U.S. History Books Ca. 2025
When it’s all over, what will be the take-away from this administration? Here’s how I believe this period of American history will be remembered:
• A bizarre, temporary aberration in our culture, highlighted by hate, fear, distrust, and hostility–a time in which the basic rules of civil society were temporarily suspended.
• An extremely well orchestrated coup by Putin/Russia, installing a sociopathic liar in the White House who systematically destroyed most of the institutions and international relations that had made this country great over its 242-year presence.
• A constant stream of distractions: bald-faced lies, disastrous trade policies, attacks on journalism, widespread voter suppression, groundless accusations, cruel laws, support of white nationalists, coddling of dictators, insults to allies, the removal of science from policy-making, enrichment of billionaires at the expense of the common American (especially the poor), and the ceaseless destruction of the environment–all carefully designed to misdirect our attention from the obvious, i.e., Russia’s coup as described above.
An equally interesting question is how long it will take, if it is possible at all, for the U.S. to recover its principles of fairness and decency, as well as its standing in the world. I only hope I’m on the planet long enough to see it, but that appears unlikely.
Craig,
I’m afraid history may recall the Trump administration as a time when the US became a lot less delusional, and far less hypocritical.
The US has never lived by the values it loudly preaches to other nations. This is especially true when the US lectures other nations with much longer and more virtuous histories.
In truth, the US has always been a nation founded on myths and lies. The founding fathers may have adopted many slogans and concepts from the “Age of Enlightenment”, but those virtues were espoused when needed to excuse otherwise dubious behaviour.
President Trump has the virtue of being what he is, a candidly pro-American leader with no pretensions beyond pursuing the best interests of America.
“Cometh hour, cometh the man”. The 45th occupant of the White House is a lot closer to the “real” America and Americans, than anyone since President Reagan. Reagan was the last President of the “Age of America or American Century”. President Trump has to drag the US into a new reality. The outrage and bleating by the elite, especially the liberal media, is probably the longest hysterical tantrum in the history of the world !
Putin is no threat to the US, or Europe. Putin’s Russia is an economic pygmy with a smaller GDP than Australia ! Russia still retains a disproportionately powerful permanent military, and nuclear armament. However, if Russia’s aging Nuclear Missiles are discounted, Russia lacks any offensive capability. Russia does not posses the industrial, logistical or economic capacity to wage conventional war against a modern properly supplied industrial enemy.
Putin is in a difficult position. The Russia he inherited from Boris Yeltsin was never designed to be broken into the states that constituted the USSR. The Borders of the newly formed Russia were always doomed to become problematic since they were the creation of Stalin and were never intended to become national borders.
It would be political (and possibly actual) suicide for Putin to ignore those Russian minorities left trapped behind the old Soviet borders. Trump understands the pressures on Putin which no US President could remedy, and are really none of his business.
Instead, like Thatcher, he believes the best way of improving US strategy is a policy of subtle containment, while promoting trade and gaining influence with a man firmly in control of an otherwise potentially chaotic nuclear armed with no one in effective control.
Trump sees government in the terms of a Corporate CEO. He has no ideological-political baggage, no party loyalty, no agenda other than furthering the bast interests of the US.
Trump is attracted to strong national leaders, not because he’s attracted to their idea’s or principles, but because he wants to do business with leaders who have the power to honour and deal made.
He really doesn’t care what a bunch of effete European leaders think about him or America. His attitude is they need the US, the US doesn’t really need them ! That’s reality ! Trump believes the US has over decades put up with endless criticism and condescension from Eurocentrics, while the US picked up the bills.
Trump is not a spin doctored, professional politician, politically correct, hypocritical, belonging to the US intellectual elite groomed, terrified of gaining media disapproval.
Instead, he’s a loud, brash, rude, cunning, amazingly candid, “in your face” sort of President. Trump is very American. Maybe not your sort of American, Craig, more like an Andrew Jackson or Teddy Roosevelt.
When the media found Trump had exposed the fact the media could no longer dominate US politics, the Liberal media’s rage surpassed all measure and even sanity ! The media lost all credibility by throwing a sustained hysterical tantrum against Trump and his administration.
It was always obvious publications such as the New Yorker to be appalled, but the NYT, LA tribune, even the Washington Post have completely lost all sense of integrity.
The major TV networks are equally rabid in their bias, but the President just doesn’t care. He pursues his own policies and instincts which so far have proved successful (even more maddening for his opponents).
There is just a chance President Trump really does know what he’s doing and his assessment of the previous 24 years and policies of the previous 3 three US Presidents as being responsible for creating decay, disillusionment and a decline in US power and economic wealth, may be absolutely correct.
Trump isn’t interested in gaining the praise of a politically correct elite by making impotent symbolic but ultimately ineffective grand gestures, he’s solely motivated by getting the best deal for the US, by any means necessary.
Continuously yelling meaningless abuse, calling him a sociopath, reviling his family with profanities, even calling for him and his family’s assassination (as one Democrat State Senator screeched) only enhances his popularity.
Take the churlish reporting of the President’s self-effacing joke about never admitting himself to be wrong. The spite and bitterness of the leftist media, never realized the subtly of the Presidents jest, which was on two levels, the more subtle level was designed to trap the press.
Hatred and bias, destroy good reporting. It doesn’t matter if it’s Fox , CNN or the New York Times. Reporters should report the facts as objectively as possible, or they become mere propagandists.