HOW WE GOT TRUMP

Forget Russia. A Who’s Who of the culpable.

Much worse than ISIS or MS-13, Donald Trump has made the world more dangerous militarily, economically and environmentally. In the United States, it is widely accepted that Trump is the worst president in U.S. history.

Trump should probably already be in prison, like a deserving Bill Cosby is, and he might yet land there for obstructing justice.

Trump is an unsavory, ignorant, apparently mentally unstable man. And he’s a creep, admitting on video to committing multiple sexual assaults. He admitted, on video, to obstruction of justice. He appears to have colluded with Russia to swing the last presidential election in his favor. Which would make Trump a betrayer against America. Unless pardoned, key members of his inner-circle have a ticket to prison.

Trump’s past includes numerous lawsuits, settled out-of-court in a tacit admission of guilt. He regularly performs acts of racism, most notably when he sided with thug white supremacists in the aftermath of Charlottesville. He is a bona fide, without a doubt, gleeful, misogynistic jerk.

He disrespects his trophy wife, not bothering to be at the hospital when Melania had surgery. He apparently doesn’t have much to do with his son, either. While President Obama was regularly seen with his two daughters, when was the last time you saw a photo of Trump and his son Baron, just the two of them, engaging in father-son activities like tossing a ball on the White House lawn?

Trump has made a mess of U.S. relations with our most trusted allies. Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Great Britain, and Japan simply do not trust the Trump administration. Meanwhile, he fawns over Russia’s Vladimir Putin, North Korea’s Kim Jong Un, and made complimentary comments about Iraq’s late-Saddam Hussein and Syria’s Bashar Assad. He was just manhandled by Kim at the big summit.

Trump is a Hitler-like madman. He wants to be dictator of America. He claims he could shoot someone on New York’s 5th Avenue and pay no consequences. His equally mentally sick henchman, “lawyer” Rudy Giuliani, claims Trump could shoot ex-FBI director James Comey and get away with it. Frankly, the Hitler comparison is not out-of-line.

How did we get this madman as our president?

It’s easy to brush off Trump’s ascension to the oval office simply as the result of Russian interference in our presidential election. Clearly, as proven by numerous legitimate U.S. intelligence agencies like the CIA, FBI and others at the Department of Justice, Russia did affect the outcome of the election.

Without Russian assistance, Trump would likely not be president. However, even with Russia’s help, Trump would not have won if key Americans, and American institutions, hadn’t hit the snooze button.

What follows is a list of the primary culprits responsible for the atrocity that is Donald Trump, U.S. president.

The Media

Paced by the once-respected, now wobbly CNN, Trump received over-the-top coverage during his campaign. Vile behavior, that would have disqualified other candidates, was handed a continuous platform by the media. Trump’s outlandish actions drew the media like feces attracts flies. The media was more interested in higher ratings or increased readership than hammering Trump for his ongoing misdeeds, including pathological lying.

Remember how long it took the media, even the venerable New York Times, to finally call Trump a liar? They’d use words like untruthful, misleading, inaccurate and falsehood, as if it wasn’t appropriate to call Trump a liar. But that’s what Trump has been his entire life, a serial liar.

How many times did reputable anchors and show hosts interview born liars like Trump, Mike Pence, Paul Manafort and Kellyanne Conway? Once should have been enough. Instead, weekend after weekend and weeknight after weeknight, the Trump band of liars were enabled to hoodwink their way to the nomination, and eventually the presidency.

How many times did CNN, MSNBC and others show an empty stage with a “Breaking News” chyron announcing candidate Trump would soon speak at a rally? It was plain silly. No other candidates were afforded the same free publicity. Not even close.

Meanwhile, Trump made fun of a disabled journalist. And disrespected war hero John McCain. Any other candidate would have been buried by the media for similar delinquent behavior.

In 2004, the media destroyed Democratic front-runner Howard Dean for his guttural scream, after he finished a disappointing third in the Iowa caucus. While it was a gaffe by Dean, it was nothing compared to Trump bragging he gropes and kisses women against their will.

