Dear America,
With each new miscue in the Trump saga, I despair more deeply for my country. He persists in plummeting to new lows mentally, intellectually, morally and in every other respect, even for him, but his support persists with him. Most recently, a copy of the tape recorded voice of our emeritus miscreant-in-chief fulminating over and bandying about a document he had been given (and had kept) by an army general officer outlining a plan for attacking Iran. The document, Trump stated, was marked such as to make it not for popular dissemination, but you can hear it crackling as he manipulates it in his hands and shows it to a group of his obsequious insiders, more than one of whom were taping the conversation with Trump's knowledge. One of them even opined that the classification of the document was now a problem, meaning now that it had been shown I assume. Of course, the fact that he was on the record gave him no pause as he confessed that he hadn't declassified the document when he took it and it was too late now since he was no longer president. Notably, a transcript of this tape was part of the "speaking indictment" filed against Trump in federal court, and Brett Baier of Fox interviewed Trump about it. Brazen as always, Trump, looking haggard and disheveled, denied that the content of the tape was what it undeniably turned out to be when it was played on CNN a couple of evenings ago. And in the aftermath of the publication of that tape on the air for the entire nation to hear, Trump sought to make himself out to be the wronged party because CNN's acquisition of the tape had not been declared. He didn't seem to understand that the image of him standing over a bludgeoned body with a bloody fireplace poker in his hand wouldn't have been more categorically damning, and the last thing anyone would care about was how the picture came to light.
But, that's Trump. He continues to think that denial is the same as refutation, and he won't relent in that misguided belief until he's being sentenced for his crime, if then. He became president by winning the electoral college, though he won nothing else, and he also continues to consider that a great victory when in reality it was simply the manifestation of an idea that Alexander Hamilton had misconceived. To use his two favorite pejoratives, he is disgusting and disgraceful, but we all know that, and what he does to confirm that fact is no surprise at all. What is a surprise, however, is that his loyal followers cannot be dissuaded from taking his part. The man insists on reaffirming the fact that he isn't fit for anyone's trust, but his political supporters refuse to acknowledge his best efforts to undermine himself and they trust him anyway...or do they? I've said this before and I am sure I will say it again many times. Loyalty to Trump has nothing to do with what Trump is. It has to do solely with what he legitimates in those loyal to him. He is the opposite of what Lincoln referred to as "our better angles," and that is his appeal. He lets their worst selves believe that they're alright in spite of their deviation from what we have fooled ourselves as a nation into believing was a reality: American exceptionalism. In reality, we have in this country a segment of our population that is just as vile and despicable as the worst that inhabit any other country: Russia, China, Belarus, Iran... They love him because he says to them, "I'm okay, so you're okay," which is why my despair is so deep. It's not okay to be like Donald Trump...not here or anywhere else. And what his supporters don't recognize is that if Trump were in Russia, he'd by Vladimir Putin, and we, America, would not be a democracy. We'd be the fiefdom of a tinhorn autocrat, just as Russia is.
Eventually, and probably not too far down the road, the petard that is this series of Trump crimes will hoist him in the Shakespearean sense. But that is the actual source of my despair. So what? Even if he is convicted of a crime, his sycophants will still vote for him. And being a convicted felon isn't a bar to being president. Thus, what Trump represents is a sort of ineluctable current in our society into his misfeasor corp. He is like a pied piper leading our nation to the edge of an abyss...to the verge of being what we eschewed when we started our revolution in 1776.
Donald Trump is the end of the American experiment.
Your friend,
Mike
With each new miscue in the Trump saga, I despair more deeply for my country. He persists in plummeting to new lows mentally, intellectually, morally and in every other respect, even for him, but his support persists with him. Most recently, a copy of the tape recorded voice of our emeritus miscreant-in-chief fulminating over and bandying about a document he had been given (and had kept) by an army general officer outlining a plan for attacking Iran. The document, Trump stated, was marked such as to make it not for popular dissemination, but you can hear it crackling as he manipulates it in his hands and shows it to a group of his obsequious insiders, more than one of whom were taping the conversation with Trump's knowledge. One of them even opined that the classification of the document was now a problem, meaning now that it had been shown I assume. Of course, the fact that he was on the record gave him no pause as he confessed that he hadn't declassified the document when he took it and it was too late now since he was no longer president. Notably, a transcript of this tape was part of the "speaking indictment" filed against Trump in federal court, and Brett Baier of Fox interviewed Trump about it. Brazen as always, Trump, looking haggard and disheveled, denied that the content of the tape was what it undeniably turned out to be when it was played on CNN a couple of evenings ago. And in the aftermath of the publication of that tape on the air for the entire nation to hear, Trump sought to make himself out to be the wronged party because CNN's acquisition of the tape had not been declared. He didn't seem to understand that the image of him standing over a bludgeoned body with a bloody fireplace poker in his hand wouldn't have been more categorically damning, and the last thing anyone would care about was how the picture came to light.
But, that's Trump. He continues to think that denial is the same as refutation, and he won't relent in that misguided belief until he's being sentenced for his crime, if then. He became president by winning the electoral college, though he won nothing else, and he also continues to consider that a great victory when in reality it was simply the manifestation of an idea that Alexander Hamilton had misconceived. To use his two favorite pejoratives, he is disgusting and disgraceful, but we all know that, and what he does to confirm that fact is no surprise at all. What is a surprise, however, is that his loyal followers cannot be dissuaded from taking his part. The man insists on reaffirming the fact that he isn't fit for anyone's trust, but his political supporters refuse to acknowledge his best efforts to undermine himself and they trust him anyway...or do they? I've said this before and I am sure I will say it again many times. Loyalty to Trump has nothing to do with what Trump is. It has to do solely with what he legitimates in those loyal to him. He is the opposite of what Lincoln referred to as "our better angles," and that is his appeal. He lets their worst selves believe that they're alright in spite of their deviation from what we have fooled ourselves as a nation into believing was a reality: American exceptionalism. In reality, we have in this country a segment of our population that is just as vile and despicable as the worst that inhabit any other country: Russia, China, Belarus, Iran... They love him because he says to them, "I'm okay, so you're okay," which is why my despair is so deep. It's not okay to be like Donald Trump...not here or anywhere else. And what his supporters don't recognize is that if Trump were in Russia, he'd by Vladimir Putin, and we, America, would not be a democracy. We'd be the fiefdom of a tinhorn autocrat, just as Russia is.
Eventually, and probably not too far down the road, the petard that is this series of Trump crimes will hoist him in the Shakespearean sense. But that is the actual source of my despair. So what? Even if he is convicted of a crime, his sycophants will still vote for him. And being a convicted felon isn't a bar to being president. Thus, what Trump represents is a sort of ineluctable current in our society into his misfeasor corp. He is like a pied piper leading our nation to the edge of an abyss...to the verge of being what we eschewed when we started our revolution in 1776.
Donald Trump is the end of the American experiment.
Your friend,
Mike
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