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There's a wise old proverb "As water reflects a face, so a man's heart reflects the man." Can we say a man's heart is reflected in his face?
Two recent bumps conspired as entreaties to toss off the malaise that has kept this old reporter's angry voice quiet; the destruction of the East Wing, and a note from a long time reader and correspondent/friend Mike Mulligan. Mike you woke up the old fire horse response that inhabits after spending most of your life chasing news, responding to warning bells, seeing power up close, reporting from the fractures, failures and crises.
Longtime readers may recall my reference to an August 2016 open letter from 50 senior national security and foreign policy experts, or Cabinet members in Republican administrations from Richard Nixon to George W. Bush. The men and women, many names you know, warned that:
-Trump was unfit to serve,
-lacked the character to be President
-would be a danger to the US and the world.
That was the death rattle of the Republican party.
Now people who thought he could "grow into the office," casting that warning and caution aside, have come to understand the wisdom of another proverb; "Though you grind a fool in a mortar, grinding him like grain with a pestle, you will not remove his folly from him."
AN OFFENSE TO AMERICA
His destruction of the East Wing is an offense to history, protocol, the norm and to the citizens. It is symbolic of his presidency.
If he can order the arrest and seizure of citizens by masked thugs, if he can kill without warrant, evidence or proof, if he can extort universities, law firms and cultural institutions, if he can claw back funds already appropriated then he can and is treating the White House and it's historic significance like another of his gaudy hotels or resorts. So far he's getting away with it.
REPUBLICANS THE NEW AMERICAN COWARDS
It is there, in that fact dear citizens, we reach a confluence of two sinister forces that may break us. There is no counter force, no punch back.
1) There is, at best, acquiescence, maybe approval, or more likely cowardice of the Senate and the House. Please recall the double acquittals in the Senate. Mitch McConnell will be be remembered as the necromancer of this Trump reign. One of the great screw ups in history, they could have crushed the snake!
2) Even with all we know, with all the facts before us, the chaos filling our screens, the inconsistencies, the trashing of the economy, his humiliation and whipping by Putin, his use of the White House to fleece the devoted to build his wealth, and now his threat to sue the government to enrich himself, and private funding for armed forces, but he was elected. That might have been the day the music really died.
Bye, Bye Miss American Pie. Now we "sing dirges in the dark."
Another truth-this is a self inflicted wound.
Most of us recognized the implicit danger of authoritarianism, fueled by his divisive and toxic campaign 10 years ago. His racism and fraud were already published and litigated years before.
As he disregards propriety and endeavors to destroy 250 years of federal systems he's surrounded by an appalling team of talentless sycophants eager to do his pleasure so they get to play in the gilded delusional kingdom.
Author Garrett Graff says Trump is "taking a wrecking ball to America itself."
Other historians and analysts have lamented the failure the system of checks and balances.
A MAN SO VILE
The system worked until now. Trump came with a factor unseen at this scale; a complete void of honor, not even the pretense. After two and half centuries, the noble experiment of the American Republic is being proof tested by something the founders did not plan for, a man so vile.
He is without a wisp of honor, a man who will neither respect tradition, nor the way it has worked, the unwritten code. He is like a cur at Westminster, a vulgarian, the kind of man the founders did not expect, nor did the millions who have since worked in and served the government and civil service.
SELF INFLICTED WOUNDS
Self inflicted indeed. We did not pay attention to the diligent teaching of history, the full and honest American story, nor did we teach basic government, nor civics explaining our role as citizens. That lapsed.
I would list the power of money, big money in political campaigns as a sin in a democratic republic for which we are now paying. It has turned elections into an industry and government into a bought and paid for system of dispersement.
Zero sum politics is a road to chaos. Abandoning compromise and negotiation is deadly to the body politic.
We are in new terrain. We can't predict where or how this will go.
THE TRUTH OF TRUMP
At his best he's a real estate hustler and pitchman. As a leader he is an amateur, full of himself, who fires those who criticize or challenge or tell the truth. He has no grasp of history. He rarely speaks the truth. He's fixated on revenge and retribution. His estimation of himself is a narcissistic mental illness. He is a cheat and a fraudster. He is a sexual predator, a vulgarian, an overweight, out of shape old man who has convinced himself he is most powerful man on earth and can do anything he wants to do. And he is doing that.
The president is wrapped in a delusion of power and lies. All tyrants come to an end. The end will come to Trump in some way. It will then be left to the American citizenry to make choices and to choose a path. The damage MAGA inflicts can be repaired if we recall our aspirational heritage found in the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence. We have not been perfect, and we have been slow at meeting our promises but we change, and we progress and improve our up potential. But not without struggle.
MASTERS OF FATE?
As an old boy with more road behind than ahead I suggest we root ourselves in something of value and nobility. It is better for us if we have a code for living and beliefs that we practice
In a recent chat with three friends, realists, experienced in government, media and power I said something I repeat now. It's a realization chiseled by a life of observation, at close quarters of struggles, power, intention, loss, desire, randomness, war, despair, faith, villains and the indefatigable nature of becoming.
Unless and until we reorient the human intellect to the ancient Greek concept of eudaemonia we will do ourselves harm in anyway available to us. Virtue and reason are the only way to survive.
In aggregate this nation or any nation, will realize that, or it will not. Civilizations rise and they fall.
It seems appropriate now to invoke a journalist, quoting Shakespeare so as to contextualize or frame this moment; "The fault dear Brutus, is not in our stars, but in ourselves..."
But for the point of this now, it is the line Cassius utters immediately before that;
"Men at sometime are masters of their fate."
See you down the trail.
