Commentary on the American Political System

I don’t know how any reasonably intelligent American citizen can support Donald Trump. Regardless of your political views, he is a walking embarrassment that brings shame and humiliation to our entire country.     What makes matters worse is that most conservative pundits around our country won’t dare challenge Mr. Trump on any of his many excesses. Let’s look at some of the most egregious examples.

To begin with, Republicans and their conservative allies challenged President Obama at every turn in the name of reducing the federal deficit. Democrats were painted as tax and spend charlatans while Republicans stood for financial responsibility.

Yet look at what has happened with the recent tax cut as well as the new budget. Taxes were slashed for corporations and wealthy Americans while over a trillion dollars was added to our deficit, and the budget’s lavish spending on defense has added to our massive debt. If this would have happened under Obama Republicans would have been moaning about the debt passed along to our children and grandchildren. Now, however, they are mute while they become the big spenders they smugly derided during the last administration.

Secondly, while Trump challenges accusations of sexual misconduct by members of his own party and staff, think Roy Moore of Alabama and Rob Porter of the White House, he gladly embraced accusations against ex-President Bill Clinton during the last election campaign. It is apparent that women can only embrace Trump as an ally if their batterer was a Democrat.

But the problem doesn’t stop there. You can’t hear enough from the right-wing Republican crowd when it comes to pointing a finger at Harvey Weinstein and Al Franken. Any Democrat is deemed guilty with any accusation, while all accusers of Republicans are dismissed as “liars”. Put another way, what is the difference between the sexual misconduct allegations made against Bill Clinton and the many women that have dared to make the same public accusations against President Trump?

And then you have President Trump being described as a guy who loves the military. Doesn’t it matter to anyone that when Trump faced induction into the military during the Vietnam War that he was able to use his father’s massive wealth to identify a mysterious heel spur that never bothered him before or after he failed his physical? Where was your love of the military then, President Trump?

And what about the fact that Trump has failed to reveal his tax returns to this very day? How does anyone know how he, his family and businesses financially benefitted from the windfall flowing from the tax bill he signed, not to mention how the elimination of the estate tax allowed him and his wealthy minions to pass along millions of dollars to children who earned it only by being born.

And then there is the issue of gun violence in our country where our President does nothing but claim to pray for the victims. Isn’t it ironic that while he and others oppose abortion while promoting the rights of the unborn, they literally don’t seem to give a damn about the guaranteed rights of life and the pursuit of happiness to that child once he or she is brought into this world. Is a child any less valuable in a school than in the womb?

Finally, while nearly every thoughtful person accepts that the Russians meddled in the last presidential election, Trump continues to demonize the FBI’s investigation while doing nothing to hold Vladimir Putin accountable. Before criticizing the FBI, shouldn’t he remember that it was their announcement of a renewed investigation (quickly abandoned) into Hillary Clinton’s email shortly before the election that played a major role in his victory?

In the end, as a guy who considers himself a student of history, I believe that we are living in the Middle Ages where wealthy land barons are having the serfs work quietly in the fields while they gather most of the wealth inside their castles. Think about how Trump wants to gather a few coal miners around his press conferences while ignoring the tragic cost of black lung disease which still haunts them to this very day. Think about how he wants to waste money on a border wall while doing nothing to improve the treatment of veterans at VA Hospitals. Think about how he wants to destroy Obamacare which would then raise the cost of healthcare for millions of Americans.

Trump and his cohorts are scamming the working class for one reason, to garner their votes so they can quietly pick the pockets of every working class family in this country. Like many, I’m mad as hell and I’m not going to take it anymore.