Unnerving trip through Trump’s America
I’ve just returned from a family wedding in Wisconsin, in the US Midwest. The weather was unseasonably hot. The wedding went well. Partly because there was a quiet agreement not to mention Donald Trump.
In need of a little rest and relaxation, we boarded an overnight train in Milwaukee and set off for New Orleans. It is easy to meet people on an overnight train. Meals and a confined space bring you together. We found ourselves sitting across from a former kindergarten teacher travelling home to Jackson, Mississippi. Husband a former university professor, Episcopalian, liberal and no supporter of President Trump.
If he had stuck to the core plan, she ventured, of infrastructure, tax reform and healthcare he might have gained support. But months into the new presidency almost nothing had been achieved.
This lack of progress might be due to the President focusing on other matters. As the train rocked south, Trump was busy with the vital business of attacking National Football League players protesting against police brutality by dropping to one knee as the national anthem played at the beginning of games.
The players made it clear they were not disrespecting the flag, the anthem or anything they stood for. But the President ignored their intentions to pick a fight with them. He called the players who knelt “sons of bitches”. They responded by labelling the President a “bum”.
Meanwhile 3.5 million American citizens in Puerto Rico were desperate for help following the devastation of Hurricane Maria. Texas and Florida were recovering from their own hurricanes. Wildfires were all over the West Coast. North Korea said Trump declared war on it. Iran tested missiles because it feared Trump was about to tear up their nuclear non-proliferation agreement. The latest effort to reform healthcare was defeated.
The list of major issues needing presidential attention goes on and on, but Trump focused on a fight of his own making with the National Football League. Via Twitter from one of his golf clubs. The kindergarten teacher was not impressed.
Breakfast found us sharing a table with a couple from Indiana. Members of Shriners International dedicated to providing health for children who have very high needs. Generous people. Trump supporters.
“Do you remember the President saying that he was wiretapped?” the wife inquired. We did. “Well, it turns out he might be right.”
We decided not to mention that if Trump was right, the FBI must have been able to convince a judge he had committed a criminal act.
Apparently, Trump is right about more than wiretapping. He knows what is good for the country but the “swamp” in Washington will not support him.
Given the interest our travelling companions had in healthcare, we asked if they saw any problems. No, was the reply. Their organisation was doing a good job of helping children in need.
We asked if perhaps healthcare should be a basic right enjoyed by everyone. No argument there. In fact, no comment at all.
We talked to many other people during our short stay in the United States. One of us is an American citizen, the other a frequent visitor to America over three decades. We like Americans.
But these days it is hard to like what is happening to America. As defined by Trump, America is to become (again) a country for white men. It is to dominate the world through its extraordinary military might.
There is nothing uplifting about the Trump vision. There have always been problems in America, but presidents from all sides have seen it as their responsibility to unify. Trump divides. He picks fights, appeals to his “base” and labels anyone who opposes him as the enemy.
It is ugly stuff and it will not end well.
Trump has given permission for a kind of politics that will have a life after he has gone. Already there are would-be politicians making their way on to the national stage who make Trump look mild.
The Republicans have just chosen a man by the name of Roy Moore as their candidate for the Senate race in Alabama. Moore believes God’s law takes precedence above all other law. He has no time for such things as evolution or anything else that he can’t find in the Old Testament of the Bible.
There is no accommodation with what Trump represents. The only way forward is for an alternative view of the world to prevail.
It used to be said that wherever America went the world followed. If that is true, the future we are being shown is one we might be wise to start thinking now about how to avoid.