What a country we live in! Putin's puppet, an intelligence-averse huckster who lies as easily as he breathes, a fierce and unscrupulous self-promoter, a towering fool who owns his own tower, is now president-elect of the United States.
It was not so long ago that the orange-haired reality TV star, the real estate version of Crazy Eddie Antar, was more of a joke than frightening.
That was when the psychologically damaged and morally puny Donald Trump, though laughably puffed up by his showmanship, and braggadocio was easily understood for what he really was: a liar and slanderer; a closed-minded bully and bigot, a narcissist and authoritarian; a seriously flawed businessman who declared bankruptcy four times and avoided paying Federal Income Tax; a misogynist and sexual predator; a litigious wheeler and dealer; a race-baiter and homophobe; and an incurious, politically inexperienced, and obdurate dolt.
Consistent with his promiscuous "counter-punching," we could always rely on his ever grander illusions of greatness and his many declarations of how smart he was. As if it weren't obvious!
In July, during the Republic National Convention, Trump declared like a third-world strongman, "I am your voice. I alone can fix it. I will restore law and order." And we were assured that he knew more than the generals, which is the putative reason, for why now, he is not taking daily intelligence briefings. Not that he needs them! With his brain we are all safe. Believe him! Bigtime! He's "on-call at one-minute's notice."
Hardly likely with the brain trust he is putting in place! Misfits for the many departments and agencies, the loyalists and the rewarded are selected to head. A real cabinet of wonders and curiosities, if there ever was one. An assembly of freakish and bizarre choices that could only emerge from an impresario of chaos and outrageous behavior.
He has selected an attorney general who is hostile to immigrants and was denied a federal judgeship for his racist comments.
A secretary of health and human services who is anti-abortion and against Social Security, Medicare, and the Affordable Care Act.
For secretary of labor, his pick opposes paid sick-leave and increasing the minimum wage.
A climate change denier and anti-environmental-regulation crusader for the EPA.
His choice for the Department of Education is committed to the destruction (her word) of public education.
Then there's the jaw-dropper, Rick Perry to lead the Department of Energy, one of the agencies he wanted to eliminate, but failed to remember its name. "Oops!" Mr. Perry's only qualifications seems to be that he wears nice blazers, looks good, and appears in "smart people" eye frames. Perhaps when he inserts real lenses that will make all the difference.
I could go on.
The inexperienced, unvetted cabinet is rounded out with billionaires, Russophiles, oilmen, and generals to give it just the right old-time military-industrial complex religion. Circa 1955, so America can be white, no make that "great again." And where the cabinet falls short, Steve Bannon and Mike Flynn, armed with the latest conspiracy theories, are ready to pounce.
And all this, if you believe those crazy kids at the Central Intelligence Agency, whom the president-elect finds "ridiculous," at a time when the election was said to have been hacked by Mother Russia.
The 2016 election was a vote of impotence laced with vitriol; an abdication of reason; a pernicious surrender to a malevolent charlatan whose words and Trump du soleil spectacle hypnotized when he cast his spell. But what is happening now must not be normalized.
The prospect of a Trump presidency is not a case of a glass half full or half empty. The president-elect is unlike anyone who has ever been so close to such high office in American history. Donald Trump is the most dangerous threat facing us and the rest of the world.
It is not a time for wait and see. The lines have been drawn. We need to be strong, optimistic, principled, strategic, resistant.
It's no longer about Trump. It's about us. Who we really are.
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December 16, 2016
Addendum. If you want some cherry on this cake, check this out. The wealth of Trump's cabinet is equal to the combined wealth of one third of all U.S.A. households.
