One of our much-vaunted attributes as a species is our resilience. Our ability to recover from trauma, tragedy and setbacks is the stuff of legend. People devastated by wildfires rebuild; parents who lose a child to disease, accident or mayhem have another child; widows and widowers carry on with their lives; even crippling injury and maiming is not enough to stop us from looking forward to a better day.
Sometimes, however, that resilience and adaptability can work against us. I believe that is what is occurring under the presidency of Donald Trump. The Orange Ogre seems to have redefined what is acceptable or, at the very least, tolerable, in public life. Forget his serial philandering, his outright and ongoing mendacity, and his manifest unfitness for office, all of which, in an earlier time, would have provoked strong reaction and demands for remediation. Perhaps because Trump came from reality programming, and the United States, now more than ever in its history, subsists on a diet of illusion and false promise, it appears that widespread condemnation over what he does or does not do is largely absent, a 'perk of office' that his predecessor, Obama, did not enjoy.
Consider the following report, which begins at the 7:52 mark, and then ask yourself this question: If times were normal, what logical conclusion would most draw about Donald Trump vis-à-vis Russia?
What can you make of it beyond a dereliction of duty bordering on treason. America has the most elaborate intelligence/security organization, the legacy of the 9/11 attacks, and the head of each component agency without exception has confirmed that the 2016 elections were hacked by a hostile power, Russia, with the intent of skewing the election toward one candidate, that the hacking succeeded and that the Russians were going to hack the mid-terms. These hacks have been assessed as an attack on the nation and yet the president has not lifted a finger to thwart the next attack or pressure Moscow to back off. That sounds pretty treasonous to me.
ReplyDeleteBeing in the back pocket of a foreign power surely would qualify as treason if we were living in normal times, Mound, but the failure of American constitutional safeguards thanks to a largely craven, venal and supine Congress and a mute Paul Ryan make these anything but normal times.
DeleteIf there is hope, Lorne, it rests with Robert Mueller. My hunch is that it's all going to come down around Donald's ears.
ReplyDeleteI hope you are right, Owen. That Trump has thus far sucked so much ethical air out of the room should be a concern to all.
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