Unfortunately it is not just Donald Trump and his ethno-nationalist government that is the problem here. It is also the nearly half of American voters who returned to the presidency a man who had proven beyond any shadow of a doubt to utterly disdain and disavow our electoral process, our Constitution, and the rule of law. It is the Republican Senators who refused to honor the congressional oaths that ought to have induced them to convict Trump after January 6th, and all the Republican legislators who continue to support and enable him. It is the six members of the Supreme Court who gave him more power than the Framers ever intended. Without them, he would in all probability now be in jail. And all of them are also Americans.
The problem is that far from enough of We the People have ever sufficiently understood that we are both the inheritors of and the participants in the most extraordinary, the most crucial, the riskiest, and the most complex ongoing experiment in human society and government ever attempted, and thus bear the full and only responsibility for maintaining it.
Thus I view Donald Trump as a remarkable gift. He is, albeit unconsciously, ’the fire bell in the night’; the man who has shown us with a brutal clarity what our future holds if enough of us do not come to understand that experiment and the responsibility it puts on us.
I am just over 81, and so my life has almost exactly coincided with our descent from being the Arsenal of Democracy that with our allies defeated the greatest evil in human history to the political, financial, social, and religious morass in which we now find ourselves, ‘led’ by a president who clearly would have felt right at home in the heart of that evil.
I am often accused by Trumpists of ‘hating America’, seemingly unaware of the supreme irony of the fact that they have no concept of that experiment. In fact, as one who has worn her uniform and later taught her history for over 40 years, I remain fully in love with the idea of American Exceptionalism, while also understanding that it is a state we have yet to achieve. We are the ‘the last best hope of earth', the final promise of something better in world mired in autocracy for the entire five millennia of our historical past. But we had become complacent in the years following WWII, and Trump is the price we have paid for that complacency.
I fully agree with and share Mr Eisendrath’s dream. The November elections will start to prove if enough of us have understood Trump’s unintended lesson. But even if we win back the House and/or the Senate, that will, as Winston Churchill so clearly understood at his darkest moment, not only be the beginning of the end of Trumpism, but only the end of the beginning of our journey back.
This is why Trump’s 250th celebration is such a dud. He cannot acknowledge this ongoing struggle for equality, the thing that makes our country truly great, despite our flaws.
Beautiful and heartfelt article. The current leadership is trying hard to erase history. Thank you for reminding us of who we are. We are Americans. America is a mix of peoples with talents and interesting stories. But the mix is not important for we are all human beings. Now let's behave like it with humanity and caring and justice for all. Thank you, Edwin. Take care.
I studied Tae Kwon Do for years. A co.ponent of thst eas Street Defense
The NUMBER ONE thing that woll save your life us tonEXPLODE!
SCREAM!
KICK!
STOMP ON INSTEP!
PUNCH!
KICK!
KNEE TO THE GROIN!
She who exploded, lives.
She wjo minimizes the threat, may bit.
There us no "Probably nothing."
firget the FBI. Call your local police, ask fr9 a woma. daniloar with aexual assaukt v8ctina.
I'm also a retired lawyer
Get an InJUNCTION AGAINST HARASSJWB5 from your local court NIW.
Tiuvwon't beed a lawyer fir that. He xones backba5 you, he gets arrested
ACT now
Call the police today. Please
#MeToo
Unfortunately it is not just Donald Trump and his ethno-nationalist government that is the problem here. It is also the nearly half of American voters who returned to the presidency a man who had proven beyond any shadow of a doubt to utterly disdain and disavow our electoral process, our Constitution, and the rule of law. It is the Republican Senators who refused to honor the congressional oaths that ought to have induced them to convict Trump after January 6th, and all the Republican legislators who continue to support and enable him. It is the six members of the Supreme Court who gave him more power than the Framers ever intended. Without them, he would in all probability now be in jail. And all of them are also Americans.
The problem is that far from enough of We the People have ever sufficiently understood that we are both the inheritors of and the participants in the most extraordinary, the most crucial, the riskiest, and the most complex ongoing experiment in human society and government ever attempted, and thus bear the full and only responsibility for maintaining it.
Thus I view Donald Trump as a remarkable gift. He is, albeit unconsciously, ’the fire bell in the night’; the man who has shown us with a brutal clarity what our future holds if enough of us do not come to understand that experiment and the responsibility it puts on us.
I am just over 81, and so my life has almost exactly coincided with our descent from being the Arsenal of Democracy that with our allies defeated the greatest evil in human history to the political, financial, social, and religious morass in which we now find ourselves, ‘led’ by a president who clearly would have felt right at home in the heart of that evil.
I am often accused by Trumpists of ‘hating America’, seemingly unaware of the supreme irony of the fact that they have no concept of that experiment. In fact, as one who has worn her uniform and later taught her history for over 40 years, I remain fully in love with the idea of American Exceptionalism, while also understanding that it is a state we have yet to achieve. We are the ‘the last best hope of earth', the final promise of something better in world mired in autocracy for the entire five millennia of our historical past. But we had become complacent in the years following WWII, and Trump is the price we have paid for that complacency.
I fully agree with and share Mr Eisendrath’s dream. The November elections will start to prove if enough of us have understood Trump’s unintended lesson. But even if we win back the House and/or the Senate, that will, as Winston Churchill so clearly understood at his darkest moment, not only be the beginning of the end of Trumpism, but only the end of the beginning of our journey back.
This is why Trump’s 250th celebration is such a dud. He cannot acknowledge this ongoing struggle for equality, the thing that makes our country truly great, despite our flaws.
Sorry. I won't share anything that has an image of the Orange Idiot on it. This fight is bigger than clicks!
Beautiful and heartfelt article. The current leadership is trying hard to erase history. Thank you for reminding us of who we are. We are Americans. America is a mix of peoples with talents and interesting stories. But the mix is not important for we are all human beings. Now let's behave like it with humanity and caring and justice for all. Thank you, Edwin. Take care.