The perfect dictatorship would have the appearance of a democracy, but would basically be a prison without walls in which the prisoners would not even dream of escaping. It would essentially be a system of slavery where, through consumption and entertainment, the slaves would love their servitudes.--Aldous Huxley
I want to be clear in this: I voted for Donald J. Trump in the last three elections, all with great hesitation, and because I felt there was no better alternative. Pretty much, this is how national elections have gone for me since President Reagan left office in 1989. My first vote as a college freshman at age 18 was for Gerald R. Ford in 1976, and that seemed an omen for me of some kind. Reagan was an exception for me. I served in the Navy oversees, and it was great. Helped bring down the Soviets. All those I voted for, or not, did some good things--mainly not--and also some harm, in the long run. But we as a nation weathered the storms, mainly.
Government in America has turned into a source of amusement for some, religion for others, and just plain insanity for many, like me. At the federal level, a show is made of what grand goodness comes out of the hallowed halls of Washington, D.C. that I want to be sick. "News" is propaganda in the main. It displays a mastery of information handling even Goebbels never dreamed possible.
The other night I was just gob smacked at the lack of decorum, professionalism, and general adult behavior the members of Congress, including my own Congressman, who will remain unnamed for now, displayed during President Trump's speech before them Tuesday night.
Although well choreographed, and designed for the sycophant's consumption--whether one was a dyed in the wool MAGA constituent or one of the opposition Democrats, there was something for everyone. Yesterday the House censured Congressman Al Green of Texas for his outburst, and refusal to sit down when told by Speaker Mike Johnson. The 77 year old Green has been a troublemaker there since 2005, from one of Texas's poorest district's in the Houston area. This will likely get him reelected. But that's politics in America. The same sort of politics that got POTUS 45 & 47 elected, I would say.
We love a good show! We will always watch a show that features something that looks tawdry, and untoward, like a NASCAR wreck, UFC fight, or someone telling a mammoth lie that comes across as an unchallengeable truth. This is 21st Century America, and we are all to blame. We love those lies that describe the supposed greatness, morality, hugeness (where have we heard that now trite phrase), and power of the United States.
This is all besides the point. America has been a superpower, by definition, since the end of World War II in 1945. After the old Soviet Union collapsed under the weight of its own corruption, and military adventures, in 1991 the United States became a stand alone superpower in the world, and some have called us a "hyperpower". I dispute that, because we have squandered much of our influence, especially economic and cultural influence on things that my old friend Aldous describes above in the capstone quotation. We Americans are greedy for diversions and comfort.
We have entrapped ourselves here in America with every conceivable convenience, and comfort. We have impoverished people for sure. I was in one large southern city recently, with my wife, and I couldn't believe the squalor and lack of safety in the middle of the day. This, in a well developed, even touristy, part of town. Other large cities I have been to in recent years have been no different, and the lack of address to these economic, infrastructure, and homeland issues is palpable.
Partisanship has overrun politics in America to the point that hatred, bigotry, polarization, and a politician's ability to capitalize on these divisive traits are more powerful than the ability, even desirability, to unite disagreeing parties on terms they can at least partly agree upon.
What we have seen in joint sessions of Congress in recent years is more of a clown show than anything seen in American history. It is more common now, than not, that what we saw with Rep. Green on Tuesday, and in the recent past with Reps. Marjorie Taylor Green, Lauren Bobert, and Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez, and others will be seen again.
These spectacles, are just that: Spectacles designed to make things appear a certain way for a certain group of people to believe that something is being done for the good, by decent people, for decent people, for sound and enduring reasons, and not just to play 330 million of us for dupes in an endgame--whose goals remain unknown--as we have been for so long.
There are several fronts that have quickly emerged since Election Day last November, when Trump made so many promises, that he said would be delivered upon soon after Inauguration Day or within the first 100 days (April 30, 2025). Honestly, they are so rapidly changing, and such a moving target, it's like shooting those ducks at a carnival. Somehow, this seems a fitting metaphor for this administration. One can't keep up with the changes in narratives, or who to blame when the target is missed.
