View From a Diminished American
For three and a half years, I have watched our country descending in a death spiral, blowing past benchmarks of human decency, by a morally and ethically bankrupt President. I remember the week of the Access Hollywood incident before the election and did not fully comprehend how that vile conversation would be a harbinger of the future debasing of people, institutions, and the office of the Presidency.
Weak Republican voices, barely audible, attempted to explain away his severe character flaws and lack of fitness for office. As it turns out, that pattern would repeat hundreds of times as the barrage of unsavory behavior was unceasing. The bottom unreachable as each person slandered, established a new low promptly surpassed within hours or days until every shred of respect and dignity cleansed from the highest office in the land.
There is a fatigue that sets in as one outrage follows another, reducing a person’s ability to comprehend the full extent of the destruction taking place to our institutions and the all-out assault on our constitution. The enabling and pandering by Republican lawmakers of this President is breathtaking. The indiscriminate blind support will go down in history as one of the worst attacks on our democracy if it survives.
You need not look past the impeachment trial in the Senate to observe the weakness and fear of lawmakers who daily put self above country. The trial, used as a prop, showcased a mockery of our justice system for the benefit of a President dreaming of being a dictator.
Witnesses who take their oath of office seriously, courageously stepped forward during the investigation to speak their truth, only to be systematically torn apart and slandered by their President. The Senate, complicit in the behavior, did not allow a single witness or make any attempt to seek the truth.
The message to the President was loud and clear; it is ok if you abuse your power and obstruct justice; we will not hold you accountable. The spectacle amounted to a wholesale abandonment of the Senate member’s oath of office.
Never in my life have I felt so isolated by an administration within my own country like somehow I am less of an American for not agreeing or supporting a President who lies to the American people daily, and has no respect for anybody or anything.
It does not take bravery or guts to wrap yourself in an American flag like it is some cheap prop. Being a patriot is about a willingness to sacrifice one’s life in defense of our constitution and the American way of life. Where was Donald Trump when ordinary Americans drafted into the military were doing all of the fightings and dying for our country.
Now, embroiled in one of the worst race crises in modern times, we see an ineffective President with zero skills to address the problem. A President who pursued a disgraceful birther theory against President Obama. A President that thinks taking kids away from their parents at the border is smart policy. A President who is endorsed by many white supremacy groups, and believes the US military should dominate American civilians.
If there is ever a question about racial bias within our country, pick any ten of the hundreds of lies, slanders, and obscene things uttered by President Trump and try to imagine them perpetrated by President Obama. I believe the wailing and gnashing of teeth would be so loud; it would sound like an air raid siren heard from coast to coast.