When faced with the most unqualified candidate in history, albeit a ratings bonanza, the media got greedy, endlessly covering Trump, giving him a free pass while enabling his filthy, race-baiting, woman-hating trash-talk to become normalized, overtly or tacitly approved by many Americans.

For their efforts, Trump has rewarded the media by pummeling them with nauseating accusations they produce fake news. Quite the coincidence since the media is covering a gimmicky, fake president.

In a bit of nastiness reminiscent of Nazi Germany, Trumpler’s henchmen physically removed Univision news anchor Jorge Ramos from a press conference in Iowa in 2015. Even today, physical threats directed toward the media happen at Trumpler (alt-right) rallies.

Hillary Clinton

Three words. Michigan. Pennsylvania. Ohio. Hillary got cocky, lazy, or both and didn’t finish what she’d started.

At the recent NCAA track and field championships, watching the USC runner rally from about 40 yards behind and overtake the Purdue runner in the women’s 4x400 relay was like watching Trump overtake Hillary at the finish line of the 2016 election.

Instead of sprinting to the finish, Hillary strode along in her comfort-zone and was eventually nipped at the end, by roughly 80,000 combined votes in Michigan, Pennsylvania and Ohio. It cost her the election.

No amount of pontificating, book-writing, soul-searching, or blaming James Comey will change the fact that the election was Hillary’s to lose…and she, arguably the most credentialed candidate in American political history, lost the election to the undisputed most unqualified candidate in American political history. The Weekly Opine called this out in a post last fall titled “Times Up, Hillary”, which can be read at this link, www.theweeklyopine.com/blog/2017/11/16/times-up-hillary.

Feckless Republicans

Surely, the Republican National Committee had the power to bury Trump. Instead, the RNC/GOP, stocked full of chicken shits, acquiesced.

From Ted Cruz, who supported Trump after Trump humiliated Cruz’s wife, to Marco Rubio, who supported Trump after Trump repeatedly humiliated him, to Mitt Romney, who has been humiliated countless times by Trump and still comes back for more, to supposed New Jersey tough-guy Chris Christie, who was left begging Trump for crumbs, to Paul Ryan, who has single-handily redefined what it means to be a wimp, to Mitch McConnell, who may be more dangerous than Trump, Republicans then, and now, stand next to the tracks, supporting the Trump train wreck.

And don’t forget Bob Corker, who was among the first senators to endorse Trump. Corker waffles back-and-forth between sucking up to Trump and scolding him, and comes off like a weasel.

Now the GOP, particularly in Congress, ignore fact-based evidence coming from the Mueller investigation, steering clear of a confrontation with Trump at all cost. Republicans are afraid to step up to their constitutional responsibility to impeach the most dangerous man to U.S. democracy since Confederate President Jefferson Davis.

It must also be pointed out that Democrats in Congress are complicit in all of this, having helped confirm the most unqualified presidential administration in U.S. history.

A prime example was the confirmation of Ben Carson, as secretary of Housing and Urban Development.

During Senate hearings Democrats, including Mark Warner of Virginia, hammered away at Carson’s obvious zero qualifications to lead HUD. However, Warner, along with several more Democrats, dutifully fell in line and helped confirm Carson’s appointment, by a vote of 58-41. (A few months later, during HUD budget testimony, Carson proved himself laughably incapable when he was unmercifully grilled by congresswoman Maxine Waters.)

Voters

Dumb, dumb and dumber describes too many American voters.

Specifically, to moderate, self-proclaimed but-not-truly-Christian Republican voters, who held their noses and voted for Trump “because of his policies”, I offer this:

Republicans control the House and Senate. Tax cuts, immigration reform, gutting the Affordable Care Act, dismantling Social Security, repealing net neutrality, disbelieving the science behind climate change, and conservatizing the Supreme Court all could have been accomplished with just about any of the other 2016 Republican presidential candidates.

