observations...
As a Chief Executive and a leader, I'm quite sure that Donald Trump will be the weakest President that any of us have seen in our lifetimes. But that doesn't matter, there's going to be a huge propaganda campaign to compensate for that actual lack of leadership and a lot of people (white working class especially) are going to fall for it. They need something to believe in, even if it's all lies and Trump the Showman (Con Man) won't hesitate to give it to them.
He's adept at being an unprincipled liar, polemicist and conspiracy monger, but that was when he was on the other side of the fence. He's going to be the authority for the next four years and I'm quite sure that he's going to run away from every responsibility that comes his way. Mostly by being a bigger unprincipled liar, polemicist and conspiracy monger that he was a private citizen. With the power of the Bully Pulpit, it's going to be very difficult to stop him.
It's quite clear from the transition so far that he has no plan of his own. Which pretty much means that he's not going to run the administration, the administration will do its level best to run him. Considering the fact that his team so far is made up of a hodgepodge of establishment Republicans and a gaggle of RWNJ serial arsonists, there's going to be a lot of back stabbing and underhanded business going on in The West Wing of the Trump White House.
Of course, this is the way that Trump wants it. He's going to urge as much duplicity and discord as possible and waits to see what scum rises to the top in his behalf.
He's going to regard any and all types of opposition as outright betrayal. The man is basically a constitutional crisis waiting to happen. His response to any perceived betray will challenge both civil and public institutions, as well as individual rights. The man already has an "enemies list" of GOPrs that he considers disloyal. Without any sense of self-control, it won't take that long before he uses the power of Federal Institutions against Democrats, protesters, the press and everyone else. If Congress or the Courts try to stop him from his own paranoia, much harm will have already been done.
Trump is going to go out of his way to hand over as much of the public resource to private, corporate America. Basically, adding to the propaganda campaign, we're looking at a new age of American fascism. The biggest problem is that too many people won't believe that this is happening right before their very eyes. People are used to being asleep... By the time they'll wake up, it'll be too late.
The Republican Congress itself will have to contend with several factions jockeying for power, from those who side with Speaker Ryan, to those who'd want to mount their own MAGA-like takeover of Congress.
Since the GOPrs aren't all on the same page about what parts of the government that they wish to dismantle, the leadership is going to try and jam as much of their disastrous policies up front before sticker shock and buyer's remorse sets in for the rest of the country. This is going to present the hardest time for the congressional Democrats and an outraged public to stop Trump and the GOPrs make good to dismantle The New Deal and The Great Society programs.
We're going to have for years of conflict of interest in the Trump White House, and it's going to be largely ignored in the mainstream press, by the GOPrs in Congress and by Trump supporters in general. Remember that these are all hypocrites who will never hold Trump accountable for things in actuality that they've told lies to accuse Obama of doing in their own delusions.
Considering every other time the GOPrs were in charge to further their agenda, they're going to make a huge mess of the economy. People are going to lose jobs, the cost of living is going to go up, gas prices will rise, the Stock Market is going to tank, job creation is going to sink and we'll be lucky if we're not looking at Depression era soup lines in four years. Of course, with these failures, they're going to look for scapegoats... Nothing like looking for scapegoats to bomb overseas to get everyone's minds off of failures at home.
We'll probably be sending troops to Iran, Syria or somewhere in Africa within the next couple of years. If any of you have relatives or sons or daughters considering signing up in the military soon, I suggest that you talk them all out of it while Trump is in the Oval Office. If you know someone who's in right now and they're nearing the end of their enlistment or are of retirement age, now is a good time to get out before they issue a stop loss for whatever debacle that's going to happen.
The debt and the deficit are sure to explode, wealth inequality is going to rise exponentially and the areas of the country that have been feeling the pinch of deindustrialization are going to suffer the most.
We're all in store for some rough years ahead. Rougher than many of us have ever seen before. It'll tempt many of us to give up and not care as we're all circling down the drain. But it spite of that, I'm begging you to not despair.
What we need to do is reorganize and fight these people every inch of the way.
Some suggestions I have:
Reengage in a fifty state, county-by-county strategy that leaves no part of America untouched. That means going into everywhere from the deepest blue part of the country to the deepest red part. Bring the Democratic voice to the people. Let them know that we haven't given up on them.
Second, Donald Trump gained the support of much of white America by appealing to white supremacy. Everyone knows this. However, in spite of the long term and continuing struggle of non-whites to oppose white supremacy, the truth is that only white people in this country have the power to do something about it. There's quite a bit of instruction for whites to fight white supremacy, if interested, all they have to do is seek it out and implement it. http://www.salon.com/2015/04/29/11_things_white_people_can_do_to_be_real_anti_racist_allies_partner/
Third, hold them accountable for everything they do and say. They're going to fail. People are going to suffer from their failure. Never let them run away from their accountability. Instead of standing on the side and doing nothing, while complaining about everything as the Democrats are keeping this country from falling apart, in the next few years, the GOPrs are going to be working without a net as Trump functions as no more than a ceremonial ringmaster. The circus will be a real horror show indeed, but it's up to us to make sure that we put the blame where it's do. It's about time for them to benefit from the experience of their own failures... It's about time for them to grow up.
And fourth and most importantly... Never give up. Never Surrender.
I'm actually looking forward for the next few years... I only wish that I was back in DC to see it all up close and in person. We're not going anywhere and this thing ain't over yet. All we have to do is rebuild, attack and come back stronger than before.
Let's do that.
= new reply since forum marked as read
