Trump’s Excesses Exhaust, but Those That Made Us Feel Complacent Have Proven Far Worse
We need to Always be Vigilant
Donald Trump has been President for three years now, and I so want a new one. I am certainly not alone, and the multitudes can list the reasons ad infinitum. I’m with them. But I have one very selfish reason that elevates above all others. I’m exhausted and need a break.
First and foremost, he’s a racist. As such, his early campaign claim to not know who David Duke should have eliminated him from consideration. Apparently not in America, and “good people on both sides,” the decent among us had our first wave of exhaustion.
Oh yeah, well how’s this for a quote. “There are times when an abortion is necessary. I know that. When you have a black and a white,” Richard Nixon once told an aide on Watergate Tapes.
Fortunately, Nixon had a filter, and we could rest easy in our ignorance. So easy, we were not awakened enough to the Southern Strategy to head off 50 years of manufactured racial hate, and the War on Drugs that went with it.
Save the voodoo economics, Ronald Reagan seemed kindly enough and would never take the racially coded semantics of the Nixon administration to begin mass incarceration on a racially disproportionate level.
He did, the beginnings got passed us, and Bill Clinton really hit the snooze button. A multigenerational atrocity took place right under our noses as Clinton, "got tough on crime," and the prison population exploded on our communities of color
But Clinton played the sax, and he was our first (so-called) black President. How cool were we.
But no, Donald Trump has to come along, get all in our face and completely unsettle our sensibilities. Mexicans are rapists, let’s build a wall and kids love cages. On the latter, John Oliver let us know just how much on a 2018 episode of This Week Tonight. (Fast Forward to 15:34)
What an absolute monster Trump is - the outrage is blinding. Either that or our cognitive dissonance lets us see only what we want to see. Under the Obama administration, total ICE deportations were above 385,000 each year in fiscal years 2009-2011, and hit a high of 409,849 in fiscal 2012. The numbers dropped to below 250,000 in fiscal years 2015 and 2016.
Under Trump, ICE deportations fell to 226,119 in fiscal 2017, then ticked up to over 250,000 in fiscal 2018 and hit a Trump administration high of 282,242 this fiscal year (as of June).
So the excess of movement under Obama, it’s not hard to imagine that abuse occurred - just ask the ACLU. But Obama in the tan suit and exuding cool and eloquence, how could we possibly help ourselves, and calm is the only expected outcome.
Conversely, Donald Trump’s fat suit, combover and desecration of the English language makes us teeter unendingly on the brink. God help me, I am so tired.
The Kurds, on the other hand, are actually on the receiving end. “I don’t want to be in Syria forever, it’s sand and it’s death,” Trump doled out the foreign policy wisdom of a toddler.
So in this, Trump abandoned an ally that has backed us in two wars and sustained 11,000 casualties fighting ISIS. All done in reactive haste, Trump showed how completely oblivious he is to any sort of reasoned logic. “Sometimes you have to let them fight, it’s like kids on a playground, you got to let him fight," the bully President assured us.
200,000 displaced, there’s now a trio of strong man in Turkey, Russia and Syria primed to fill the void, and in the process, all Trump’s advisors were hung out to dry in their reservations.
Robert McNamara must be weeping from beyond at the slight. So must the Dean Rusk’s and McGeorge Bundy’s who encompassed Presidential giants like Truman, Eisenhower, JFK and Johnson with learned advice.
But back then, I’m sure we knew, those guys knew. That is until we didn’t, and before it was too late, three Million Vietnamese deaths were tallied and almost 60,000 of our own.
Hey, wait a minute. What if we had a Donald Trump to roust of us out of our complacence on a more consistent basis? Could we have averted a wide swath of sorrow, death and destruction over the years?
Hmmm….Four more years?
Ok, I’m going to be serious. Trump is a petty, vindictive, impetuous child. His undeserved arrogance makes him believe he knows all, and encompassed in so many troubling descriptive adjectives, the 45th President poses the potential for national and global catastrophe like no other. It would be nice if his supporters could see what is so obvious. This despite the upsides as they see them.
I know, that would be hoping too much for one oped. But in keeping, if we really want the long arc of history to bend faster toward justice, we must not rely on a Donald Trump to achieve the necessary vigilance.
So don’t tell me you’re tired and be awake when the less obtrusive take the reins again. Or maybe it will be you who suffers the consequences of falling asleep at the wheel and not all those others who have already fallen.
Please Like My Facebook Page
About the Creator
Rich Monetti
I am, I write.
Keep reading
More stories from Rich Monetti and writers in The Swamp and other communities.
