From his lips gushes bombast and abuse. The adage says "loose lips sink ships." Trump's lips has sunk the Republican Party. The Grand Old Party (GOP) of the great liberator, President Abraham Lincoln. At the age of 16, I travelled to Lincoln. Spiritually from my Egyptian village, Kanayat, Province of Sharqiah.
That was through trudging in 1944 for 3 miles to the provincial capital, Zagazig. Headed to the public library to read in English a thin book on Lincoln. Captivated by that bearded and humble man who managed to free the slaves in America, through a bloody victory of the North over the South. Then assassinated in 1865.
So with his party today. Where his assassination is repeated, but this time on his party, the party of Lincoln. By a buffoon called Donald Trump. Whose fascism is worn on his sleeves. Through:
- calling for the building of a wall between the U.S. and Mexico;
- ridiculing blacks, women, and minorities;
- calling for a ban on Muslims from entering the US, even if they were returning citizens;
- using his book The Art of the Deal, the way Hitler had used Mein Kampf;
- accepting, through avoiding clear disavowal, the endorsement of David Duke, the former head of the Klu Klux Klan;
- calling for bombing the families of suspected terrorists to avenge terrorist attacks;
- praising Mussolini as an effective leader; and
- calling Obama an American hater, an alien born outside the U.S., and a non-Christian/a closet Muslim.
Through content analysis, one finds in Trump the making of a dictator, an anti-Republican quasi conservative. And a man who has succeeded in turning his own party against him. Here are samples of his bombast reflective of his sense of vaunted superiority.
- About Hillary Clinton, the prospective Democratic nominee for president: "She's been there (in Washington) for so long. If she hasn't straightened it by now, she's not going to straighten it out in the next four years."
- "Mexico is sending to America its criminals and rapists across the borders;"
- He wants to torture people accused of terrorism;
- Former Senator Norman Coleman of Minnesota declared: "You've got a con man and a bully who is moving forward with great speed to grab the party's mantle to be its standard bearer. That's almost incomprehensible."
A former Republican presidential contender, Mitt Romney of Massachusetts went on the attack. Spear-heading a belated Republican effort, to stop the Trump express. Called Trump "a phony, a fraud, and a con man." Using the street language of which Trump is a master. Romney was on point:
- Trump University is a fake institution. Graded by its student at 98%. But by serious evaluators at D-;
- Trump resorts are claimed by him to be for everyone. But can everyone afford $100,000 in annual membership dues?;
- Trump's foreign policy is summed up by him in one phrase: "military might so great that no one would dare mess with us." Asked about who advises him on foreign policy, his answer was evasive. Ended up by saying: "It is I who shall decide;"
- He was pressed on dealing with foreign leaders if he became president. His response boiled down to the limited language of the real estate broker that he is. "I deal with all kinds of people. Nobody can close deals like Donald J. Trump."
- Yet he is oblivious of central facts. Dealing with foreign leaders requires circumspection, in-depth knowledge of the issues on the table, and versatility in the art of compromise. Of all this, the fascist Donald is innocent. Especially in connection with expertise in the art of getting to "Yes." An admission unknowingly made by his protruding lips: "I do not settle;"
Thus on establishing peace between the Arabs and the Israelis, he looks at it through only one prism: that of Mr. Netanyahu. Largely due to the clear fact that Trump has no expertise in foreign policy. About it, he is not a learner, let alone a practitioner. Never mind that Trump had made a sizable segment of his fortune in the Gulf.
Trump's barrage of attacking the problem of America's trade deficit and/or imbalance denies Japan, China, India, and even Mexico their sovereign right. The right to put national interest above other considerations, except whatever is required by the rules of free trade.
The Trump bogus claim that the entire world, except the U.S., has leaders who are smarter than Obama. Racism and chauvinism wrapped in one package. "I shall bring back to America the jobs off-shored back to America!!" A Trump claim which is not backed by "How?"
Calling Trump a fascist is fully vindicated by the very definition of that term. Fascism defines a political philosophy or a movement or a regime that puts race above the individual and that stands for a centralized autocratic government headed by a dictatorial leader. One of its basic characteristics is the forcible suppression of opposition. Trump is all of the above:
- He describes his supporters "a movement;"
- He calls his opponents like Marco Rubio of Florida "little Marco" and "a liar;" Ted Cruz of Texas "a choke artist."
- To him Hillary Clinton might be incarcerated for using a personal server for her emails, some of which "might have been classified while she was Secretary of State;"
- He threatens Paul Ryan, the new Speaker of the House of Representatives, As President, he, Trump shall "make him pay a heavy price" if he stood in the way of his governance. Upon hearing this, the Speaker laughed aloud in his office. And he has reasons for that. Impeachment proceedings against an errant President begin in the House of Representatives.
- The Trump supporters are mainly the enraged lower than middle class. Under-educated ("I love the not-so educated," Trump screams to thunderous applause), angry at the so-called Washington establishment;
- Anger and rage fueled both fascism and Nazism. Another quote from Trump in this year of the angry American voter, aching for the emergence of "a strong leader." He claims: "Our country is being run by incompetent people. And I won't be angry when we fix it. But until we fix it, I'm very very angry."
Coming back to my introducing the theme of "An Impostor in the Village."
- Trump plays on the theme of fear. His call for transformation is nothing less than "TRANSFEARMATION;"
- Conspiracy is his conduit to presidential politics. He speaks, not the language of establishment politics, but the language of the gutter, a proximity link to the "Know Nothing" multitudes. So the theme shifts nearly daily, to whatever the street can absorb. From "Making America Great Again," to placards carried by beautiful young women proclaiming "The Silent Majority Stands With Trump."
- He denies science, climate change. Even claims that he knows a 2-year old who immediately developed autism from a vaccination."
- His hatred for Muslims is pervasive. Even publicizing gleefully an Internet false rumor about a U.S. general executing Muslim insurgents with bullets dipped in pigs' blood.
- So was Trump's false assertion that Muslims in New Jersey cheered from rooftops the fall of the World Trade towers
Such is Trump's danger to the security of the U.S. that the stalwarts of his own party, the party of Lincoln now in the process of collapse, are in a stampede to "Stop Trump." The Impostor, in my novel, uses faith for sordid ends. So with Trump. Using democracy for sordid ends.
A showman selling snake oil for healing. A chaotic American Spring is upon us. Results unknown.
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