Looking at the largest picture for now, let's just start with what's happening between Gaza, Israel, and the Middle East, and the arguably expanding conflicts between the United States, Russia (and by proxy China and North Korea), Europe, and specifically Ukraine. Never mind the President's generous offer to bring Greenland and Canada under our sovereign control.
America is doing a fine job of controlling our borders, which actually began when VP Harris's poll numbers started to slip in the run-up to the election. But by then it was too late. Policy could not beat the perception that Biden and his open border ineptitude had allowed too many unscreened, and unwelcome illegal aliens into the country. This doesn't prevent POTUS-47 from taking all the credit for this new victory in War on Illegal Immigration, and rest assured every bit of good news will be to his credit, and to Biden's discredit. Conversely, any bad news will be that missed duck at the carnival rest assured.
This is part of the buyer's remorse many of us in the Republican sphere of influence have about Trump. He's great at the bold talk about how he will fix things in America, seemingly singlehandedly. He has all the solutions, he is the mouthpiece from whence deliverance from all of our woes will come.
But if so, where are the solutions that include those who we were once on friendly terms with around the world? Relationships were being built and developed for decades, and now--within less than two months--a worldview has emerged of an America that has alienated a sizeable portion of those we were once on partnering terms with, including those that didn't seem to want to annihilate us.
There are obviously better ways. Take Ukraine--Secretary of State Marco Rubio said that Ukraine has now turned into a proxy of both the United States and Russia, in an increasingly hostile Europe that President Trump has contributed to by not backing our European and NATO allies, as we always have. It's fine to insist upon greater contributions from our allies, as we have done since World War I, but it's not fine to back away on a moment's notice with a hostile enemy with the desire and ability to expand a war in which it has a keen desire to win. Especially with someone the likes of Vladimir Putin.
If Trump thinks he's the master of the Art of the Deal, try doing it with a dictator who has kept a well oiled criminal enterprise like Russia going for nearly 30 years. By himself. If you haven't familiarized yourself with how Putin operates, by all means do. And consider his "friends", as well. Between Putin and Xi Xinping, Trump has nothing on either of them, one on one.
Concurrently, the terrorist war in Gaza, led by Hamas has found Trump heavenly involved with offers of taking over the Gaza Strip, emptying it of all in of the nearly 2 million inhabitants--for perhaps a generation, by some estimates--and then rebuilding it from the ground up into the "Riviera of the Mediterranean", to use his own words. I'm sure there are many, less war-torn places in the Mediterranean that can lay claim to that title.
All this, and not one mention about how this will positively affect the economic situation on our homeland.
These petulant battles Trump has a habit of picking each day, it seems, are more than just words for the evening news. They're soundbites in continuing battles that he, and his allies, has with anyone they perceive as not 100% on board with their worldview.
This ignores what's been happening in the Pacific with China's aggression toward our historic allies in the Philippines, Australia, South Korea, Japan, and since the end of the Viet Nam War, Viet Nam itself. Economically challenged China is just as aggressive as our enemy Russia, but we seem to want to ameliorate them as we did during the Biden years, and since the Clinton administration sent so much of our business and industrial capacity to them.
Since the 1990s overall American military and economic strength has diminished. Chaos around the world, and the lack of a clear way of working with our allies not only gets us nowhere, but harms us in the near term and in the long term.
We will see this in the first 100 days. Republicans are already in panic mode about the harm that Musk and DOGE are doing here. Our allies, and enemies are looking for something clear to work from in the hot spots around the globe. Tariffs, buying Greenland, and trying to convince Canada they'd be better as a part of the United States don't send the pertinent message. Blaming people outside those in the Trump Administration does nothing.
Congress's antics merely tells the nation and the world what kind if people we are prepared to elect, and how little regard they have for their constituencies by and large.
Like the 18th Century Philosophe Joseph de Maistre said:
"Every country has the government it deserves."
