We continue to concentrate on Donald Trump’s ever present character flaws. It makes a fascinating cover. As we engage on his failings, his catastrophic policies march on. We better look underneath the hood because recovery from the Trump policy catastrophe will not be easy.
Cable news and broadcast daily headlines rarely dig deep enough to evaluate the Trump’s policy disaster so you must. Robert Reich captured that reality in a recent blog post where he points out the following.
Trump is neglecting or worsening five genuinely big problems facing America:
1. Climate change, as exemplified by ever larger and more destructive hurricanes and coastal flooding.
Trump’s response? Taking the United States out of the Paris Accord, reversing every major initiative at the Environmental Protection Agency, and filling his administration with climate-change deniers.
2. The undermining of our democracy through voter suppression, gerrymandering, and interference in our elections by foreign governments.
What’s Trump’s response to this? Alleging, with zero evidence, that three to five million fraudulent votes were cast in the 2016 election. Then setting up a trumped-up commission to find such evidence, in order to justify more voter suppression by states seeking to minimize minority votes.
Meanwhile, Trump is doing everything possible to prevent Americans from knowing more about Russia’s interference in the 2016 election, let alone stop Russia from interfering again.
3. The proliferation of nuclear warheads and missiles around the world, most recently the danger posed by North Korea.
What is Trump doing about this? Trying to get America out of its nuclear deal with Iran, thereby giving Iran and excuse to revive its nuclear program. And rather than engage North Korea or pressure China to do something about Kim Jung-Un – whose nuclear program accelerated after Trump said during his campaign that he might support allowing Japan and South Korea to develop nuclear weapons – Trump and his administration are doing nothing but issuing provocative statements.
4. Widening inequality and a growing population of poor in America.
Trump’s response? Proposing a tax plan that will make the rich even richer. And a budget that cuts low-income housing, job training, food assistance, legal services, help to distressed rural communities, nutrition for new mothers and their infants, funds to keep poor families warm, even “meals on wheels.”
5. Racism, hatefulness, and divisiveness.
What is Trump doing about this? Fueling even more of it – equating white supremacists with those who oppose racism, militarizing the police, and legitimizing discrimination against Muslims, Latinos, and African-Americans.
While two major natural disaster in less than a month have the nation’s attention, it is imperative that as we recover our bearings. During that period Trump has inflicted much damage, from rescinding DACA, to banning transgender people in the military, to weakening sexual violence standards on campus, to supporting businesses to discriminate against gays. How much damage to the American fabric will we allow?
Engage with your Indivisible local groups. Encourage your family, friends, and neighbors to at least stay abreast of our current politics. We need to establish those relationships now so that we are ready to drive these people to the polls in 2018 and vote in their interest.