From: Richard Gold
Columbus
The legacy of Donald Trump’s administration will not be greatness.
It will be one of sedition, perhaps treason, gross incompetence in keeping us safe, huge job loss, economic pain, and significant loss of standing in the free world accompanied by lost trust from our best friends.
The impulsive, transactional nature of his decisions will be viewed not as policy-based, but rather self-serving –- pursuing re-election from inauguration day forward.
The searing images of history will be of children locked in cages, seniors dying alone, and bodies piled in refrigerated trucks — makeshift morgues for a mangled federal response to COVID.
The coup de grâce (or d’état) will be the seat of democracy besieged by a fringe element filled with hate, violence and crazed conspiracies urged on by this president.
From the get-go, many said this was a guy lost in his own narcissistic alternative reality; with subordinates providing "alternative facts" to help us interpret his half-truths, lies and insults.
Now even they are reaching for lifeboats.
Mike Braun, Indiana senator and Trump acolyte, removed his objection after Trump supporters stormed the Capitol. It’s not that easy to wash the blood off; and it begs the question: Do you have to witness invasion of the Capitol to see clearly?
The damage done to the institutions of democracy started long before the Capitol invasion:
–The military: “I like people who weren’t captured;” interfering with military justice and the chain of command.
–Labeling the free press the enemy of the people.
–Deriding/pressuring numerous judges on a variety of cases.
–Using his office for personal gain.
–Asking Ukraine and China to help him win the re-election not to mention his entreaties and threats for votes to Georgian officials.
–Along the way, lifelong civil servants who stood up — real patriots — lost their jobs for speaking the truth and had their reputations assaulted while felonious campaign aides were pardoned.
All of this is about craven, unbridled ambition –- for power, for money, for votes.
This assault on our democracy is not possible without enablers who are willing to tolerate the president’s increasingly radicalized lies and outrageous conspiracy theories.
Not all Trump advocates are in this fringe of Nazis and white supremacists. Many are people who favor conservatism and are squeezed in the middle, but they have been unwilling to speak -– either through fear, or ambition or both.
Exhibit number one is the vice president who was finally forced to choose the Constitution over the base. His brother voted to continue the election irregularity charade while disconnecting and decrying the violence it created.
The other enabler is institutional. It is the maturation of the internet and social media which can be subverted easily with lies to pour gas on the fires of hate, racism and intolerance.
We have a challenging policy issue to balance First Amendment rights so intrinsic to our democracy with the imposition of reasonable guard rails on mutating cyberspace.
As for having the personal gumption to call out right from wrong – that starts at home. Every day.
