Tuesday, December 20, 2016

Why Nobody Should Ever Normalize Donald Trump



It wasn't a surprise, but it was depressing, and it was another grim milestone on the way to the darkness of Trumpland.

Despite all the e-mails, the petitions, and the protests, Donald Trump is now officially the president in waiting of the United States. 

There were many protesters but few faithless electors as Donald Trump won the Electoral College vote Monday — ensuring that the businessman will become America's 45th president.

And if you want know what kind of president he's going to be, all you have to do is see how Trump reacted in his moment of victory.


Not as a president-elect should. But as a man who can't rise above himself, who is vindictive, unstable, and possibly dangerous.

Even as he prepares to wage war on the media and his own people, with the help of a cabinet packed with religious fanatics. 

Donald Trump has recruited an army of Christian soldiers for his proposed cabinet, a Team of Bibles who stand ready to implement the most socially conservative agenda of any administration since the days of Ronald Reagan.

Defunding abortion services – perhaps even reversing Roe v. Wade, the U.S. Supreme Court decision that legalized such services nationwide. Funding private religious schools with public tax dollars. Removing transgender protections and requirements to fund contraception. All are on the agenda of the president-elect’s team, which can count on the support of a Republican-controlled Congress.

Prepares to end the war on climate change, even as the Arctic melts.

While the billionaires in his kleptocracy loot the treasury, and the Trump boys prepare to turn Big Daddy's new job into a business opportunity.

And we are left to wonder how close are the ties between him and Putin?



How horrible can this nightmare get?

And of course for progressives in America, the big question now is what should they do to prepare for this horror show?

So I thought that in his last column of the year Charles Blow had some good advice: Whatever you do, don't ever consider any of this normal. 

To have a president surround himself with a rogue’s gallery of white supremacy sympathizers, anti-Muslim extremists, devout conspiracy theorists, anti-science doctrinaires and climate-change deniers is not normal. 

To have a president who nurses petty vengeances against the press and uses the overwhelming power of the presidency to attack any reporting of fact not colored by flattery and adoration is not normal. 


It doesn’t matter if he is motivated by calculation — particularly toward diversion — or compulsion: His behavior remains unsettling and even dangerous.


And no matter how you exhausted you might feel, do not remain silent...



I fully understand that elevated outrage is hard to maintain. It’s exhausting. But the alternative is surrender to national nihilism and the welcoming of woe.

I happen to believe that history will judge kindly those who continued to shout, from the rooftops, through their own weariness and against the corrosive drift of conformity: This is not normal!


For silence is consent.

You know, in a recent New Yorker article Evan Osnos wrote this about tyranny:

What is the precise moment, in the life of a country, when tyranny takes hold? It rarely happens in an instant; it arrives like twilight, and, at first, the eyes adjust.

But this is what I believe:

Anyone who can't see where this story is heading now must be blind, or really dumb, or as deranged as Trump.

Those who can see it, but think it's normal behaviour, will regret it later.

It is what it is...



It is ugly. It is madness. It is the face of fascism. 


But despair is surrender.

And only resistance can save us now...

20 comments:

Anonymous said...

America voted itself into fascism and dictatorship. Fucking incredible.

Anonymous said...

Resistance? In a few weeks the man will have all the power in the world. A couple posters and crying students aren't going to solve anything.

-MC

Steve said...

The rise of Trump is an idictment of the left. The left failed to provide a alternative. Obama had eight years to do something differant, he failed. Bernie Sanders offered something differant, he was sabatoged from the start and in the end sold out.

e.a.f. said...

What you are describing is the U.S.A. becoming a country not unlike Turkey, Iran, Saudi Arabia. Countries which are ruled by religion instead of a secular government. Those who voted for Trump will come to regret their actions because in my opinion, there won't be more jobs, a better life, better working conditions, etc. Things will get worse for the average person and their rights will be abolished.

This was American's reaction to having a black President and they weren't going to have a woman next. its all about racism and misogeny. Now they can live with it.

Bernie Saunders didn't sell out. if he hadn't campaigned on behalf of Clinton the loss would have been even greater. She did manage to win the most votes, just not at the electoral college level. It is to be hoped Saunders will continue his work and continue to speak out as he did in the election. he maybe able to lead during the next 4 years or how ever long it takes for the Americans to impeach Trump.

UU4077 said...

I wonder if all states used the method of Maine and Nebraska for selecting instead of the "winner take all" of the others - would it have made a difference?

Anonymous said...

