America is holding her breath. Ever since President Donald Trump descended down the escalator at Trump Tower and insulted his way into declaring himself a candidate for the US presidency, life in America has not been the same.
The man has lived up to every possible definition of his GOP primary opponent prediction that he would be a chaos president.
From petty insults such as calling a former aide a dog, to revelations of hush money payments to women to protect his candidacy from imploding in snowballing scandals. And from running a campaign that appears to have relied on covert help from Russia, to behaving like Russian President Vladimir Putin’s butler at a press conference in Helsinki Finland, with Trump, we have seen it all.
That is why America is screaming: Hurry Up Mueller!
Is Trump a traitor? Does he work for Russia? What does Putin have on him? These are some of the questions special counsel Robert Mueller is expected to answer for us, hopefully soon—with evidence.
But we don’t need Mueller to see the corruption in this administration. In fact they are not even hiding it as noted by this New York Times report.
These are trying times for Americans. Things we were used to see happen in corrupt and lawless foreign governments are now happening to us and in unbelievably large doses. Americans used to expect dictators, such as Libya’s Muammar Al Qadaffi to issue rambling speeches in the UN that nobody paid attention to.
Now, in Donald Trump, we have a president, who is not only ignored by the world, but is also the comedy act at the UN.
Americans used to stand on high moral ground and point out corruption in other countries. We’d brag about our democracy, how the co-equal arms of the government checked each other from the excesses of power-hungry politicians. But under Trump, the system has spectacularly failed. Not only do we have a corrupt administration in the White House, it has hijacked the Senate and God forbid, the judiciary.
America is in trouble and anybody who disagrees is living in denialism Lalaland.
As days pass under the Trump administration, America is slipping further and further into authoritarianism, absurdity and chaos than nobody would have imagined could happen to America. Trump is systematically, unraveling any semblance of an organized government and eroding faith in government. He is running the US government like a drug cartel, where decions and made instinctively and not in an intellectual and deliberative manner. The question all should ask is why? Why is Trump doing this? In a true dictatorial fashion, Trump has no problem abusing his powers.
It is, however, one thing for Trump to abuse his powers for the sake of making the country stronger, but it’s another for him to abuse his powers and weaken the country. There is no evidence that the Trump presidency has helped America. It most definitely has helped Russia. Every Trump move seems to have a Russian beneficiary. His attacks on NATO not only sowed discord in the alliance, but its emboldened Russia and China. By withdrawing from the Paris Climate Change Accord, Trump isolated the America from the rest of the world.
By withdrawing from the Iran Nuclear Deal, he essentially gave Iran permission to build nuclear weapon and set the timer of and Iran-Israeli conflict. By suddenly announcing withdrawal from Syria and Afghanistan, he signals to allies such as Kurds, who rely on American fire-power for protection in the region that America cannot be trusted.
Over and over Trump has not only demonstrated incompetence, but he has also shown ill will. His insatiable desire to have the final word regardless of the cost was again on display Feb. 15, when he declared a national emergency over a fictitious reasons.
While polls show most Americans did not fall for the lies against immigrants to justify this abuse of power, if Congress allows this power grab to stand without consequences, America will have succumbed to an authoritarian ruler and inched even closer to a dictatorship.
Dictators are a funny breed, they mimic other authoritarians, just like Trump admires Russian President Vladimir Putin and the ever-crude Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte. They consolidate power by pushing moral and constitutional boundaries to the limit, creating confusion about right and wrong, legal and illegal and ethical and unethical. They surround themselves with sycophants and like-minded people, then they stifle dissent, reward people who sing their praises and vilify their opponents.
Trump has surrounded himself with family and individuals, who are not connected to the mainstream Republican or Democratic orthodoxy. Surrounding himself with such a group allows him to credibly reject any advice they give because they cannot credibly cite their experience, precedence or norms as reason for their assertions. This creates an environment where decisions are not made because of their soundness, rather they are made by the most senior ranking person in the room, and in the Trump administration case that person is Donald J. Trump.
A dictator needs an army to spread his propaganda. That is where Fox News Sean Hannity and the right-wing talk radio brigade come in. They amplify his ideas regardless of their absurdity, and this is not necessarily because they agree one hundred percent, rather because any form of disagreement can be perceived as a weak link that can be exploited by their opponents. For example, it is clear that Hannity was uncomfortable with Trump’s support for Alabama GOP Senatorial nominee Roy Moore after it was revealed that he pursued romantic relationships with underage girls. But Hannity had to swallow that bitter pill and line-up behind an accused pedophile so as not to jeopardize the mission—turning America into a conservative country and keep brown and black people in check.
As long as Trump is pushing this mission. They will look away and pretend nothing-to-see-here.
If you don’t believe me think about these comparisons of Trump and former President Barack Obama.
Hannity called Obama a tyrant for passing the Affordable Care Act without help from Republicans, he vilified him for passing DACA by executive order, attacked him every day over growing national deficits and complained about his work ethic every time he took a golf break. Trump has done similar stuff and worse and Hannity has not said a peep. In fact, he has egged him on and even threatened to cause him misery were he to deviate and follow Congressional or Presidential norms and traditions.
The corruption in the Trump administration is staggering and will take a long time to uncover. Special Counsel Robert Mueller has his work cut out for him. In fact, he has the future of America resting on his shoulders.
While it is frowned upon to compare Trump with a third-world dictator, the time for such comparisons has arrived.