You have to wonder what is going on with the United States. I know that Europeans and friends in the Americas do, if the few I correspond with are any indication. They think Trump is nuts. I keep wondering, too, what my Trump friends are thinking; I shudder to think that they might still support the president.<\/p>\n
Most Americans, I believe, decry the ubiquity of Trump and the Trump-related turmoil that increasingly defines life in the United States today, all brought about by one man and a small group of lieutenants enabled by a supine Congress dominated by partisan suck-ups. The cacophony of contemporary politics has turned off much of the public in both parties, the most common refrain being that people have stopped watching the news or reading about current events. I frequently hear friends say \u201cI just can\u2019t watch the news anymore.\u201d<\/p>\n
And the truth is that we pay a terrible price for this as do our allies in Europe and elsewhere. Very little is getting done as the president dashes from one issue to another sowing discontent without resolution. His ubiquitous attention to a myriad of American institutions, including the judiciary, prominent law firms, universities, print and television media, the military, culture, churches, law enforcement, family and social values, immigration and border issues, sports, and \u201cAmerican\u201d racial and ethnic \u201cpurity\u201d all point to a concerted effort to create an authoritarian state that embodies Trump\u2019s Mein Kampf.<\/em><\/p>\n Also disheartening is Trump\u2019s preoccupation with foreign policy during his second term. He continues to insult Canada and Mexico and threaten other Latin American countries after his successful sortie into Venezuela to capture Maduro. Most recently, he has given an ultimatum to Greenland that he plans to acquire it \u201cthe easy way\u201d or the \u201chard way\u201d while slapping European allies who oppose his action with punitive tariffs. He has also taken on Iran and Gaza with limited success, which could erupt into major catastrophes. That he is acting foolishly and arrogantly does not register with him or his advisors, and he doesn\u2019t seem to care that he is endangering NATO, the single most effective security treaty since World War II.<\/p>\n This is \u201cthe state of the union\u201d as Washington burns with Trump playing Nero. As I write this, citizens in Minneapolis are under siege by ICE. Further emblematic is that the Ukraine crisis continues unresolved along with the many issues facing the United States from the economy to imminent issues such as health care. For Trump, it\u2019s on to the next headline issue now and possibly the next three years.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" You have to wonder what is going on with the United States. I know that Europeans and friends in the Americas do, if the few I correspond with are any indication. They think Trump is nuts. I keep wondering, too, what my Trump friends are thinking; I shudder to think that they might still support…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1435","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-by-robert-fischer"],"yoast_head":"\n