Photo credit: U.S. Air Force Tech. Sgt. Brigitte N. Brantley, Public Domain
It has been a tough year for patriotic Americans as we watched our president try to desecrate the values and principles that actually do make America great.
If you have spent time in developing countries, you understand that America is truly viewed as the beacon of freedom for peoples throughout the world. Donald Trump now has these other nations—as well as our close allies—questioning what kind of country we really are and how we could have elected someone like him. According to a recent poll, 74% of the world does not trust Mr. Trump.
We have watched Trump’s EPA deny science and actively enable polluters to have more sway in destroying our environment. He walked away from the Paris Climate Accord, literally turning our back to the whole world. He has invited racists and white nationalists to be his advisors in the White House. He found no difference between violent white nationalists in Charlottesville, Va., chanting hate and the nonviolent protesters who were appalled by such behavior. He even appointed a white nationalist as the U.S. Attorney General. The list could go on and on.
He campaigned as some kind of a racist populist, attacking Wall Street and the big pharmaceutical companies along with Mexicans and Muslims. He might have governed more toward the middle of the road and actually worked to bring the country together on some issues and engineer some compromise in Congress. Instead, he put together a right-to-far-right cabinet whose members included many of those Wall Street folks he railed against.
The Real Damage
The biggest damage he has done is to undermine our institutions. Governments only survive in the long term if the governed essentially believe in their governmental institutions. Totalitarian states are transitional with some lasting longer than others, but eventually they all collapse. Trump has undermined the electoral process, discredited the FBI and the intelligence agencies, attacked our courts (including judges because of their ethnic origins), attacked our free press—the envy of the world—as “fake news” and has lied and lied and lied to the public.
There is a Bright Side to All of This
As grim as all this sounds, there is another side, a much brighter side. We are not a beaten-down people. We have enjoyed a tremendous freedom and control over our lives for the past 235 years and, unfortunately, too many Americans have taken it all for granted. Just look at the number of Americans who do not vote. It is a national embarrassment, but we are seeing that change when you look at the high turnout in the special U.S. Senate election that was held in Alabama last month.
|
|
We are also pushing back beyond the ballot box starting with the Woman’s March this past January, and each day, more and more people are getting involved in ways that they never thought they would—or would have to. It is important to remember that history moves forward toward freedom and justice, but it is not linear. We have to work at it, and we can’t drop our guard. There are always setbacks and avenues blocked, but then we push forward in a different manner.
People are getting more involved and understand that the future of our country is at stake. After 45 presidents, this is the only one who has consciously undermined the values that we as a nation developed over the past 235 years. Trump expressed his admiration for such current authoritarians as Russia’s Vladimir Putin, Turkey’s Recip Tayyip Erdoğan, Egypt’s Abdel Fattah el-Sisi and the Philippines’ Rodrigo Duterte, to name just a few. Many of the Republicans I know fear that that is the direction Trump himself would like to go. Remember, many authoritarians, including Adolf Hitler, initially achieved power through constitutional means.
A Prime and Powerful Example
Do you really believe the Me Too Movement would be happening if Donald Trump were not president? When credible women are ignored, and a man who brags on tape that he grabs women inappropriately ends up elected president, women realized it is the time to take the risk and fight back. This push back from women is greatly applauded and long overdue.
Our institutions are also fighting back. We have a special prosecutor—lifelong Republican Robert Mueller—who has a stellar reputation and is doing what appears to be a professional and thorough investigation. We also have both the House and the Senate investigating the Russian connection to the U.S. election. The Senate appears to be doing an honest and reasonably bi-partisan investigation, but the House committee is too partisan, often acting like an agent for the president. Wisconsin Congressman and Speaker of the House Paul Ryan of Janesville refuses to step up and correct matters in the House. Unfortunately, Ryan has gone from being appropriately skeptical of Trump to being his puppy dog.
Despite the weaknesses in the House investigation, they are still digging into the actions of the past couple of years by questioning witnesses and collecting information. How many governments outside of Western Europe could credibly investigate their president for various forms of corruption?
America Will Survive if We Stay Vigilant
America will get through these next three years with institutions that will grow stronger if they fight for their institutional integrity, and our electorate will continue to get more involved as they realize how America is being attacked from within. This can only make America greater. It will take years to repair the damage that the Trump administration has done, but again, history moves forward toward freedom and justice. We need to stay active, stay engaged, organize and fight back to save and enhance our 235-year history of building a great democratic country.
Louis G. Fortis is editor and publisher of the Shepherd Express and a former Wisconsin State Legislator.
