We are living in a political world of the unreal, where what
is, isn’t, and what isn’t, is. Where
fact and fiction are reversed so that we are to believe the untruth as the
truth and the truth as the untrue. Where
the current occupant of the White House bellows that he is the only one who
knows and speaks the truth and all others speak “fake news.” This same person asserts
that he “knows more than the generals,” “that he is the only one who can fix
the economy, that nobody knows the economy more than he,” that “he is gifted
and has the greatest memory and has more respect for women than anyone in the
world.”
This is someone who, often, has a difficult time speaking
coherently in a discussion, cannot remember from moment to moment what he has
said or what position he has taken, and treats women as objects with a sense of
his being entitled to touching the genitals of those whom he finds attractive.
He is someone who lies, denies that he has lied, says derogatory
things about others that are really descriptive statements about himself and is
clueless about how transparent he is being in his words and behaviors.
This is someone whose need is to create chaos, confusion and
conflict around issues and people, so that what is being focused on, becomes
blurred by the shear blizzard of absurdity that swirls around him at any one
time. His polarizing of one group against another, his questioning of the very
agencies and people who are investigating his campaign’s involvement with the
Russia’s attempt to interfere with our Presidential Election are examples of
this deflecting behavior on his part. His recent assertion that the Nunez Memo
exonerates his campaign’s involvement with Russia during the 2016 Presidential
Election is another example of his creating a narrative that is baseless,
blatantly untrue and embarrassing.
This is someone who holds a grudge in the typical fashion of
a true narcissist and enters into tweeting tantrums as a daily exercise in
making a fool out of himself. His
emotional maturity and his poorly developed impulse control rivals that of an eleven-year
old, school yard bully.
He is a person who scapegoats and expresses distain for immigrants,
is supportive of white supremacists, whose distorted view of reality is
creating the political environment that we, in America, and around the world,
have to live within.
The current President’s candidacy was predicated on the
racist “birther” lie. His platform was predicated on misstatements of facts about
the American economy. His ‘bringing
America back’, chant fails to acknowledge that it was America’s economic
strength that allowed it to survive and rebound from the 2008 recession better
than any economy in the world. His
“making America first” campaign is a poor excuse for making America appear to
be the victim in its dealing with others in matters economic. Who would want to
go into any relationship with the idea that the United States is going to get
the winning deal with everyone else we are going to negotiate with in any
business dealing? His is a buyer beware, strong-arm approach to dealing with
others. Again, his bulling attitude will fail in relation to other world
leaders. His claim to build the American military into the strongest force in
the world, is pure and simple hyperbole.
America’s military is the
strongest in the world.
Our current President is a reality show that has, sadly,
gone public. And, we are the witnesses and victims of his delusional world,
words and behavior. What we can do as
responsible citizens of the United States is to watch and listen and speak
truth to power and resist the craziness of this moment in our history. Above all else we must trust that our
Democratic Institutions and those who represent us are strong enough to deal
with the likes of this current incarnation of an Ugly American, as we did with the
likes of Joseph McCarthy and Roy Cohn in the 1950’s. In this, we have no choice
but to prevail.
