Editor’s note: This commentary is by Sue Prent, an artist/writer living in St. Albans who routinely blogs on Green Mountain Daily. She is self-employed by Pink House Studios, and works for Fairewinds Energy Education.
[O]ne mistake that Democrats made in the 2016 presidential race was to allow themselves to be distracted from an issues-based campaign by the constant barrage of outrageous behavior that Donald Trump exhibited throughout. They overestimated voters’ interest in and ability to follow the bouncing ball of policy consequences from the relatively brief attention that policy received when Donald Trump was not himself the subject of hyperbolic conversation.
Now, we are all in danger of falling for the same bait-and-switch routine during the reckless reign of Trump.
While we and the media react in slack-jawed disbelief to every new demonstration of Trump’s impulsiveness, and every new hint that the Russians might be his handlers, the real policy impact of the Trump presidency only gets attention as an afterthought.
Meanwhile, the administration is moving quickly to try and reduce the U.S. government to a single purpose war machine.
With the stroke of a pen, vital safeguards for streams and waterways are eliminated; with another stroke, out go consumer protections.
Trump has installed as his Cabinet people who have contempt for the very institutions they now oversee. His picks have the added advantage to someone bent on crippling government agencies, of being demonstrably incompetent.
While we focus on the trail of Russian toilet paper that dangles from Trump’s right shoe, he is dismantling important environmental regulations, gutting entire agencies and defunding almost every social service in order to finance the biggest military build-up in modern history.
Why do you think he’s doing that? Wrong question.
Trump’s tame billionaires and bankers are cooing contentedly over a roaring stock market, convinced that they can be long gone before Trump’s voodoo math hits the fan.
Never mind why he is doing that. He probably just wants to play soldier. More to the point: Why do you think his advisers are encouraging him to do that?
We don’t really know enough about son-in-law Jared Kushner to speculate on his world view, but we know that Steve Bannon courts that lunatic fringe who see Armageddon as the only way to salvation … and if you don’t want to be bested in Armageddon, you better have enough military might to crush all comers in a single earth-destroying act.
Too many of Trump’s most ardent supporters would be perfectly happy with this scenario, because they fervently believe that we are in the end times and have no interest in preserving the natural world for future generations, or providing for the real needs of a population that may soon cease to exist. Others simply don’t care because their interests are so narrowly focused that they simply don’t see beyond sunset in their own backyard.
Now that Mike Flynn has been ejected, the generals in Trump’s Cabinet represent the only real bench of competence in his sphere. Even Rex Tillerson seems to have been relegated to a back seat as the State Department prepares for massive funding cuts in favor of nuclear and conventional armaments build-up.
Military leaders are a boon to Trump’s agenda, not only because they are unlikely to object to massive spending in their sector and elevation of “readiness,” but also because they come from a culture of unquestioning obedience to the will of the commander in chief.
No one seems to care that all he is offering is a lot of talk and a handful of magic beans.
Trump’s tame billionaires and bankers are cooing contentedly over a roaring stock market, convinced that they can be long gone before Trump’s voodoo math hits the fan.
Don’t look to Republicans for a timely rescue. They, too have sold their souls for a Supreme Court pick and one final chance to railroad the bigotry and fear of their voting minority into policy advantages for the privileged.
Here it is six weeks into an administration that threatens to dismantle the hard won mechanisms of our enlightened democracy and all we’re talking about this Sunday morning is another unhinged wee hours tweet from the president.
If we don’t start to pull focus on policy immediately, we can only expect the worst.
