We, in common with a great many traditional American citizens, have been alarmed concerning the current threat to our Democratic Republic posed by the autocratic policies of Donald Trump and his cavalcade of cultish sycophants. It would seem superfluous to reiterate the previously noted myriad of fascist policies and executive orders promulgated by this declared, “would-be” dictator.
In earlier writings, we have expressed our view that the Nation will, ultimately, recover from this present nightmare, as it has at other times of National stress, and return to its uniquely humanistic democratic policy.
Further contemplation has led us to another (non-historically based) foundational basis for such optimism, notably possessing metaphysical and sociological resonance, and significantly furnishing an additional sense of positive expectation.
Trump has presented the American citizen with an unfamiliar and unorthodox pattern of executive policies and unfamiliar expectations, contrary to the experiencial understanding, of his citizenship experience accumulated over the one-and-a-half centuries of the universal and expected American way of life; singularly featuring liberty, legal equality, and, notably, limitations on governmental authority as provided in the Constitution’s “Bill of Rights.”
Donald Trump’s famous (and infamous) public declaration of intention to be a dictator, communicated from his singularly egoistic and impenetrable bubble, reductively and thoughtlessly omitted to consider America’s historical record of democracy, freedom of expression, and opportunity; a reductive assumption, consistent with his characteristic denial of empirical reality.
From the limited view of his impenetrable, bubble, Trump looks eastward at the oligarchic government of his bromantic friend, Putin, and other like autocratic polities existing in China, North Korea, Hungary, and Saudi Arabia, and longs to enjoy their status as “Supreme Leader” of a downtrodden and doggedly obedient population. Donald Trump wants power, unlimited by the Constitution or the rule of law, and religious-style admiration from blindly “loyal subjects.” He, like other tyrannical leaders, wants full military parades, large pictures of himself at prominent venues, and unlimited monarchial wealth, albeit simultaneously with the denial of the basic needs for life and health of the ordinary citizen. He has taken executive action to eliminate scientific research and humanitarian assistance, to intimidate Universities and other institutions of learning, to assure himself of a more docile and compliant population, and has surrounded himself with a veritable menagerie of loyal incompetents to serve his needs in the running of the country. When added to the striking plethora of impropriety and criminal behavior, as mentioned in earlier writings, the mainstream American citizen has sufficient cause to be concerned. Moreover, legal action to date has not been sufficiently effective.
Nevertheless, we are fully confident that, from a metaphysical perspective, the American way of life will doubtlessly prevail over the potential unfamiliar and constricted future of hapless fascist worship accompanying an autocratic despot. It is our pragmatic expectation that the history and expectations of the salutory franchise of personal agency, a cultural concomitant of the American democratic lifestyle, will doubtlessly prevail; no diner will choose a limited menu of watery soup and stale bread when he has had a prior lifetime of more acceptable and savory menu choices.
-p.
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