Editor’s note: Walt Amses is a writer and former educator who lives in North Calais.
[F]or most progressives, liberals and anyone else who still sees America as the proverbial land of opportunity, last week was like waking from a nightmare only to find out that not only was it was real, but that you’ll very possibly be living it the for rest of your life. With several sweeping Supreme Court decisions going his way, including approval of the controversial travel ban, coupled with the retirement of Justice Anthony Kennedy, Donald J. Trump is on the verge of becoming arguably one the most influential presidents in our lifetime.
After beginning the last 528+ mornings putting on the coffee, activating our news feeds and muttering, “What now?” or something along the lines of “What a profound expletive this guy is,” America may finally be coming to realized how governing by chaos theory works — or doesn’t work, depending on your political affiliation. Our president, rather than making decisions in any conventional manner, like consulting with experts or weighing the pros and cons of a situation, relies instead on his instincts, his gut if you will and after an idea has sufficiently festered, he simply blurts it out.
Trump’s notion of governing, honed as it’s been by decades on the grift, years of racial and ethnic prejudice, and the jaundiced view from his ivory tower is about as circumspect as the Soup Nazi’s invective “No soup for you today.” As he pings from one absurd proclamation to another, a bevy of White House sycophants scurry like panicked hamsters, straining to transform babble into something that appears reasonable, an exercise in executive-branch CYA disguised as policy.
This off-the-wall style may be by design; a smokescreen to disguise the president’s ineptitude or a product of that ineptitude — it hardly matters, since both he and his deluded base remain quite pleased about how things are going and those are the only people he’s representing. The rest of us — the majority that is — need not apply. While the country (and world) hoped that Trump and his catastrophic presidency would never be accepted as normal, his supporters have believed it was normal from the beginning.
This president continues campaigning 18 months after his unlikely victory to keep his base invigorated and his ego massaged; coddles dictators while alienating allies and pathologically lies as a matter of course — making things up on a daily basis: the country being overrun by “millions” of immigrants; cities under MS-13 control or Democrats being responsible for his own toddler jails. He cites numerable “phone calls” he never received, usually praising him, telling him he was right or dropping some damning innuendo about anyone who dares question or disagree.
But what informs the presidential “gut” aside from “Fox & Friends,” cheeseburgers and KFC ? If his summit with Kim Jong Un is any indication, we all might need an antacid before this is all over. Trump says that he “feels things out” and would know “within the first minute” whether or not they could strike a deal … offering ”It’s what I do” by way of explanation.
Although the deal struck — if you can call it that — fit on a single piece of paper and has gone incognito since the meeting, most likely because the “Dealmaker” got his clock cleaned, offering concessions as well as legitimacy to Kim and receiving nothing but stuffed cucumber in return. According to news reports, North Korea continues work on missile installations, POTUS hyperbole notwithstanding.
So here we find ourselves on the cusp of as important a decision as a president can make and we’re faced with a commander-in-chief who says things like “I think he likes me”; relies on the intellect of Steve Ducey and objectivity of Sean Hannity; and who speaks of “love” and “compassion” yet allows the likes of Stephen Miller to formulate immigration policy. Incredulous as it feels, this man has an opportunity to chart the course of America long after he leaves office and fulminate as we might, the opposition has little recourse.
Expecting Mitch McConnell to delay this appointment until after the midterm elections so “the American people can decide” as he did with Barack Obama’s choice of moderate Merrick Garland, erroneously presumes the majority leader has a conscience or is capable of shame. The GOP is content with the president selecting a justice who may one day have to preside over whether or not he completes his term. Conflict of interest? Not as long as Trump can balance the needs of the Republican Party with those of Vladimir Putin.
There is little doubt that if we could somehow return to November 2016, knowing what we know now — a do-over if you will — things would turn out differently — and probably be focused on Republican efforts to impeach Hillary Clinton. But that train left the station long ago, stranding us alongside the tracks wondering why we didn’t take Obama more seriously when he said prophetically: “Elections have consequences.” We’re just now finding out what they might be.
