The Trump Presidency is not over. Today’s small but shallow measure will only give pause to, and an excuse for, the enablers to calm nerves and say the president has steadied, yet again. Steve Bannon, who should never have been a White House fixture, is fired. I could hear it, “You’re Fired!” The “Apprentice-President” bellowed again, without apologies or an admission of poorest judgement, without an acknowledgment that he is a man suffering in hate in need of emergency intervention and who must also be fired. This is more crazy “manscaping” to remove toxic testosterone advisors, more “Swamp-scaping,” in the continuation of grooming over draining and removal of Donnie Johnny Trump. The inside problem is him, all other adjustments are smoke and mirrors.
This week following the “Charlottesville Kumbaya Sickwordstock of the Hateful,” many of the Nation’s top business leaders resigned, bailing out of Trump’s endless malaise. These are only volunteers, yet their collective action is a heart stabbing measure to Trump’s biggest claims for his presidency. Too many of the “best people” have concluded they cannot work with him. What about the rest, those elected and or confirmed, will they join in and reinforce the morally correct position, or stay and drink hemlock with Trump in his bunker as the allied forces consider how to terminate this national holocaust of lies, fraud, hate and self-serving ineptness.
Remember and never forget, the biggest sin and most profound global teachable moment was the shocking defense heard at the Nurnberg Trials following the Holocaust, “We were just following orders.” Today’s politics of Trumpism is based on choice, freedom of association and supposedly serving the public good. One does not have to “follow orders” in violation of moral behavior to stay safe and alive. Those, such as the Republican leadership, and yes, even “The Generals” and Donald’s family need to follow the road away from Trump, resign, resign in defiance of this vile twisted man and serve the public good.
Let us not waste precious time. We need to stop trying to label the president and his inner circle of square mean Archie Bunker meatheads as racists. Even today, too much oxygen has been spent debating if Trump, Bannon and others are racists. It doesn’t really matter short term, and it takes the focus off of the real issue, that is, what he says and does. Words and behaviors matter. Arguing over labels is counter-productive at the moment. It is divisive and diversionary. Trump’s words are a threat to national security and therefore impeachable.
Trump is a master of deflection and wiggle, master of verbal bullying, holds the center of gravity of power, puts on a yuge show for quick takes to feed his right-propaganda media machine, and makes the press look petty, hungry, silly and irrelevant. Why get entangled over labels and why does the press keep playing “I gotcha” when he goes off and keeps interrupting with his whiny, “excuse me,” hand waving in dismissal? They need to turn their back on him when he lies or refuses an answer and in a chorus say, “Shame, Shame.” The nation can debate the labels and the meanings later, after we defuse the horror of “IED-Trump.”
Consider Vice President Pence’s “pensive” excuse for Trump today, knowing he wasn’t following orders but apparently his passion, “Then, as now, we have a builder of boundless optimism, who seeks to usher in a new era of shared possibility, then, as now, we have a leader who sees things not just for what they are but for what they could be.” An outlandish lie, delusional thought, and awfully scary to think Pence believes this and then also compared Trump to Teddy Bear Roosevelt’s “Walk softly and carry a big stick.” Trump is incapable of walking softly, and his stick is tiny and weak with no credibility.
For our future, let’s stop racing in this race to label Trump a racist, but call out relentlessly, bad behavior and toxic language, while removing bad actors from serving in public positions of leadership. We will never be free from racists, but we can corner and contain the language and the behavior, and for now, the best way is for everyone to shun Trump and force him to resign or be fired.