Redtree Times

“…I never can think of Judas Iscariot without losing my temper. To my mind Judas Iscariot was nothing but a low, mean, premature, Congressman.”

– Mark Twain, “Foster’s Case,” New York Tribune, 10 March 1873

I guess I was a little quick on the trigger in writing about Trump’s betrayal of his voters and many other Americans. If I had known that less than twelve hours later that he would be betraying our allies and the established world order, I might have held off. 

It was the most hideous spectacle I have ever witnessed from an American president as he and his toady VP ambushed Ukrainian President Zelensky in the White House. I am not going to go into the details of the event. You have to see it for yourself and not depend on the milksop coverage from the media. If you can watch Trump’s performance yesterday– and that’s what it was, a performance– and not feel a combination of revulsion, anger, shame, and dread then we are living in two very different countries.

Maybe even on different planets.

I’ve been around awhile and have seen some things. I have been proud of this country and what it has come to represent at times. And there have been a few times when I have been less proud. But there has never been a moment when I felt what I am feeling now. Words fail to express my anger and shame at what we have become.

But even worse is the dread that came with them. This betrayal of our longtime allies and all democracies around the globe was so brazen and obvious that it made me worry that these people– if I can call them that– believe that they have everything in place, or nearly so, to stay in power indefinitely. 

They have pretty much deconstructed all guardrails and oversight that might check their acquisition of absolute power.  With their total control of all agencies and branches of government nearly at hand, they no longer need to keep up the pretense that they are obligated to faithfully serve anyone other than themselves and their authoritarian partners abroad. They answer to no constituency other than themselves. 

They operate now with open hubris, believing they are untouchable going forward. 

I get irked and sometimes laugh when I hear journalists or politicians talk about approval polls or the need to find a way to work in a bipartisan manner with this government. I believe that they feel that they cannot be defeated at the ballot box now, that they have the ability to either produce the results they desire or, if not, have the authority and means to overturn undesirable results in upcoming elections. When voting no longer matters, they don’t have to try to win over voters or keep the empty promises made on the campaign trail.

And as far as working with them in a bipartisan way, when you’re dealing someone with total power and no fear of reprisal from within or without, there is no compromise that they will accept except for total subjugation to their demands. 

And as for hoping to shame them with the hope they will do the decent and right thing, that went out the window in Trump’s first term. Actually, before that to some degree.

In short, what we saw yesterday is the most obvious demonstration yet of what is to come. As awful as it was, it might well not be the worst we will see.

I hate to say this and don’t want to believe it, but I don’t feel we can stop them electorally. I don’t really know what that might end up meaning. However, I can say with some certainty that however it goes, good or bad, it ain’t going to be pretty.

Let’s start working so that decency and humanity wins at the end of the day. 

I apologize for not being able to distract you or make you feel better or allay any fears you might have today. I would love to do just that, to write about art and literature and music, and will attempt to do just that in the near future. I read somewhere about James Baldwin speaking about how he felt he had a mission to inform that kept him from staying silent on those things that disturbed him. I think I understand and answer to a similar feeling at times like this.