A Mess
There are several definitions for the word, blivet – but the one I grew up with was simple: ten pounds of shit in a five-pound bag. The vision is clear – and it is descriptive of the Trump Administration’s actions in the past three and a half years.
President Trump is quick to say that he has accomplished more in his term of office than any other President in history. In one way, he’s absolutely right. There have been so many outrages, so many illegalities, and so many of the norms of American government shattered, that it’s hard to remember them all. It has truly been a blivet – and one that has been overwhelming for the American people.
Dictators
We are sixty-five days from the most important Presidential election in American history. It isn’t hyperbole to suggest that the future of the American experiment in government may well be at stake in this vote. President Trump demonstrates time and time again that he is attracted to the powers of despotism. Look at his love for Putin, Bolsonaro, Erdogan and Kim. And Trump has surrounded himself with men who drink from the some autocratic cup. In Trump’s own cabinet, Attorney General Bill Barr is the critical lynchpin in this alteration of American norms.
As we approach the election, it is important to remember what Donald Trump and his henchmen have brought to the American story since the election of 2016. There’s so much, it’s easy to overlook what happened six months ago (impeachment) much less three years ago (fine people, on both sides). So let’s review.
Foreign Help
Even during the election campaign of 2016, Donald Trump was accepting political aid from a foreign power, Russia. The Republican controlled Senate Intelligence committee confirmed that “old” story once again last week. The Senate report underlined what the Mueller Report portrayed, despite its obscurity, in 448 pages. The Russians were helping Trump; the campaign welcomed the help, members of the campaign worked with Russians to coordinate, and all worked to hide their own involvement. But Roger Stone’s sentence was commuted, Michael Flynn’s case dismissed, and “poor, sad” Paul Manafort is serving his sentence from the comfort of his home and hearth.
President Trump has done nothing to disavow Russian aid, and nothing to discourage their help now in 2020. And the Mueller Report did nothing to stop him from soliciting more help from foreign nations. The facts of his extorting Ukraine are clear, with only the lack of Senate Republican courage allowing him to stay in office. Who knows what other nation he’s pressing for political aid today.
Lies
Then there are the lies – the Washington Post lists more than 20,000 of them in the 1267 days that Trump has been in office. He has lied so much that it’s hard to find the truth. His lies are so profuse that we have stopped calling them lies. They are now, as aide Kellyann Conway stated to the public “alternative facts”. She did it right after mentioning the mythical “Bowling Green Massacre”.
In a single speech, the one accepting the 2020 Republican nomination, done in Mussolini-style from the balcony of the White House, he lied at least twenty-five times. He’s lied so much, that it’s become normal. He’s lied so much, that we’ve come to expect all of our government officials to lie. When Postmaster General DeJoy testified to Congress that he did not restrict overtime hours for the Postal Service, even when there was a written documentation to the contrary, no one called out his perjury. He was just following his leader.
Trump has lied so much that even his supporters recognize him as a liar. They simply say, “that all politicians lie”. That rationalization allows them to reject any truth that is brought up. They say that if it’s against what Trump said, it’s a lie. The truth is obscured for all.
Immigrants
Donald Trump has altered the promise of our nation of immigrants, America: “Give my your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free…” He has put up an old historic shingle, “Whites Only”. How white? How about getting immigrants from Norway: that’s what he said. He started with the “Muslim Ban”, quickly declared unconstitutional by the Supreme Court. It continued with “shithole” countries, and on into the “family separation” plan, where American’s used children, even babies, to try to deter folks from immigrating to our borders. (If you need a better reminder of what happened, check out Jacob Soboroff’s new book, Separated).
He agreed to take children away from their parents. He did so by making a “ticket” worthy civil offense, crossing the US Border without permission, into a crime. Then he could call the migrants criminals, and take their children away from them, thousands to vanish into a maze of bureaucratic regulation. Bad enough some were put in cages that looked like large dog kennels. But worse, some were so lost that they couldn’t reconnect with their parents, even when a Federal Court ordered them to be, even when their parents were freed, and even when the parents were sent back to their original countries.
White Supremacist
And while we are talking segregation: don’t forget Charlottesville, when white supremacists marched to save the statue of Robert E. Lee. Torchlight parades were intentionally reminiscent of the Hitler Youth, chanting, “Jews will not replace us”. And when counter-protestors clashed with them, and one racist from Ohio drove his car into a crowd, all the President could muster was, “there were good people, on both sides”.
He has doubled down on that stand since then. From protecting Confederate statues to disrespecting Black athletes, the President has consistently taken the stand to favor those who believe in white supremacy. Is he a racist himself? It’s more likely that he knows that those racists vote for him, and he doesn’t want to lose their votes. He’s got the same attitude towards the Q-Anon conspirators, who he blatantly signals in his speeches. Maya Angelou said, “If someone shows you who they are, believe them the first time”. The President has shown us who he is, over and over again.
But Mr. Trump said that Black unemployment is the best it has ever been. And that was true, before his incompetence in the face of a pandemic flattened the economy. Now, Black unemployment is over 15%. National unemployment is over 10%. While we can argue how much credit he should get for the “booming numbers” of 2018-19, we can be sure that he’s earned total credit for the handling of the national pandemic. Our nation is in a self-made crisis, one that the President himself allowed to happen.
The Nation
He has ignored the Courts. He has disrespected the Constitution. Our government has spent millions on golf trips and at Trump hotels, as he enriches himself and family at the government trough. And he would have left many Americans without health care, vulnerable to extreme costs for pre-existing conditions, but for one of the final acts of an American patriot, John McCain. And for that, the President disrespected that hero, even in death. Today, he is lying to us about his so-called health plan. It was two months ago, then two weeks ago, that he was going to reveal to us his alternative to the Affordable Care Act. But it’s not been shown yet.
John McCain showed us political decency. As the Republican Presidential candidate of 2008, McCain took the microphone away from a questioner who claimed Barack Obama was an Arab. He told her what was up until them an American axiom: that both candidates for President were patriots, but had differing views on how to better the nation. But Donald Trump doesn’t see that in himself, and so could never see patriotism in an opponent. He can only win through division, so he divides our nation into segments to be pitted against each other.
Decency
Trump claims Biden is a dupe for socialist/communists. He claims Biden is demented. And he uses old racist tropes of the 1960’s to try to strike fear in the “suburban housewives” he so desperately wants to vote for him. “Black Lives Matter and Antifa” will be at your doors, as Joe Biden destroys the suburbs. It is nonsense on so many levels. How disrespectful towards our citizens to think they would fall for such appalling lies. Sadly, in our age of “bubbles” of information, some will.
When you have a blivet, you’ve got a mess, five pounds of shit surrounding five pounds in the bag. All you can do is get a shovel and throw it all away. Sounds like a good place to start on November 3rd.
