The silver lining in Trump's and the GOP's clouds
In this, the season of giving thanks, let’s be grateful to Donald Trump. Confirming the failings of his version of capitalism, he and his excusers helpfully are proving, before it’s too late, that unchecked melding of today’s Republican Party and Trumpism will render the world all but uninhabitable. Two recent publications make it clear.
Our government — Trump’s, ironically — just released a devastating report on current and future effects of climate change (Climate assessment: tinyurl.com/2badclimate). Undeniably, increasingly, the U.S. and the world are in trouble. Security. Infrastructure. Water resources. Food. Public health. Coastal cities. Peace. Counting on Americans’ preference for sale prices over considering not-fake threats to humankind, Trump tried to hide the report by releasing it on Black Friday. Like the CIA’s conclusion about who murdered Jamal Khashoggi, he says he doesn’t believe it. Middle-fingering the planet, he plans to promote fossil fuels at the upcoming UN climate conference. What embarrassing stupidity.
But he cares about average Americans, is making America great, his supporters insist, plugging their ears and shouting “La, la, la, la, la.” In part because Trump’s ill-considered tariffs cost them billions, Ford and GM have announced plant closings and the layoffs of tens of thousands of workers. Trump’s predictable, accountability-deflecting response: attack and threaten GM’s (female) CEO. Meanwhile, farmers are burying unsellable soy beans or letting them rot in silos. Less than a tenth of the promised corporate welfare necessitated by Trump’s ego-driven trade wars has been sent their way.
Until President Obama, there’d been few rules requiring the testing of irrigation water for bacteria and other contaminants. Placing private profit above public need, Trump reversed the regulations. And there went the lettuce, along with the health of consumers.
Observing corporate donors to Republicans, demanding and getting deregulation at the expense of the public weal, offers a clear-eyed view of America’s trajectory. Unsustainable, unforgivable, Trump has uncoupled our economy from social conscience. Corporate greed, combined with his government’s disinterest in wise stewardship, have pushed us to a precipice. Members of his party don’t care.
https://www.heraldnet.com/opinion/schwab-the-silver-lining-in-trumps-and-the-gops-clouds/?utm_source=DAILY+HERALD&utm_campaign=7f2068d2f6-RSS_EMAIL_CAMPAIGN&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_d81d073bb4-7f2068d2f6-228635337
