GOP will own Trump legacy, but we will pay his debts
I have to wonder how many Americans are prepared to acknowledge what has become so blatantly obvious. Trump acts like a tough guy because he is not. He overstates his intelligence because he is utterly average. He exaggerates the historical significance of his Electoral College victory, fabricates delusional excuses for losing the popular vote, and keeps trying to drag us into wild conspiracy theories as a distraction from his increasingly glaring administrative impotence and suspicious dealings with Russian oligarchs. I have to wonder ... will the pandering salve he provides to a certain sect of our society really feel worth it to them.
What a fitting swan song for post-modern conservatism. We have a Republican president who is hardly conservative yet awkwardly embraced (with a wince) by the GOP because his zeal for purging Muslims managed to unleash a near barbaric political feeding frenzy among their white evangelical base. (Enter political theater stage door right — token social conservative Mike Pence.) We have a balance of power in Congress that does not represent the majority of the populace it governs, but rather a gerrymandered congressional map intended to give outsized influence to votes coming out of conservative districts. We have a return to failed trickle-down economics already creating market bubbles that can only burst and erase the hard earned gains made over the last eight years. In the light of day, we have fringe bigots coming out of the shadows with or without guns to demand Near East immigrants go back to where they came from — a bit of a mixed message in the cases where immigrants were shot while being told to go away.
It’s Trump’s party now, and that is a bell that can never be un-rung. The GOP will own Trump’s legacy long after he vacates the oval office. They will own Trump, but the economic, social, and cultural debts he leaves in his wake will bear down on all of our shoulders. I wonder who his supporters will choose to blame.
—Todd W. Cardin
Kalispell