In Trumpism I Can't See The Face of The United States

The more outrageous Trump becomes, the bigger and louder his rallies become. Like a train hurtling over a weak bridge toward a wreck, with the passengers elated by the inevitable catastrophe. These are largely white men, mostly with no more education than what they got in high school. Dismissive of the rules and values of a constitutional system of 240 years on which they have turned their backs as "politics as usual."

Donald has tapped into this lode of rage against globalization, immigration, foreign alliances, freedom of trade, foreign sovereign immunities, and international organizations. The internal governance system, he claims, is rigged. So are the media, the political parties, the judiciary, the Obama presidency. And even the microphones through which he extols the dark face of the United States. As for the military, Trump says that he, as president, shall select his own generals. The prospect of a private Trump militia.

A thug who proclaims the greatness of Putin as compared to "the worst President in the history of the U.S. - Barack Obama." A con who is suspected of having paid no taxes for nearly two decades (because "I am smart").

A war horse who threatens to wage war on Iran, usurp the right of the Arabs to their oil, spread nuclear weapons world-wide, bomb the families of suspected ISIS terrorists, and condone Russia's territorial grab in the Ukraine and its cyber intervention in the U.S. elections.

What he says today, he denies the following day. His anti-minorities and Islamophobic utterances are depicted by his surrogates (Governor Christie of New Jersey and former New York City Mayor, Rudy Giuliani) as "misunderstood." Why? "He is not a politician!!" So why is he in the game in national politics? "Because he is an agent of change who shall make America Great Again!!" How crazier could this get?

Here follows a horrific panorama of that dark side of America, as could be seen in Trumpism on and off the stage of presidential debates:

