Trumps Corruption of the American Republic

[pangaia]

Trump’s Corruption of the American Republic
Roger Cohen FEB. 2, 2018

NEW YORK TIMES

President Trump’s most significant, and ominous, achievement in his first year in office is the corruption of the Republic. I don’t mean that he has succeeded in destroying the checks and balances on which American freedom rests. I mean that he has so soiled the discourse that a kind of numbness has set in, an exhaustion of outrage that allows him to proceed with the unthinkable.

The greatest danger from a man so unerring in his detection of human weakness, so attuned to the thrill of cruelty, so aware of the manipulative powers of entertainment, so unrelenting in his disregard for truth, so contemptuous of ethics and culture, so attracted to blood and soil, was always that he would use the immense powers of his office to drag Americans down with him into the vortex.

Trump is succeeding in this. He is having his way, for all the investigative vigor of the free press he derides, for all the honor of the judiciary that has pushed back against his attempts to stain with bigotry the law of the land. Slowly but surely, the president is getting people to shrug.

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/02/02/opinion/trump-corruption-republic.html?smid=fb-share

[moondust]

1. I've wondered

if he has an enormous chip on his shoulder against government and the rule of law that won't let him do whatever he wants to gain more money and power. Trump and his businesses have been involved in 3,500 legal cases in U.S. federal courts and state court.

There may be others, particularly in business, who also have no use for government and would love to "downsize" it and get rid of taxes. "Let the markets decide!"

Maybe they see this as their chance to get even with that damn gubmint and escape the "oppressive" rule of law.

[pangaia]

2. I think fuckwad has a chip on his shoulder about everybody at one time or another.

He is just a cruel, vicious hateful human being.

As for the rest--- I think some/many/most business people just need more and more $$$$ It is like a drug. Anybody and anything that gets in the way must be trampled.