Letter: Trump Is Gone, Yet Trumpism Remains To Harm Us
The January 6 assault on the Capitol. Photo: Blink O'fanaye. Flickr.com (CC BY-NC 2.0)
It’s hardly a surprise that the Orange Superspreader was indifferent to infecting everyone in sight with COVID — he was more likely eager to do so. Trump’s narcissism leans heavily into sadism; he experiences his power through revenge, and by how much he can cause harm, suffering, death.
What’s even more frightening and depressing for those of us who believe in democracy and egalitarianism is that there are tens of millions of Americans — StormTrumpers — who lift Trump up because his own sociopathic shamelessness gives them a platform to be as devolved as he is without impunity; hence, Cult-45.
These StormTrumpers are deeply ignorant, proudly so, anti-science, filled with primitive fears of diversity, change and otherness, stand for religious, racial, and ethnic chauvinism, hatred of women, contempt for law, indifferent to the well-being of others, oblivious to facts. Trump’s supporters are already miles beyond the shameless “greed is good” ethos of the Reagan 80’s. Their “L’État, c’est moi” cult leader/king fully supports their fascistic inclinations. And the GOP, willfully obstructive, using these pawns, is nakedly eager to topple governmental norms and institutions in the service of taking power to serve themselves. Their corrupt intentions are transparent.
When I got my COVID vaccines in March, I was ecstatic for a time; I called those vaccines “hopium“. But now we understand that those shots were a tool for collective healing, not a panacea. The same holds true for the election of Joe Biden; his installation, which engendered optimism and relief, brought only a partial halt to the onslaught of attacks wrought by the last administration. The war against democracy may have taken a turn with a brief setback to the Trump troops, but the landscape is still devastated. And the enemy continues to regroup.
America is in deep crisis; the water has boiled, the frog has died. Pluto has begun its first return. The American Kristallnacht has already occurred many times — Charlottesville’s “very fine people”, Muslim bans, book bans, gun and fetal fetishisms, The Big Lie, January 6, Rittenhouse, Marjorie Green and Paul Gosar, SCOTUS overturning Stare Decisis, the imminent death of Rowe v Wade, the ongoing grift, political pardons, threats to Democratic leaders, gerrymandering, voter purging … I’m convinced that if we don’t light a fire under clueless non-voters, we will very likely lose our democracy.
Dinah Kudatsky
Dinah Kudatsky is a resident of Amherst
“…will…” ? You cite some of the evidence that “has” is more in line with the facts. By many measures – it was never in place (human rights 1492/1600 & beyond, corporate expansion, bank loan policy, politicians in office with other-than-public service in mind, stacked town boards, redlining, etc).
Chad, I don’t disagree with your assessment, that attempts at democracy have been aborted many times since the beginning. There are still structures in place, though, to effect some kind of salvage – if we ACT. And hopes springs eternal.