If his initial selections are indicative, the President-elect is on his way to putting together an administration of White male bigots, racists, Islamophobes, homophobes, and plutocrats. He already has the misogyny covered, as well as the personal corruption and nepotism. [Strictly speaking, nepotism is the corrupt favoring of one's nephew, but he does not seem to have nephews, so sons, daughters, and sons-in-law will have to do.]
All of this is not surprising, of course, but the speed with which it has become apparent [there are still two months until the inauguration!] is fortunate. The wimpish trimmers in the Democratic Party, whose natural inclination is to look for the good side even of vampires and the undead, will have their wishful fantasies disabused long before they are called on actually to do anything. I have never liked Chuck Schumer, but I must say he does not look like a man who would bring a knife to a gun fight.
The speed and vigor with which people are speaking up, joining together, and planning to fight encourages me to think that Trump will not have so much as a day of "honeymoon." Despite a lifetime of political activism, I am not by nature an organizer, nor am I a follower by preference, but I am ready to march now. I still do not know whether there will be many of us at the so-called Million Woman March on January 21st but I have plane tickets and hotel reservations, and later today I will go to T J Maxx and buy a warm winter coat [I gave mine away when we moved down to North Carolina].
Let The Games begin!
We can probably mount a serious challenge to him domestically. My greatest fear is around foreign policy, where he has much greater freedom of action. He gets his "news" from Twitter, the National Enquirer, and fake news sites. (Witness his recent statement, gleaned, according to the Times, from Twitter, that buses of protesters were being paid to go to NYC to demonstrate.) His Natl. Security Advisor, whose job it is be the steadying voice, is Islamophobic, apparently unhinged, and retweets fake news. It is not too difficult to imagine a scenario in which Flynn advises Trump that (according to Twitter) nuclear missiles are on their way from North Korea or Pakistan or Iran (after he rips up the treaty) and that Trump must counterattack with our nuclear weapons. It is truly frightening to have Dr. Strangelove at the helm. My shame at being an American now is that for the first time we have someone who is not only misguided, but is not playing with a full deck.
ReplyDeleteAlas, Tom, I think you are just right. All of this was anticipated and endlessly talked about during the campaign, to no effect. It is authentically scary.
ReplyDeleteWhat kind of winter coat did you get?
ReplyDeleteI have a surplus army coat from either the German or the Austrian army (it's label inside is in German). Very warm, with a great hood.
Haven't gone yet. Tomorrow. I'll have to see what they have.
ReplyDeleteI'll give you one tip. Buy as light a one as possible. My surplus army coat is very warm, but if I have to walk a long distance, it gets to feeling very heavy and my back begins to ache. That doesn't happen when one is younger of course. I'm sure that you know that L.L. Bean sells warm clothes designed for active people online.
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