Choose a word!
by Rob Howard
Political Columnist
Incompetent. Arrogant. Strong. Idiot. Egotistical. Ignorant. Great. Racist. A------. Narcissistic. Those are the top ten words used to describe Donald Trump, according to an ABC/Washington Post poll.
I’ll disregard “strong” and “great” although I know there is a minority of Americans who probably still admire the president they elected.
Since getting rid of a host of people, including his two closest sycophants who were at least sometimes successful in heading off his worst instincts, as well as his secretary of state and his national security advisor, I have also heard “unhinged.”
It appears at the time I write this that he is simply ignoring his advisors, including Chief of Staff John Kelly. (By the time you read this, Kelly may be ousted too; such is the speed with which bad things happen in Trumpworld.)
During the campaign, he praised his managerial and negotiating skills. From the first days after the election, he proved he is a terrible manager, a miserable judge of people and not a negotiator at all. A great negotiator would not double down every time someone accuses him of doing something wrong.
One outstanding example is applying high tariffs to $50 billion of Chinese imports. When the Chinese matched that, he doubled it to $100 billion, an action that will cost thousands of farmers to lose tons of money and workers to lose their jobs.
In fact, the tariffs have raised the cost of newsprint, therefore raising the cost to print The Gayly and other newspapers across the country.
Another word used a lot on the networks about Trump is the word “liar.” Not particularly surprising since the man can barely open his mouth without lying. One segment I saw on the news had commentators deconstructing one of his tweets. Every sentence in the outburst was a lie, and the news people backed their charge with facts.
I would have added the word “corrupt” to the list since it is becoming more obvious by the day the thieves Trump appointed to Cabinet positions know no shame in the looting of the public treasury. Air travel seems to be one of the primary measures, with former HHS Secretary Tom Price and EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt as the prime examples.
Out of all these words, I like “unhinged” the best. (A**hole is my second favorite.) Although he is all of those negative things people call him and none of the positive ones, his behavior in office has been outrageous. Since he is free, at least in his mind, from listening to aides, he has only gotten worse.
I spend every day wondering what he will do next. I am convinced his dual intent is to first, enrich himself at every opportunity and second to destroy the democratic government of our country.
He’s certainly not alone in this. The Republican majority in Congress doesn’t understand one of the rules of politics: If the president or a fellow politician is doing weird, crazy, bad things and you choose to ignore it, you are complicit in that behavior.
In the age of Nixon, Republicans – even though in the minority – were participants in investigating and ultimately helped in his downfall. In little more than a year, Donald Trump is far past Nixon in the corruption and malfeasance in office. And the majority of Republicans remain silent.
Congress could impeach him. Vice President Mike Pence could work with the Cabinet to invoke the 25th Amendment and oust him from office. But they don’t have the balls to do it.
These factors leave the voters to fix this mess. We can take back the Congress in November’s election and corral this corrupt, incompetent, unhinged lunatic. He needs to go!
Resist!
Copyright The Gayly – May 20, 2018 @ 1:15 p.m. CDT.