Don't we want a president America can be proud of?

[babylonsister]

https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2018/10/21/1805377/-Don-t-we-want-a-president-America-can-be-proud-of#read-more

Don't we want a president America can be proud of?
Ian Reifowitz
Community
Sunday October 21, 2018 · 12:30 PM EDT

snip//

But that’s not all. Trump’s allies in the media have been out trashing the victim of this heinous murder, mounting a “whispering campaign” about Khashoggi that consists of lies about his supposed terrorist sympathies. Moreover, Trump Jr. himself retweeted a similar lie about Khashoggi. According to the Washington Post, the White House is well aware of the campaign and has no problem with it. Anti-Trump conservative William Kristol summarized it thusly: “Trump wants to take a soft line, so Trump supporters are finding excuses for him to take it. One of those excuses is attacking the person who was murdered.”

Trump has harshly criticized real friends, democratic allies who share our values like Canada and Germany. But Saudi Arabia is “our partner”—in the cover-up of a murder, although that’s not how he meant it. We have, under Trump, abandoned our moral authority and become a country whose foreign policy simply follows the money instead of the ideals on which that policy is supposed to rest. And no, it doesn’t matter what the White House has said in the past day or two about the Saudi government’s responsibility, now that more and more evidence is emerging. Once you’ve sold your soul for Saudi gold, there's no taking it back.

One final note on Trump and his utter antipathy toward freedom of the press either abroad or at home. On Thursday in Montana he actually praised a congressman who committed assault against a journalist. The lowlife-in-chief said: “Any guy who can do a body slam ... he's my guy,” and then pantomimed the action. Then he got lower: “I shouldn't say this. There's nothing to be embarrassed about.”

Uh, yeah, there is. More than just an embarrassment, that statement—right down to the faux-conspiratorial tone of him saying things he “shouldn’t”—represents pure fascism. The president of the United States just endorsed politicians committing violence against journalists. Let that sink in for a minute. Apparently, one of his supporters at the Montana rally really dug that idea, as he peered over at CNN’s Jim Acosta, one of Trump’s favorite rhetorical punching bags, and drew his thumb across his throat in a slitting motion. This scumbag holds the office held by George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, Franklin Roosevelt, and Barack Obama. How does that make you feel? It’s highly likely none of the things you are feeling is anything resembling pride.

Donald Trump is our Nero. His ascendance to the presidency reveals the bankruptcy of our politics, as no properly functioning system could have allowed such an amoral, base, and anti-democratic charlatan to occupy the highest office in our land. His congressional allies will never, ever provide any kind of effective check on his authority. If we, the voters, don’t take power out of their hands, they will continue to take money from average Americans and turn it over to millionaires, while their leader tramples on our democracy’s most sacred beliefs. When it comes to next month’s election, it’s as simple as that.

Donald Trump is on the ballot. On Election Day, you must cast your vote to stop him.


Ian Reifowitz is the author of Obama’s America: A Transformative Vision of Our National Identity (Potomac Books).

[Garrett78]

1. Gianforte still got 49.7 percent even with a libertarian candidate taking more than 5 percent.

The 25 or so stark red states can start their own damn country.