Michael Stafford, a Duke University graduate, and former Republican officer wrote a striking op-ed that lays out what America is in for effective January 20th, 2017. I have watched over the years as this young Republican drew disenchanted with his party, a party with a history very few recognize any longer.
By the third paragraph, Stafford made it clear that Trump will lead the pilfer and corporate takeover of the United States. Worse, his administrations will decimate the poor and the middle-class.
Under Trump, the looting and despoliation of our country by the powerful and the privileged will only intensify. Far from draining the proverbial swamp, Trump’s regime will exacerbate the, to quote Noam Chomsky, “massive ascendancy of corporate power over [the] democratic process,” and the weakening of democratic institutions and norms. It will be characterized by cronyism and corruption, with both public policy and the presidential bully pulpit being manipulated to leverage personal gains and to confer rewards on the obsequious toadies that surround him. Indeed, he has already gathered around him a cabinet consisting of wealthy jackals- a veritable bandit clique of the very sort have who driven our nation to the precipice. Even worse, Congressional Republicans are poised to seize their moment of ascendency to pursue a sinister policy agenda that will cruelly punish the poor, immiserate the working and middle classes, exacerbate inequality, and thereby further stoke the divisive fires of resentment that are already threatening to burn our nation to the ground.
Stafford closes with two relevant paragraphs. The first, an urging that we keep sounding the alarm. And the latter that we discuss the potential apocalypse to ensure it is deferred.
The language of apocalyptic is the only vocabulary suitable to the dangers confronting us. An alarm must be sounded. Trump isn’t normal. His regime will not be business as usual. His rise represents a rupture with our political tradition. His lawless and ignorant nature, including his apparent propensity to credit conspiracy theories and his proclivity towards “authoritarian tendencies,” put the very future of our nation in jeopardy.
We face the secular political equivalent of Jean-Pierre Dupuy’s “Jonah Paradox.” We must “foretell an impending catastrophe” in order to have any hope of avoiding it. Put another way, an apocalypse discussed is an apocalypse deferred. Such enlightened doomsaying will be urgently needed in the days of The Donald if we are to avoid a bad and ignominious end.
I’ve watched as my friend made the painful decision to leave his party. I would hope that Republicans reading and watching many leave their party, make the effort to take it back from the extremists. Just maybe as Trump’s proclivities for illegalities and prostituting the country takes hold, many will use it as a catalyst after his impeachment (one can hope). We need more pieces like this written from politically Liberals, Conservatives, or agnostic writers continuously and everywhere else.
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