Play it again Sam, but this time louder and with a twist. Following the Bush Cheney election I recall wondering why average Americans would vote for leaders of parties prone to war and economic strife. Considering the havoc those two unleashed I still don't have an answer especially as the current gang are much louder when it comes to saber rattling and elitist capitalism. The mastermind seems to have added a new visionary twist in that the gang are going to work together as architects , engineers and contractors to turn America into his most successful development project ever.Unlike a new hotel tower where you can build walls and hire security to keep out the undesirables, there seems to be no thought in winning over the undesireable crowd that presumably will still cohabit the new America. Perhaps he simply plans to treat them like the Scottish residents that didn't support his visionary golf course, but the numbers are staggering.
Its like the Bush Cheney gang were just the warm up band for the really big event. We can always hope that he quickly becomes bored with the project, declares bankruptcy leaving his backers out in the cold and then moves on to something more suitable for his talents. Perhaps there is a clue in his past as to what it would take for him to declare bankruptcy and move on once the honeymoon phase is over. Targeted resistance is much more effective.
RT

Simon said...

hi anon...It is incredible, and its certainly the most stunning event in my life. I still have trouble believing it. Trump claimed that he would go after the I% and what he has done instead is install a bunch of billionaires and generals in power. And as somebody recently wrote, it's now clear he wasn't elected to bring about change, he was elected to prevent it...

Simon said...

hi MC...it won't be a couple of posters and some crying students, it's going to be the most massive protests the U.S. has ever seen. Remember, most of the media will go after him, so will Hollywood, and when they destroy Obamacare they will take away the medical benefits of about 20 million people and that alone will cause a riot or a revolution. Except that this time it will be a left-wing revolution. Let's check notes in about six months and see who is right....

Simon said...

hi Steve...how nice to hear from you again. I've been dying to ask you how you like your new kleptocracy, and all those billionaires, generals, and religious fanatics? And thanks eh? And no I'm sorry, some of what you say about the left is true, but your people are going to have to own this one. They voted for Trump and made him president, and they are the first who are going to be betrayed....

Simon said...

hi e.a.f...the depressing part is that the religious right was losing its influence, but now Trump has brought them back to life and made them more powerful than ever. His Supreme Court choices will taint the course of justice for the next twenty years, and I can't imagine how Americans are going to react, when they vote for the Democrats next time, and find themselves with the Christian version of a Shariah Court in Iran. I can't see that country survive a blow like than one...

Simon said...

hi UU4077... it may well have made a big difference. There's something terribly wrong when Clinton got almost three million votes than Trump, and he still won the electoral college by a reasonably comfortable margin. However, it was also luck. The margins in some battleground states were so thin, anybody could have won...

Simon said...

hi RT...I think Trump has made a terrible mistake by appointing so many hard right wingers to his government. If he had made an effort to include some moderates his presidency would have been so much easier. More people would have given him a chance to show what he can do. But with a gang like that one, I can't see how he will ever unite Americans, except to do what they can to limit the damage...

Anonymous said...

I've seen a lot of cartoons of the orange shitgibbon and putin in some pretty compromising positions. But... This one of him suckling at the tit is most disturbing - simply because it's probably portraying the current situation as it really is. Glad I don't live in AmeriKKKa. Just seeing that woman who flew off the handle at the Latinos in a Penny's store is enough to make a person puke. They are in for a long fight.

And THANKS Simon for all you do!

Anonymous said...

Anyone here think Trump will not be the President for all 4 years?

jrkrideau said...

That cartoon illustrates the incredible level of American paranoia which does not need a shred of evidence to support it. Ask my old buddy Joe McCarthy about it.

A horrible man won the election for president of the USA. The reaction f.rom every American who opposed Trump becomes We are good Americans; it cannot be something we did wrong—it was a foreign plot!. The Russians are coming; the Russians are coming . What bull…

Remember the Weapons of Mass Destruction in Iraq.

Anonymous said...

Now he's appointed the Professional Liar Kelly Anne Conway. It gets worse every day.
I'm thankful for an Inclusive Sane Government that cares about all people. Happy Holidays Everyone and thank you Simon, I can't wait for the novel. 💜💙❤💚 Pamela.

David said...

http://www.villagevoice.com/news/the-rumor-of-a-putin-trump-political-axis-is-the-laziest-kind-of-slash-fiction-8931349

Unknown said...

sad people brainwashed by the far left and these idiots

Trump2020 said...

TRUMP! TRUMP! TRUMP!

Trump2020 said...

2 terms.