TERRY MOSHER
It’s late. Nearly four in the morning and here I am click-clacking away on the computer keyboard wondering how the world got in such a mess. Maybe it’s always been this way and now that I’m old it just seems a little bit mad hatter than usual.
The one big thing that has bugged me to no end is how decent people can wildly cheer when a demagogue like Donald Trump uses profanity to describe an opponent or talks about Mexicans being rapists. And that is just for starters.
What is wrong with us?
I understand Trump is a bully. But the only way to stop a bully is to fight back. Bullies aren’t used to others standing up to them. They shrink when faced with real opposition.
So what are we doing?
Left unchecked, bullies can be dangerous. Extremely dangerous. The more cheers they get the more embolden they get. So how far will we allow the bully Trump to go?
I can’t imagine Trump as president. He has no foreign policy experience. He has ideas – build walls, throw people out of the country, place a tariff on imports, especially those from China, don’t let Muslims in the country (so the Muslims already here better not travel aboard), get rid of universal health care, build up the greatest military in the world and aggressively confront any perceived threat with brutal force.
There won’t be a rule or law that will be safe from his bulling. Aided by a Republican Congress, a Trump presidency will destroy our way of life and likely lead to a great war that would kill millions world-wide.
And, in typical Trump bluster, it will be a great and beautiful war.
I’m genuinely worried about not just our country but the world should he obtain the White House. If you think we have a racial problem in this country now – and we do – wait until Trump unleashes his beliefs behind his bullying tactics. Minorities in this country should beware.
We have had demagogues before. Senator Joseph McCarthy led a communist witch hunt in the early 1950s, attacking the State Department, then President Harry Truman, the Voice of America, politicians, Hollywood, and then if that was not enough he went after the U.S. Army.
His “Red Scare”, which also included going after gays, finally was stopped in December of 1954 when the U.S. Senate censured him. Three years later McCarthy died as a result of what was generally believed to be alcoholism.
The damage done, though, was great.
George Wallace rose to prominence during the height of the African American battle over Civil Rights from the late 1940s into the 1970s. He was a segregationist who ran four times for president
Eventually, later in his life, Wallace came to his senses, but there are plenty of pictures of him still around that show him standing in the doorway of a University of Alabama auditorium in an attempt to stop enrollment of black students at the University. President John Kennedy sent an Army infantry division to Alabama to stop Wallace.
I would think by now we would have come to our senses in this country and stop loving the demagogue. I know that there is anger and fear swirling about our great country and that is a sure recipe for the rise of a person like Trump, who is smart enough and enough of an entertainer, to take advantage of that fear to collect a large following.
To stop Trump somebody on the Republican side needs to go after him. Bully the bully. Until that happens, Trump will continue to rise on the back of the fear that has gripped many in this country.
What I find amusing is that there is a class divide that is getting larger and larger based on income inequality and here we have a guy who has made billions on the backs of illegals and on the arcane bankruptcy laws that have allowed him four times to shred himself of billons of debt for companies he ran. He didn’t get hurt because of the rules that he readily admits he took advantage of. But there are plenty of investors who lost billions because of his decisions.
So now we have people who are angry at this class divide because they have been economically disenfranchised and they are joining him at huge rallies and cheering for him as he attacks others.
So what is wrong with us?
Dawn will soon be upon me and Friday will crash upon me as I try to get rest from all his nonsense going on in the presidential race on both sides – Democrat and Republican.
Try to keep the faith.
Be well pal.
Be careful out there.
Have a great day.
You are loved.