A Look Back at the Horace Greeley Activism of Charlotte Bilski
A recounting of Charlotte Bilski and all her good work in Westchester... It's not hard to see. Too often, the world just isn't right. People still struggling in an earthquake's aftermath, Westchester County cutting crucial funds to childcare, and kids mired in unhealthy peer relationships. Just the short list seems overwhelming and the change we'd all like to see leaves us too far removed from the people who run things. Chappaqua, New York's Charlotte Bilski of Horace Greeley High School and the Westchester Youth Council doesn't see it that way. She believes true activism emanates from a much smaller constituency.
By Rich Monetti5 years ago in The Swamp
Rivers of Death
Rivers bring water the element essential to all life on Earth but wherever rivers flow they also bring death surprise attacks Savage kills and brutal fights every day is a battle for survival on these rivers of [Applause] death I'm under the African Sun Staying Alive is hot thirsty work and among the ranks of animals jostling to get a drink lurk Killers waiting to strike but while Lions may be fearsome and the huge Nile crocodiles ruthless Predators one of the continent's deadliest River Killers is mostly vegetarian renowned wallowers spending up to 16 hours a day lounging in the water hippos could be mistaken for relaxed creatures and yet the river horse as their name translates from ancient Greek can be a very angry pony indeed with tusks up to a foot and a half long hippos are literally armed to the teeth and a charging bull Hipp can impact with the weight force of a pickup truck what's more hippos May brutally defend their territory an Impala has been chased into a muddy Watering Hole by a lion it's stuck but for fortunately for the stricken analou the lion is reluctant to follow it into the Meer unfortunately it finds itself in the domain of a hippo ill disposed to uninvited guests the hippo's not stealing the watching Lion's meal she's most likely just aggressively defending her calf and the Impala pays the ultimate price for crossing a doting mother hippos are thought to kill more people each year than the rest of Africa's most dangerous animals combined and during mating season their ruthless aggression is directed at other hippos two bulls square up the pod's dominant male and a Challenger at stake the Riverbanks Prime mating territory and a Herm of females the dominant male puts on an aggressive display posturing to show he will not yield but the interloper Demands a fight finally the dominant male is Victorious the Conqueror celebrates with a dung shower marking the border of the territory he has successfully defended while the vanquished suffers more than just the agony of defeat his back is carved open and by Sunset the crocodiles are watching closely they'd be unlikely to take on a bull in rude Health but now they Circle an expectation the hippo breathes his last the price of insurrection is life his Hulk will not go to waste the crocodiles move in swiftly to Feast on the corpse for these voracious Predators it's a considerable meal but one dead hippo is a mere snack compared with the annual Feast provided by a particular African river each year the serengetti vast grass Plains filled to the Horizon with grazing animals taking part in one of Nature's greatest spectacles around 1 and2 million wilder beast join 700,000 other herbivores on the Great Migration around 1 in six of these migrants will die before completing the 500 M circuit many are outrun and taken down down by Africa's formidable array of Savannah carnivores their Journey coming to a Grizzly end but one of the deadliest single obstacles the vast herds must Traverse is the mara River after 3 months on the move the wilderbeast are exhausted and emaciated all that separates them from the Fresh pastures of the msai mara is the width of the river and a whole bunch of huge ravit Nile crocodiles despite the chilling threat posed by these powerful Predators some of the herd are either oblivious to the danger or so thirsty they dare to take a drink anyway for an unlucky few it will be their last and these witless victims merely wet the Croc's appetite the true Feast begins when the first of the herd Braves the river in the crush and Chaos of the crossing the 16t Crocs grabs scores of victims when 1,600 lb of musc futile the marus Crocs survive on meager rations for most of the year so take full advantage of the great migrations time of Plenty they Gorge themselves eating up to half their body weight in one sitting and with so many different species crossing the river the banquet is as varied as it is Bountiful but not all Africa's Crocs have such an easy meal ticket on the banks of this Kenyon River a Croc has got too close to a pack of feeding Lions a move it's about to regret it's a fierce attack but the Crocs skin is covered in bony armor plating eventually the Lion's Uninvited Guest Retreats having taught the Crocs and dinner manners the big cats return to the carcass the Amazon is a giant of a river and and conceal some monstrous Predators which kill with a crush and in a bloody frenzy draining a lowland Basin of close to 3 million square miles around 1/5 of the water that runs off the earth's surface is carried by the Amazon this giant of a river is renowned for its oversized residence both prey and Predator around 4 ft long and and weighing as much as an adult human capibara are the world's largest rodent they're
By cacloaidongvat3 days ago in The Swamp
Iran and Israel: Dangerous Game.
Israel and Iran have been locked in a deadly duel for decades. Ever since Ayatollah Khomeini came to power in 1979, both nations have been at loggerheads. Israel did help Iran briefly, in the First Gulf War of 1980 - 1981. Iraq was a common enemy of Israel and Iran. Israel helped the Iranians with weapons. Sadly, that moment in history is a blip in an otherwise confrontational relationship.
By Nicholas Bishop7 days ago in The Swamp
Comments
There are no comments for this story
Be the first to respond and start the conversation.