Looking to recover what we've lost in Trump's term
I've been thinking about what we've lost during Trump's term in office, and what we'll need to recover when he leaves. Nothing in this election is assured, but looking beyond this presidency can give us direction, and hope.
Lives needlessly sacrificed to ineptness, deliberate incompetence and sloth, tens of thousands of loved ones in this pandemic dying without family by their side, obviously never to return. Jobs abruptly yanked away, many lost permanently; foreclosures, evictions; immigrant families separated, countless children likely never to be reunited again with their parents.
Smaller, more ephemeral things have also been lost among us- things no less important or consequential- like touch, companionship, intimacy, the ability to read each others' faces past our eyes. Do our eyes betray, or do they reveal us? Have we lost the substance of our interactions, or is that actually heightened because of more focus and intent negotiating through barriers and masks?
It's no coincidence that we've seen the revival of attitudes and interactions which mirror what occurred during decades of Jim Crow, another time in our history when the mistreatment and demonization of the nation's minorities was accepted and encouraged from the highest offices in the land. A new generation is perpetuating this today, fed a daily diet of the bigoted and racist pablum by FOX and ilk, and Donald Trump angling to reap the spoils.
Merely three years after the election of the nation's first black president, there's been a revival of that same insidious brand of racism and bigotry which is being encouraged by the cynical politics practiced by the present batch of republicans. Open hatred trickling down to folks in our communities who are encouraged by these pols to identify their angst and misfortune with these racist and bigoted appeals which have root in our nation's tragic past.
What I think we've lost in all of that is our sense that those animosities were receding, and the certain diversity of our country making it inevitable that we'll come together as a united nation. The speed and virulence with which it's come back on line is dismaying, and may be the most intractable legacy of Trump as he deliberately allows it to resurface and flourish.
There are many international relationships strained, some broken, by Trump's unwavering attention and fealty toward America's adversaries and enemies; soldiers' lives lost due to feckless, cynical stewardship of our obligations and responsibilities abroad; and increasing isolation at a time when international cooperation is essential to our survival.
We've lost the genius of our system of checks and balances to republicans and the White House ignoring and eviscerating norms and understandings reserved for men of integrity; presidents who haven't always lived up to responsible ideals and standards of law and society in office, but nonetheless, never demonstrated or exercised the level of disdain Donald Trump holds against the nation for our diversity, independence, and our right to disagree and petition the government for redress of its wrongs.
Brazen and wanton criminality reigns around Trump, and in his wake. Courts are being stacked under the management of Senate republicans; the same politicians who waved off impeachment proceedings against the president without allowing one page of evidence to be recognized in the hearing- the legal and political cover of President Trump's crimes openly orchestrated from the institutionally independent, but corruptly compromised Justice Dept..
Most of these losses can be recovered by us through the willful act of voting republicans out of office and power, and regaining the WH and Senate. They've been a destructive class of legislators, existing only to block or eliminate any benefit or reform which doesn't line their benefactors' pockets with the money we borrow to keep government going.
The endless, incessant gaslighting from Trump and his sycophants has replaced reality for them, even though it's completely shredded their credibility. It's all about the game now, and they're stuck with the toolbox they brought to the race. But we're not in anyway obligated to their desperate script. In this election we can restore hope, regain our ability to believe again in our power to effect the changes we want, to confront threats, solve problems, aim high for our children's future.
We'll need to work hard, work together to restore truths obscured by the republican veils of indifference and inaction. Work to restore truths like, an accountable government is a responsive one; an educated and healthy nation is a prosperous one; nations working together promote world peace; we rise and fall together. We may have taken these for granted in the past, but we're wedded to them now. Reality dictates truth, and we're all set to administer a good dose of that to the nation in November.
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