• Amid national uncertainty and fear arose Trump. So did Hitler in Germany of the early 1930s. You don't have to take my word for it. Read the book by the latest biographer of Hitler. The historian Volker Ulrich in his amazingly detailed book entitled "Hitler: Ascent, 1889-1939." Ulrich focused on Hitler as a politician who rose to power through demagoguery, showmanship and nativist appeals to the masses. In all of this, Trump is a replica.
• Donald is all about Donald. Not about America. The earth spins on an axis called Trump. One can see that love of self in Trump's performance, a losing one, in his first debate with Hillary Clinton. To hell with politics and the issues, he had insinuated. Described by Frank Bruni of the New York Times of September 28, in these words: "He just pumped air into his hair and more air into his head and sauntered into action as if the sheer, inimitable wonder of his presense would be enough." Thus the Donald interrupted Hillary 51 times in the space of 90 minutes.
• A Republican woman of 51 confessed her dislike for Hillary. But she noted that Trump's answers during that first debate lacked details of substance. "I don't think he has the experience...His behavior is unpresidential, unkind, un-everything." 
• Others who remain sympathetic to Trump attacked his questioning whether Obama was born in America. "The Birther movement." A woman texted her husband that Trump had lost her when he dodged responsibility for stoking the birther movement.
• When it comes to being Commander in Chief, Trump, believing that he could outsmart the whole world, espouses the concept of "strategic ambiguity." Meaning that he never wants to show America's hand to its adversaries. But during his debate with Hillary, that tough looking guy appeared utterly confused. For when asked about "the first strike option," he deflected the moderator's question. "I think that once the nuclear alternative happens, it's over." Yet Trump is not reluctant to build nuclear weapons and have others acquire them.
• Trump keeps on repeating that he was against the war on Iraq. A blatant lie!! Trump is on record as supporting that losing war which has cost trillions of dollars and much blood-letting. Donald has supported that disastrous war in September 2002. That is when Congress was still debating whether to authorize military action. 
• And when Obama failed to get Iraqi approval to keep sizable American forces after 2011, Trump has continued to castigate the President and Hillary for that failure. From there, he stupidly jumps to insanely charging both of being founders of ISIS.
• His racism is like neon signs in Times Square. From the ban on Muslims from coming to the U.S., to his description of Mexicans as rapists and drug dealers, to his denigrating not only Afro-Americans, but also the historic symbol of Afro-American achievement, namely electing Obama not once but twice. 
• While the polls show that Trump is winning virtually no support from Afro-Americans, he full-throatedly propagandizes a proven lie. "You see what's happening with my poll numbers with Afro-Americans. They're going, like, high!!"
• More of the dark side of America is Trump's big lie about the economic and social status of the Afro-Americans who make up 15% of America's demographics. "Our African-American communities are absolutely in the worst shape that they've ever been in before -ever, ever, ever." 
• No quantifiable measurement supports that characterization of black America. But the record shows that Trump and his father had in the 1970's and the 1980's forbidden renting apartments to people of color in Trump buildings in New York City.
• In the State of Pennsylvania, a woman in West Chester voiced an opinion prevalent among women in America whose support for Trump is pivotal for winning the presidency. She said: "I truly want to like him. I keep looking for something in him. But I can't have my children grow up and look at him as someone to respect." She faulted him for refusing to release his taxes, for his shallowness, and his unwillingness to learn from experts. He claims that he knows it all.
• The Trump Foundation has been ordered by the New York State Attorney to "cease and desist" from raising money in the State; the Trump University has been found to be a big fraud; and the money claimed to have been raised by Trump for American veterans seems to have been a pie in the sky.
• Is it any wonder that the Wall Street Journal has recently reported that not one chief executive among the "Fortune 100" has donated money to Trump's campaign? Many companies won't do business with him either. This robs Donald of his claim that his alleged success in business, in spite of three bankruptcies, qualifies him to lead America into a new gilded age.
• Commented the New York Times of September 27 on Trump's performance in the first presidential debate watched by nearly 100 million Americans: "It's absurd that the fate of the race, and the future of the nation, might carom this way or that based on a 90-minute television ritual so dominated by fear and falsehood." 
• This evaluation came after that paper's editorial lamented: "There was a fundamental emptiness to the ritual (the debate), because of the awful truth that one participant (Trump) had nothing truthful to offer." 
• His anti-feminism has become the talk of America on the eve of the second Clinton vs. Trump debate. A tape has been discovered demonstrating his infidelity to Melania, his present wife (and third spouse). The tape heard over and over again on public media as of October 6 had Trump describe his sexual advances towards a married woman. Including "You can do anything to women when you are famous." Causing a Republican Senator to describe that presidential candidate "a malignant clown."

The tragedy of a possible Trump presidency lies in denying the healing power of compromise. In any system of governance, the settlement of disputes by mutual concession is a powerful elixir. It is the very opposite of the adversarial system of producing winners and losers. Half of the loaf is better than none. Trumpism is so polarizing that it looks as the very face of paralysis.

When you add the compromise deficiency element in Trumpism, to the damage already inflicted on the trust in the system of governance, you will find an America which is hardly recognizable as a robust democracy. For the U.S. Constitution itself has been the product of compromises. Thus enshrined as a resilient document of 240 years!!

In this age of rage, the most outrageous prospect is to imagine that megalomaniac, Donald J. Trump standing on January 20, 2017, taking the oath of the office as the 45th President of the U.S.

"I Donald J. Trump, do so solemnly swear... that I will faithfully execute the Office of President of the United States, and will do to the best of my ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States."

May we never hear the air waves carry these words stipulated by the U.S. Constitution.

An oath is a formal calling upon God to witness to the truth of what one says or to witness that one sincerely intends to do what one says.

For how can Trump, if elected, take that oath? Throughout his entire life of 70 years, he has not kept any promise, or stayed the course of what he promised to do.

His own cult of personality makes him think that when he builds a tower, he is building a bridge. Reason why I can't see in Trumpism the face of the United States which proclaims "In God we Trust." Fortunately for America, and the world, Trump is not a God.