Back in 2016, in my eyes, there was no good main party candidate to vote for. Hillary Clinton was the Democrat Party nominee and Donald Trump was the Republican. Hillary Clinton was problematic for a couple of reasons. First there was her handling, as Secretary of State, in 2012 of the Benghazi episode. Good people paid with their lives that might have been prevented had she ordered a withdrawal. She also could have worked harder at getting authorization for military support from offshore U.S. Navy units. Second, there is the question about using her own private server to store, send, and receive government communications of sensitive and classified nature.
Donald Trump was no more inspiring than Hillary Clinton. I was concerned about his ability to lead a country as president, not as a CEO with the final say. Watching him throughout the campaign certainly was enlightening. He did have a following, unfortunately many of those followers were from the extreme right wing. There were skinheads, Klan types, neo-Nazis, white nationalists and white supremacists. Oh, there were many “regular” Republicans, from all walks of life. “Trump has not disavowed a single endorsement from the dozens of neo-Nazis, Klansmen, white nationalists, and militia supporters who have backed him (Mother Jones, October 2016). He was creating a platform of hate and racism, which unfortunately was enough to get him elected to the presidency.
His leadership has been, by any means necessary, to get what he wants and the Republicans in Congress support him. He found a way to circumvent Congress and sell over $8 billion in military equipment to Saudi Arabia by using a ginned up emergency declaration. He wants a wall to keep out “illegal immigrants” but hasn’t got the money he needs for it. No problem, he just diverts $3.8 billion from the Department of Defense to use for construction. It goes on and on.
Here comes 2020 and there is a worldwide pandemic, called COVID-19, or coronavirus, a deadly disease sweeping through many nations. The virus originated in Wuhan, China originally. In the United States, over 1.5 million people have been confirmed to have the coronavirus and over 92,000 have died. Donald Trump is ridiculed for his leadership during this national emergency. But, don’t expect him to say he did things poorly. Instead he continually pats himself on the back for the wonderful and great job he’s done handling the virus. His arm should be hurting by now. In speaking of the coronavirus, Donald Trump has consistently and pathologically lied to the American people. Yet, a large majority of his followers will fight to the death to support him. Granted, he has begun loosing some supporters, but the large majority of his umbrella of supporters are staying put behind him. Those folks are seriously deluded or just stupid. They are incapable of objective reasoning, or they, like the extreme right wing racists, have a particular axe to grind.
Of course, we are in an election year and true to form Donald Trump is bringing out his lies against anyone and everyone who does not support him. It’s going to get nasty, again. His opponent will likely be Joe Biden and Donald Trump will do and say whatever slander he can throw at Joe Biden.
The political scene in America will likely be a regular topic of this blog. But, it isn’t the only subject that opinions of mine will be put forth. It’s up to you whether you like them or hate them.
Until next time
American Dystopia 