Every week writing a blog gets harder and harder because the Trump assault on the rule of law is getting worse and worse.
If successful, he will change America from a democracy of, by, and for the people to a unitary executive presidency that is a fancy name for a “presidential” dictator.
Making the situation even worse is that he is not only being helped from those around him, from a cowardly Republican Congress, and from propaganda media sources like Fix News, as unfathomable as it is, 48% of all Americans say they approve of his job performance.
How can I write about anything else? To do so would feel like I was mimicking Nero’s fiddling while Rome burned.
Did I mention that 48% of Americans approve of the job Trump is doing in undercutting the basic democratic principles on which our nation was founded? This, on top of his lack of personal moral character and his re-alignment of our alliances with European allies to standing with Russia and its dictator, Vladimir Putin.
How can any American say they think this president is doing a good job? Why would they say that? At least two answers come to mind.
The first is that they are willing to put loyalty to Trump above loyalty to the Constitution.
That’s what it means to support him because that is what he says it means. He is purging the entire executive branch of the government of anyone who puts the Constitution above loyalty to him. His support of Republican members of Congress depends solely on the same kind of blind loyalty.
Any voter who approves of the job Trump is doing is saying they also believe in loyalty to him over the Constitution.
Moreover, he’s behaving the way a malignant narcissist behaves. His first and only concern is himself. Nothing else. No one else. And 48% of all Americans think he is doing a good job. It makes no sense, really, but, then, very little about devotion to Trump makes any sense.
If you agree, perhaps another reason why they approve of what he is doing will make better sense. It is this, that they have convinced themselves they can support Trump without agreeing with some of the things he is doing.
Immediately, though, the question arises, “Exactly what has he done that makes up for the innumerable awful things he has done?”
What could possibly make up for his actions that have led to babies dying, children’s cancer research being suspended, career government workers losing their job for no good reason, elderly and handicapped Americans needing Social Security help being forced to travel to offices instead of making a phone call, and the list goes on?
What makes up for all those terrible, tragic, catastrophic actions?
Reducing the size of the government? Perhaps, but will they feel that way when services they count on are discontinued? After all, the size of government is in direct proportion to the services it renders.
Can departments grow too large? Of course, but the departments themselves must exist for the services to be offered, and it is whole departments that Trump/Musk are trying to eliminate.
Perhaps it is government waste they believe he’s cutting, except close examination of the waste Elon Musk’s DOGE posse says they’ve found has turned out to be false, largely a result of their not knowing how agencies actually work, so that’s a bust.
So what, pray what, could ease the minds of the 48% who support a man who is determined to establish an imperial presidency in place of the people’s democracy we now have? Indeed, what could anyone possibly believe makes up for that seismic shift in the kind of country we have been?
What is more, their approval is all Trump looks at to justify his assault on the rule of law by claiming he’s doing what people elected him to do. In short, their approval is pouring fuel on the fire he has set to burn the government down and replace it with a Trumpian autocracy.
That’s what Project 2025 whose script he is following lays out in detail, an imperial presidency very similar to what Viktor Orban has done in Hungary and Putin has done in Russia.
And yet, as preposterous as it is, 48% of all Americans say they approve of Trump moving our country in that direction.
And that is why writing about anything other than the dramatic change in the kind of country we are Trump is trying to make seems like a failure to pay attention to the moment of history in which we are living.
The significance of historic moments is often understood after the fact, but sometimes the significance of those moments need to be noticed as they are happening.
When Japan bombed Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, President Franklin Roosevelt described it as “a date which will live in infamy.” He said so because it was the moment when our nation was under attack.
Well, it is under attack again, this time from our own president, and I suggest it will be a day that will also live in infamy, whether we successfully defeat Donald Trump’s attack on our democracy or he succeeds.
Either way, this moment that is still being played out will also live in infamy because this time the attack is from within and has the approval of 48% of the American people.
It is, in other words, a rising catastrophe of our own making.
linnposts.com 