Earlier this week, conservative-libertarian columnist George F. Will wrote an Op/Ed piece for the Washington Post, where he completely blasted Donald Trump. He also insinuated that the United States has entered some kind of a serious decline, and that Trump himself is probably the clearest indicator and symbol of this decline.
Here is how Will puts it:
Under the most frivolous person ever to hold any great nation’s highest office, this nation is in a downward spiral. This spiral has not reached its nadir, but at least it has reached a point where worse is helpful, and worse can be confidently expected.
Indeed, it is hard to imagine these days that things will not grow worse, if one is paying attention. Will speaks to this, as well, mentioning some of our national accomplishments during trying times in the past, and then contrasting that with our seeming national paralysis which dominates today:
This nation built the Empire State Building, groundbreaking to official opening, in 410 days during the Depression, and the Pentagon in 16 months during wartime. Today’s less serious nation is unable to competently combat a pandemic, or even reliably conduct elections.
Trump himself has been a symbol of this national decline (there really is no other word for it), even with - perhaps especially because of - the very fact that, to some who support him, Trump is symbolic of the last hope to save this nation. His rhetoric once seemed, at least, a change from the typical political discourse that usually dominated. But with Trump's rise, this style has itself become a caricature, and rings hollow. As Will puts it:
Because of his incontinent use of it, the rhetorical mustard that the president slathers on every subject has lost its tang. The entertainer has become a bore
A classic, textbook narcissist like Trump will of course never admit to any wrongdoing, nor admit that there could possibly be any justification for anyone not liking him or his style. And so, in predictable fashion, Trump has always been dismissive of polls that show widespread lack of support or popularity for him, for what he stands for, and/or for his general style. And so Trump dismisses this as "fake news" and claims that this is yet one more example of how the "lamestream media" (such wit!) and the elite establishment in this country (particularly the Democrats, but also their allies) are trying to destroy him, and in so doing, to destroy the country. It follows, then, that Trump is dismissive of any news which shows him to be clearly unpopular across the nation, and which compromises his chances at winning another term in the upcoming election. Trump is not merely dismissive, though. He outright attacks such news, and claims that examples of this lack of popularity are due to widespread voter fraud. Typically, there is a racial dimension to this, as Will points out:
“The hard truth is that there has been a rising tide of voter suppression in recent U.S. elections. These actions — such as overeager purging of electoral registers and reducing early voting — have the appearance of enforcing abstract principles of electoral integrity but the clear effect (and apparent intent) of disproportionately disenfranchising racial minorities. One example was the decision of Georgia’s Republican Secretary of State (now Governor) Brian Kemp to suspend 53,000 predominantly African-American voter registration applications in 2018 because the names did not produce an ‘exact match’ with other records.”
Democrats, much like in 2016, are not helping their own cause, and are contributing to the seemingly endless number of ways in which Trump is being helped out by circumstances well beyond his control. In 2016, Hillary illegally asked her party's leadership for help, even though she and they both knew that they were supposed to remain neutral. Then, her powerful former president for a husband met with then Attorney General Loretta Lynch on a Phoenix tarmac, suspending all air travel in the airport briefly, supposedly just to enjoy a casual conversation to "catch up." And surprise, surprise: just days later, an active investigation of Hillary Clinton was suspended. Those actions justifiably cast Hillary Clinton in a suspicious light, making her appear corrupt and untrustworthy. So you would think that the Democrats would bend over backwards to avoid repeating that kind of scenario this time around, right?
Wrong.
Here is Will again:
The 2020 presidential selection process began with Iowa’s shambolic Democratic caucuses, a result not of corruption but incompetence, an abundant commodity nowadays. It is scandalous that in many places casting a ballot requires hours of standing in line.
Whether it was completely the product of corruption or incompetence, and not perhaps a bit of both, is a debate for some other time. But it once again cast doubts on the legitimacy of our elections, once again playing right into Trump's hands. However, the rather new phenomenon of people standing in line for hours to vote here in this country is a relatively new phenomenon, and once again, it is because of some phony sense of urgency to address the manufactured, if not outright completely fabricated, problem of what Trump claims to be "widespread voter fraud." Also, it should come as no surprise that this issue seems to impact only minority neighborhoods, and not affluent areas where there tend to be many Trump supporters. What a shock, eh?
