I have to admit that I am getting worn down by the ceaseless coverage of Donald Trump’s presidency — a diurnal deluge from almost all media outlets.
Yes, I understand that the country has never had such a uniquely unqualified person as president, and that he does or says something outrageous nearly every day to attract attention. But it’s like binge watching The Apprentice; by season two it’s lost its appeal.
I don’t look forward to the next zany episode. I just want to switch channels — or hope the show gets canceled. There is no longer any entertainment value in watching an audience of Trump’s ideologically inbred base crazily cheering his every verbal flatulence and jeering whenever the news media put a match to it.
Trump, with the aid of the anachronistic Electoral College, is the appalling result of the idiotic ideological and culture war that has divided a substantial number of Americans into two feces-flinging tribes; the loony left stupidly devoted to imposing ideas of political correctness and the goony right just as stupidly devoted to imposing ideas of patriotic correctness.
The Constitution should protect citizens from the impositions of either brand of stupidity, but politics are so partisan now that constitutional separation of powers among the three branches of government are strained.
A succession of craven Congresses has abrogated ever more power to the executive branch, leaving the judicial branch more critical than ever in protecting the Constitution, especially separation of powers and civil rights.
The nation is so reliant on the decisions of nine U.S. Supreme Court justices, and partisan politics have become so thick, that the selection of a Supreme Court nominee now becomes a prime-time event, replete with special guests, speeches, and pre and post event analysis.
It’s like when LeBron James had a prime-time TV show to reveal which NBA team he selected to join.
“And the Supreme Court justice nominee is?” (pregnant pause) — “Brett Kavanaugh!” The exuberant ideological warriors on the right break out in a happy dance, while the apoplectic left, virtually impotent in Congress, can only shake its fists and make empty threats.
Kavanaugh, a darling of conservatives, is an avowed constitutional purist who promises that he is a judge who does not make law, he only interprets it.
That should not impress or comfort any reasonably astute person. Individual judges interpret the Constitution with the same tainted impartiality that individual priests interpret the Bible. Interpretations vary with the interpreter and once pronounced have pervasive effects on people.
The Supreme Court is nine individuals who unless at least five are extraordinarily objective with the dispassionate logic of a Vulcan cannot always be counted on to dispense rational impartial rulings.
Ultimately, the maintenance of our founding principles of freedom, civil rights and reasonably restrained government is the responsibility of the citizenry. That responsibility requires enough independent thinking to set aside irrational bias and accept facts. It requires enough effort to stay sagely informed. And, it requires enough love of country to include the welfare of all its citizens.
You don’t have to be that informed to see that Trump, the maven of mendacity, the gormless guru of grump, is being allowed to mislead this nation into compound disasters.
An economic trade policy right out of the last century threatens a wide swath of the U.S. economy and the purchasing power of ordinary Americans. A tax cut that will hasten national bankruptcy and threatens shredding the social safety net — including Social Security and Medicare.
An incoherent foreign policy that alienates old, steadfast allies, while it cozies up to autocrats and coddles avowed enemies. A vengeful fixation with erasing the legacy of his predecessor no matter how much it harms ordinary people, the environment and public safety.
We have a president who leverages his office to increase his business profits and who stocks his administration with profligate parasites gorging on taxpayer money. A man who viciously attacks and seeks to undermine the free press, the national intelligence agencies and anyone who questions him or reports information he doesn’t like. A man whose personal morals and ethics are disgraceful.
We have a Republican Party so eager to maintain power and further enrich its economic elite clients that many of its members have discarded the last shreds of their morality, turned their backs on the nation and allowed Trump to run amok.
Typically, more than 40 percent of eligible voters don’t vote. That’s about 90 million people. I’d like to think that most of them are decent, intelligent folks, who are ideologically agnostic.
Bad stuff happens when enough smart people don’t vote. This appears to be one of those pivotal periods in American history when if enough rational citizens don’t get involved America could turn for the worse.
Until Americans have a party of Reason, we are pretty much stuck with the established duopoly. Right now, Trump and his GOP enablers have to be put on a strong, short, leash. That means voting Democratic this November — if only as a deterrent to disaster.
But, I continue to find that most Americans are genuinely solicitous of the welfare of others, especially children, and are not tethered to any particular ideology. These people can determine the fate of the nation if they will only get involved in the political process enough to cast a reasonably informed vote.
— Randy Alcorn is a Santa Barbara political observer. Contact him at randyaalcorn@gmail.com, or click here to read previous columns. The opinions expressed are his own.