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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region Forumsby USAF Colonel (ret.) Curtis Milam
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by USAF Colonel (ret.) Curtis Milam
But over time Ive come to appreciate Trump in ways I did not expect. Now, I am thankful that we elected Trump. Because Donald Trump is exactly what America needed. Trump is a mirror, a warning, and ultimately a catalyst for change. Reflected in Trump is all that is wrong with the United States: the injustice of our broken social contract, the crassness of our politics, and the cruelty of our economy. Trump is also the shock that a mature democracy needs for action. To use a timely metaphor, Trump and his supporters are a virus, and they have activated our democratic antibodies. What we are seeing in the streets is the body fighting the infection.
America was the first modern nation, created of, by, and for the peoplesupposedly a nation with no class structure, where anyone could reach their potential. But that was a myth. America had classes: slaves at the bottomtreated not as people but propertythen poor and working-class whites, and atop it all our original aristocracy of landed gentry and traders in the South, merchants and industrialists in the North. We fought a civil war to end slavery but failed in its aftermath to establish the more perfect union mentioned by our Founders. What we are seeing in our current moment is not only a race war but a class war. America must confront systemic racism to move forward, but it also must acknowledge that we have created a permanent underclass of all colors (though mostly Black and brown). We are a society where your melanin content and your zip code determine your future.
Beginning with Newt Gingrich in 1994, Republicans stopped trying to govern and instead began accumulating power. McKay Coppins writes in his profile of Gingrich in the Atlantic, few figures in modern history have done more than Gingrich to lay the groundwork for Trumps rise. Effective governance requires compromise, trust, and mutual respect. Gingrichs new version of Republican had no interest in that. He destroyed the bipartisan structures for governing and even resorted to name-calling and conspiracy theoriesover the line at the time, but in hindsight presaging Trumpism.
A straight line can be drawn from Gingrichs Contract with America to the tea party in 2009. Another outsider movement characterized by distrust of government, expertise, and experience, the tea party helped elect a rogues gallery of loathsome lawmakersIm looking at you, Rand Paul (Ky.) and Ted Cruz (Texas). Trumps dystopian vision of America is the ultimate flowering of the outsider, populist, anti-government thinking that has metastasized in the Republican Party over the past decades.
Under both political parties, America has rolled back regulatory guardrails and created a volatile economy that values the wrong things. Executive compensation packages for publicly traded companies show that our current economic model rewards short-term financial performance, placing little value on the broader social landscape. It also encourages risky and complex structures that are susceptible to wild swings and disastrous crashes. When bailouts are needed, its not the wealthy who pay. The system helped create the greatest wealth disparity in the United States in 100 years. As wealth is concentrated at destabilizing levels, our tax system, according to leading economists, is increasingly regressive, pushing the burden of taxes onto the shrinking middle class.
Over the same period, we dismantled the meager social safety net we had. We have reduced access to food aid, job training, and unemployment insurance. Meanwhile, the cost of health care and higher education has skyrocketed, placing both out of reach for many Americans.
Now for the good news.
Everything wrong with America is manifested in Trump. The hunger for power, the vile derision of people who dont look like you, the cruelty, the privilege, the gleeful ignorance, and mendacious narcissism. Our revulsion at Trump is causing Americans to ask: How did we get to this place? And how do we get out? That will take time and hard work by well-intentioned people from every corner of American society.
But the process has started.
What is happening in our streets is how open, progressive societies improvefitfully, imperfectly, frustratingly, sometimes tragically. But we do improve. So, thank you, President Trump. Thank you for showing us what we were becoming and helping us find the courage to confront it. We are going to be OK.
by USAF Colonel (ret.) Curtis Milam
Skittles
(153,169 posts)otherwise, not bad
zentrum
(9,865 posts)..his words are spot on.
patphil
(6,186 posts)Agnew referred to his enemies as "effete snobs", and Nixon orchestrated the Watergate break-in.
It was the beginning of the Republican overreach of Executive power. In his famous interview with David Frost, Nixon said, "When the President does it, that means it's not illegal".
Nixon was eventually forced to resign.
His presidency was a study in arrogance. The Watergate break-in was unnecessary, but Nixon wanted a huge re-election win to satisfy his ego.
Well, he got that, but later paid the price.
As they say, 'Pride goeth before a fall".
I believe Trump will also get that lesson this November.
And the Republican Party will learn that when you embrace the Devil, you sure to get burned.
Matt Finnish
(6 posts)but I was too young
SergeStorms
(19,204 posts)thought of as a "godless liberal" these days. He couldn't get near the party of Trump, that's for sure.
BigmanPigman
(51,613 posts)The Roosevelts (PBS). Teddy sure seemed like a Dem to me. He was all about morals in govt and business and helping the average guy and protecting Americans' welfare. I got to thinking about all the presidents in my lifetime (b.1962) and all the GOP presidents sucked!!! Nixon, Reagun, Bushes, tRump. The last decent one was Eisenhower! The GOP has to go back 75 years for a decent POTUS. That is pretty pathetic and the GOP voters should be ashamed and embarrassed but of course they have no shame, only selfish greed and hate.
calimary
(81,350 posts)He put a nice soft sheen on it, but it's still shit.
Mme. Defarge
(8,036 posts)Off to the Greatest!
sarchasm
(1,012 posts)...about Gingrich is spot on.
DanieRains
(4,619 posts)Power above everything else.
Fool the fools.
summer_in_TX
(2,739 posts)Grover Norquist and the so-called Club for Growth.They should have named it accurately, the Club for Weakening America.
I've long wondered if he wasn't part of a Russian cell.
Excellent post and analysis. I'm hopeful too. The virus and its effects have been eye-opening to many in the thrall of a miasma of brainwashing. It's started to wake up many more to what should have been recognized earlier, much earlier.
Karadeniz
(22,543 posts)abqtommy
(14,118 posts)crickets
(25,981 posts)DinahMoeHum
(21,797 posts)Response to babylonsister (Original post)
geralmar This message was self-deleted by its author.
murielm99
(30,748 posts)The virus was sent to us to save us from trump. Otherwise, he stood a good chance of being reelected and ending our democracy.
ron dawson
(19 posts)This is an excellent analysis, and the analogy is more than appropriate.
As a Marine VietNam vet, I salute you, Colonel, OOO-RAH!!
paleotn
(17,931 posts)dixiechiken1
(2,113 posts)Gives me hope. Thank you for this.
NoMoreRepugs
(9,438 posts)niyad
(113,464 posts)I also notice that he left out an important piece of this country's history that continues to this day-the treatment of the First Nations. This country was founded in bloodshed and exploitation, however noble the European invaders' founding ideals.
dchill
(38,510 posts)Exactly.
silverweb
(16,402 posts)I went looking for it and it bugged me that I couldn't find it, so I dug deeper. The original essay is here, on "Medium".