And those policy victories could have been achieved without sacrificing our standing in the world, while leaving U.S. relations with our most loyal allies in tatters.

Many voters, including poor, working-class white folks, voted against their own self-interests. Trump and his super-rich pals don’t give a damned about the white working-class, many of whom nonetheless show up full-throated at Trump rallies.

And GOP white women Trump voters, what is wrong with you? Where’s your self-esteem? Trump deeply dislikes you, unless you are a Russian, a porn star, or are subservient to men. Do you really want to go back to the 1950’s, when grown women were referred to as girls? Wake up, ladies!

Like bourgeois Germans in the 1930’s, many Republicans stand in silent acceptance of a monster who, hiding behind faux patriotism, is intent on destroying the American dream for everyone except the wealthy.

Our best hope is voters decide to Make America Smart Again on November 6, clicking the refresh button on who represents us in Congress.

President Obama

For all his great qualities President Obama’s downfall is he is too nice. He has a brilliant mind and displays depth of knowledge on a wide-range of issues. He thinks before he speaks (or tweets). He is not a habitual liar. He is a model citizen and family man.

Obama did Americans, particularly poor and working-class Americans, a huge favor by giving them access to healthcare. He did all of us a big favor with the Iran nuclear agreement. The Trans Pacific Partnership showed economic vision. And the Paris climate accord confirmed his belief in science and humanity.

These multilateral agreements demonstrated Obama’s shrewd statesmanship and the ability to respect and work with our allies and those beyond.

He made mistakes, too, such as how he dealt with Syria, and his inability to end U.S. involvement in Afghanistan and Iraq.

But Obama’s biggest mistake was not grasping his portion of the responsibility to ensure Trump never sniffed the White House. And because of this colossal failure, his presidential accomplishments are being blown up by the Trump administration, like dynamite implodes an old stadium.

It started when he produced his birth certificate. He should have done what Trump is doing with his tax returns. Obama should have said “screw you.”

Next, why in hell did Obama buy into the “it’s Hillary’s turn” garbage that permeated within the Democratic National Party? His acceptance of the overmatched Debbie Wasserman-Shultz and the underwhelming Donna Brazile as leaders in the Democratic National Committee still boggles the mind.

Even if the DNC couldn’t see it (how could anyone not see it?), Obama had first-hand experience with the toxicity that is the Clintons. The Clintons, fairly or unfairly, produce a level of hatred not seen in U.S. politics in generations. It is real hatred and it is intense hatred. And it should not have been ignored by Obama and the DNC.

The presidential hand-off (succession planning in corporate speak) should have been pre-ordained, from Obama to VP Joe Biden, just as it was when Ronald Reagan handed the presidency reigns to his VP, George H.W. Bush. Undoubtedly, Biden would have vanquished Trump. Tough, Delaware/Philly Joe Biden would have crumpled soft, bully Trump.

But like world leaders Trudeau, Macron, Merkel and May, Obama and the Dems didn’t, and seemingly still don’t, know how to play rough. Bullies don’t back down when showered with niceties, passivity and accommodation. When given flowers – which bullies perceive as a sign of weakness - they kick even more sand in your face.

Obama, as the leader of his country, should have announced to America, in late-summer 2016, that Trump was compromised by the Russians. Threats from Mitch McConnell to Obama to not reveal this crucial detail should have been ignored. Voters deserved to know this pivotal information. Playing footsie in 2016 is now costing Obama his legacy.

Surely, ex-FBI Director James Comey re-opening the Clinton email server investigation, just days before the election, didn’t help. But if Hillary had been campaigning and grinding it out in Michigan, Pennsylvania and Ohio, nothing Comey did and nothing Russia did would have mattered.

A Who’s Who

Others can be implicated, such as Russia, for their role in the United States being stuck with a president who is an ignorant, sick fool. But the media, Republican leadership, Hillary Clinton, American voters, and President Obama opened the door.

Douglas FreelandJune 14, 2018