It’s getting worse. No matter what new revelations regarding Trump’s actions come to light, the Republicans in Congress refuse to disown him, or even chastise him. They are afraid that any negative remarks about Trump will alienate his base, hurting their chances for re-election. But GOP senators and members of Congress are aware of the damage Trump is doing to the United States and its position in the world, and that he is a terrible role model for the nation’s children. Racist and misogynistic, they realize that his tweets and comments are more lies than truth and that his behavior is turning the presidency rancid. He appears to have no consistent foreign policy and no coherent strategy for dealing with the problems America faces abroad or domestically.
Trump may make a pronouncement about how he will handle some issue one day, then subsequently come out with an opposite method of dealing with the problem. This goes for domestic as well as foreign policy. One wonders if he remembers what he has said previously in a speech or off the cuff, as he is so prone to change his course of action. It is said that he listens to the last person who has given him an opinion on an issue and then he tweets his current policy.
Part of the problem is that there is no continuity on his staff, with firings or withdrawals occurring right and left. There are also enormous voids in his policy-making positions that he has neglected to fill, so he does not have guidance in many areas. And as he has said, he likes to go with his gut, with his instincts which he believes are more valid than working with experts. In fact, he does not like briefings and experts, as his low attention span makes it impossible for him to absorb any complex information.
Thus, it is evident that he is an abominable leader for the United States, unable to deal with complicated problems, uninformed about what the problems are and their possible impact on the nation and the world, and unwilling to seek help from knowledgeable experts. But on top of his failings as a leader, it appears that his campaign team in one way or another was assisted by Russia to help him win the election, whether or not Trump knew the specifics. In writing a statement about his son Donald Jr and others’ meeting with Russian interlocutors during the campaign to gather damaging information on Hillary Clinton, saying that it was about adoptions, Trump was caught in a flagrant lie which could be seen as obstruction of justice. And whether or not Trump colluded with the Russians, they did play a role in getting him elected. Other of his actions as well point to obstruction of justice.
There are also his attempts to cover-up the dirt in his personal life by his lawyer Michael Cohen and other friends, paying off women with whom he had affairs to keep them silent. Whether or not the Russians have information of liasons with prostitutes while he was in Moscow and are blackmailing him, is not yet known, but it seems as if Putin does exert some unusual influence over Trump.
So why do Congressional Republicans refuse to protect Mueller’s investigation of Trump’s actions and are unwilling to condemn the president for some of his comments. The answer is obviously his base which gets its information from Fox and Sinclair and are unaware of what is really going on. They will not abandon their icon and might not vote for any officeholder that criticizes Trump or opposes him in any way. Rather than try to explain to the base about Trump’s shortcomings as a leader, his lurid personal life and his bond with Putin, the Congressional GOP is silent, knowing that Trump is a disaster for the nation and not seeming to care. Time and again, they have chosen party over country regarding Trump and the presidency.
Resurrecting Democracy
www.robertlevinebooks.com
Political junkie, Vietnam vet, neurologist- three books on aging and dementia. Book on health care reform in 2009- Shock Therapy for the American Health Care System. Book on the need for a centrist third party- Resurrecting Democracy- A Citizen’s Call for a Centrist Third Party published in 2011. Aging Wisely, published in August 2014 by Rowman and Littlefield. Latest book- The Uninformed Voter published May 2020