Meanwhile, Trump's own self-serving, virtually criminal behavior is on full display for the entire country now, and indeed the whole world is watching, which should be a source of national embarrassment and shame. It is quite clear from the people that Trump himself chooses to surround himself with, from what Will suggests are his "selection of friends such as Stone and Paul Manafort, dregs from the bottom of the Republican barrel. "
It seems rather astonishing to me just how stubbornly blind and deaf Trump fans seem intent on being whenever it comes to criticism of Trump. My guess is that they view him as a maverick, as a kind of renegade shaking things up, in a way that they presumably view as positive. He seems to speak frankly, to “tell it as it is,” as many people put it. And so naturally, according to this logic, he is going to make plenty of enemies. Extending this logic further, then, presumably the loyal Trumpists systematically dismiss Trump critics because they all are elitist establishment types, who feel threatened by Trump's maverick ways. And so, the more criticism Trump received, and the more the numbers of critics of Trump grow, the more this proves what an effective job Trump is doing. This is not anything that I personally believe, but it feels like that might explain the mindset of blindly loyal allegiance to Trump.
That is the only reason that I can find for them ignoring not just the criticism of Trump by political rivals, but by people – including many world leaders – literally the world over. And then by many fellow Republicans, who just feel that Trump embodies something truly sinister and crass. And then by many of Trump’s own, hand-picked members of his cabinet, many of whom left the White House and spoke out, sounding the alarm about the levels of arrogance, entitlement, and incompetence prevailing in the Trump White House. When you have so many people, across the so-called political divide in the nation, who criticize someone like Trump, and often for the exact same reasons, maybe it is time to take these criticism seriously.
Those members of Trump's administration who still remain loyal to him themselves seem to engage in criminal activity without anyone twisting their arm to do so. Like Manafort and Stone. This Trump administration has seen quite a number of convictions. More than their fair share. And Trump himself seems to flout his own rather astonishing, de facto impunity. To this point, he keeps getting away with literally everything, every outright criminal act, or more generally, his bad behavior. In turn, getting away with it does not teach Trump and his cronies to rein in their behavior, now that they got away with it, and to play it safe from here on out, as Susan Collins once seemed to suggest. Rather, Trump and his corrupt administration feel empowered to keep on with their abuses of power and their rather blatant corruption.
Apparently, though, this message keeps getting lost on blindly devoted – some might suggest fanatical – Trump supporters. But this very devotion has itself become a problem, one that Trump himself shrewdly – and if we are being honest, capably - manipulates to his personal and political advantage. Trump does this even when so doing has become outright harmful to the well-being of the country.
Indeed, the problem in the United States goes well beyond Donald Trump. After all, he is just one man. He gets away with things over and over again because he is allowed to, because of the political power that his following provides him.
Normally, I do not agree with the logic of self-identified libertarians and what passes for modern day conservatism in America.
However, I think that this piece by Will was written very well. He makes some very valid points, and tries to raise the alarm about all of the clear as day signs that this era of Trump and a gangster-style White House marks a serious decline for the United States, albeit one that is not necessarily irreversible, he reminds us, while sounding a hopeful note that all of this could be roundly rejected by the nation come Election Day. That is, of course, assuming that this will indeed bring about Trump’s decline. The fact that someone who has long been known for having a conservative leanings makes this all the more important of a read. Will stresses the significance of this particular election:
Never has a U.S. election come at such a moment of national mortification. In April 1970, President Richard M. Nixon told a national television audience that futility in Vietnam would make the United States appear to the world as “a pitiful, helpless giant.” Half a century later, America, for the first time in its history, is pitied.
So it seemed important to share the link to this article, and urge everyone out there to please take a look at this piece. It illustrates, from a conservative point of view, just how and why the Trump presidency marks a clear departure from values which this country used to hold dear, including the determination to build symbols of strength and greatness during difficult times, as the nation faces adversity, and why it no longer seems to be rising to the occasion any longer.
Please take a look at this article by clicking on the link below:
This is what national decline looks like. The nation is in a downward spiral. Worse is still to come. Opinion by George F. Will, Columnist July 15, 2020:
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