I have been frozen in my thoughts, words, and actions for what seems like eons, but is actually just over a week. The monstrous cabinet of the new President of the United States seemed like the biggest threat to progress, but it was the least of what should have concerned me. I never realized that 'Executive Orders' and 'Memos' could literally bring a thriving Democracy to the teetering edge of collapse in a matter of a week. I was ignorant, lulled by years of shadow actions hidden from view, pretty words for the public, reassurances of business as usual, and relatively kind if largely inept politicians.
I always assumed that the big decisions of Governments, done in 'peacetime', or what we have been told is peacetime while more than half a dozen wars involving Allied Forces rage around the world, are slow moving and involve constitutional lawyers, teams of people that plan implementation of such new legislation, after passing both the house and senate. I guess I didn't understand, I was ignorant, and I fear my own lack of knowledge about the machinations of American Politics. Quite simply, I was wrong.
I heard Trump rant on about his bigotry, his proposed Muslim ban, his cruel and erroneous characterizations of Mexicans and Latinos, his ancient and rigid descriptions of the Black Community and inner-city ghettos and crime, and his mocking of those with less affluence or different physicality. I was always struck by the sheer inanity of his words, hoping against hope that not one voter would embrace his message. Yet, I always knew there were those who did. What I did not count on was how many supporters, enablers, and defenders he had. I assumed that bigotry could not be legislated in a country that embraces it's Constitution, that even a party that has refused to separate church and state would have an ounce of Christian good will and kindness. I have never been so wrong, and that is a shocking awakening to meet at my age, I assure you.
His election was sobering, his inauguration a funeral for progress, but I thought that it would take time for someone as inept and unaccustomed to the working of government to actually get any traction, get his wrecking-crew cabinet approved, and manage to do any serious work. I was right about many of those assumptions, but what I did not imagine is the sheer power of the office of the presidency being used as a bully pulpit to push through an agenda of almost entirely unconstitutional orders. So much has happened so fast, I can hardly remember each order amidst the whiplash of photo-ops and media spin.
And I keep asking, how this has happened? Why now? What has made this entire debacle possible? Then my sister shared an amazing short video clip from BBC Newsnight, and it all suddenly coalesced into this awful cold and empty feeling in my gut. The writing has been on the wall since it was possible to capture political thought, and as someone who did not study political science in my wide yet relatively focused years upon years of post-secondary education, I now want to know it all, to know more, I want to understand.
Please do watch this short clip about what Plato can teach us about Donald Trump. If it doesn't hit you directly in the gut, then perhaps you are one of the few that has the knowledge I so desperately seek. I am not sure if I envy you, or if I am all the more saddened by those voices who tried to speak out, or could have, but were not heard or listened to, now to our mutual peril.
