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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region Forums"How I learned to relax and love Donald Trump" - not what you might think
Posted: June 23, 2020 - 10:14 AM
Curtis Milam, For The Inquirer
I am the son of an Air Force brigadier general and served myself to the rank of colonel. Of my 57 years drawing breath, Ive spent 51 of them directly or indirectly serving this once great nation. So, as you might imagine, I found myself on Nov. 8, 2016, more than a little dismayed at the news we had elevated Donald J. Trump to the nations highest office a man so clearly unfit to lead America.
But over time Ive come to appreciate Trump in ways I did not expect. Now, I am thankful that we elected Trump. Because Donald Trump is exactly what America needed. Trump is a mirror, a warning, and ultimately a catalyst for change. Reflected in Trump is all that is wrong with the United States: the injustice of our broken social contract, the crassness of our politics, and the cruelty of our economy. Trump is also the shock that a mature democracy needs for action. To use a timely metaphor, Trump and his supporters are a virus, and they have activated our democratic antibodies. What we are seeing in the streets is the body fighting the infection.
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Beginning with Newt Gingrich in 1994, Republicans stopped trying to govern and instead began accumulating power. McKay Coppins writes in his profile of Gingrich in the Atlantic, few figures in modern history have done more than Gingrich to lay the groundwork for Trumps rise. Effective governance requires compromise, trust, and mutual respect. Gingrichs new version of Republican had no interest in that. He destroyed the bipartisan structures for governing and even resorted to name-calling and conspiracy theories over the line at the time, but in hindsight presaging Trumpism.
A straight line can be drawn from Gingrichs Contract with America to the tea party in 2009. Another outsider movement characterized by distrust of government, expertise, and experience, the tea party helped elect a rogues gallery of loathsome lawmakers Im looking at you, Rand Paul (Ky.) and Ted Cruz (Texas). Trumps dystopian vision of America is the ultimate flowering of the outsider, populist, anti-government thinking that has metastasized in the Republican Party over the past decades.
More: https://www.inquirer.com/opinion/commentary/donald-trump-revolution-uprising-election-2020-20200623.html
CrispyQ
(36,567 posts)BComplex
(8,092 posts)May he get covid.
OMGWTF
(3,993 posts)Nevilledog
(51,299 posts)erronis
(15,470 posts)the groundwork was laid well before, after the New Deal started to give most people hope.
agingdem
(7,875 posts)Father Coughlin, Henry Ford, Joseph McCarthy....this fomenting hate for "the other" started a very long time ago...Gingrich brought hate out of the shadows and Trump legitimized it and moved it into the White House...
BComplex
(8,092 posts)But back then it really was a minority of the republican party....or the nazi party, which was always part of the conservative movement.
deurbano
(2,896 posts)the extremism 24/7.
Mr.Bill
(24,372 posts)when he was Governor of California. Some of his speeches bordered on horrific. He was an absolute monster. As President he was way toned down.
agingdem
(7,875 posts)Last edited Sun Jul 5, 2020, 09:01 PM - Edit history (1)
I also agree Gingrich was the "author" of Republican non-governance and he put it in a written manifesto The Contract with America... overt racism, ethnic hate, tax cuts, control the courts, isolationism, limit women's reproductive rights, stymie dissent...it's all about control and never-ending power ..Mitch and his minions in the house and senate are the living embodiment of that...
ProfessorGAC
(65,427 posts)napi21
(45,806 posts)as a Country, wouldn't have recognized all the things that have been wrong with America are recognized by most people & steps are being taken to remedy those wrongs. I'd have been elected, we'd still be hearing about her damn emails & all the Pubs would be blaming HER for Coved19 & we'd likely get another Pub President in 2021!
csziggy
(34,140 posts)Bernardo de La Paz
(49,075 posts)Chalco
(1,312 posts)sprinkleeninow
(20,270 posts)true?
Martin Eden
(12,887 posts)Only if we help to make that happen, then work hard to build an America which fulfills its promise to all its inhabitants.
Baked Potato
(7,733 posts)He is destructive to both parties, but I think he is doing way more damage politically to Republicans than Democrats.
SammyWinstonJack
(44,130 posts)mountain grammy
(26,676 posts)EarnestPutz
(2,124 posts)....check. The black lives matter movement talks about a tide change in America. I hope the man is right and Trump is the catalyst for much needed change.
Martin Eden
(12,887 posts)If so, we nevertheless have much damage to repair.
burrowowl
(17,656 posts)raccoon
(31,135 posts)WestCoastYellowDog
(55 posts)We are seeing firsthand what every man for him or her self is getting us.
MiniMe
(21,724 posts)Blue Owl
(50,588 posts)CatLady78
(1,041 posts)FakeNoose
(32,917 posts)Well done
Still all in all, I'd rather have had Hillary Clinton as our President. We would have been way better off at this point. Even the Repukes, because she would have been the leader for everyone, not just her own "base."