Time’s a’wasting
Trump’s order to separate children of illegal immigrants from their parents at the border was merely indicative of his general lack of empathy, human feeling or sense of decency.
He seeks to solve political and social problems by inflicting the most inhumane kind of trauma on families, reminiscent of Hitler and the Nazi era.
And Trump’s abrupt reversal of his original separation policy betrays his readiness to back down under public pressure whenever it’s politically advantageous.
If there is anything Trump fears it is the further weakening of his already insecure electoral base indicated by early special election results and recent voter polls.
He obviously lacks the courage of his own convictions, which are often not wellthought-out. His inconsistent and erratic behavior, as Sir Winston Churchill once described the Soviet Union, “is a riddle wrapped in an enigma.”
Separating families and then backing down after the damage has been done simply reaffirms that fact that our president isn’t always sure about what he is doing.
Malignant narcissism, of which Trump is a prime embodiment, is a personality disorder, not a mental illness. Impeachment or removal under the 25th Amendment is wishful speculation. Removal under the 25th Amendment would require Vice President Pence’s concurrence, approval of a majority of the cabinet and two-thirds of both congressional houses. That will never happen.
Anyway, removal would unleash Mike Pence and the Tea Party gang for a smothering barrage of right-wing legislation from which it might require decades to recover. As I have said before, the real answer to the current dilemma is a sound defeat of the Republican Party at the polls in November. That would reverse their majority in the House of Representa- tives and possibly recover at least one or two Senate seats. This would essentially neutralize Trump and prevent his doing further mischief until 2020. And I don’t claim the Democrats have all the answers either, but Trump has got to be stopped while we still have a functioning republic.
The one issue that so firmly solidifies Trump’s support by the religious right is his commitment to restructure the Supreme Court to reverse Roe v Wade. But that has already essentially been done. That being assured, the religious right needs to put its country’s welfare first for a change and prevent this guy from continuing to make egregious mistakes like his destructive tariff war until we can elect a responsible president in 2020, be he Democrat or Republican.
Yes, Andrew Johnson, Harding, Buchanan and a few others were bad presidents. But their main damage was from what they failed to do, not from overt, bull-headed mistakes.
Few Republicans will discuss it openly, but there is a mounting possibility that Trump might even fail to win his party’s nomination in the 2020 Republican primary. This has happened once before (Tyler in 1840).
At any rate, the election of a Democratic House of Representatives in November would be a major step on our nation’s return to sanity. And remember, only a disgraceful 58 percent of eligible voters cast ballots in 2016. We rank almost dead last in voter participation among free nations.
But voter suppression is only a small part of it. It’s mostly plain old voter apathy (read: frustration/laziness) and disinterest. A vigorous campaign to get out the vote would be a significant start toward restoring our nation’s equilibrium.
Unfortunately, I don’t see much going on and election day is less than a month away.
George B. Reed Jr., who lives in Rossville, can be reached by email at reed1600@bellsouth.net.