Wednesday, May 7, 2025 at 5:11 PM
“How often do you get to change the map of the world, perhaps once in 2 or 3 generations?” In Hillary Mantel’s book, The Mirror and the Light, Thomas Cromwell, chief advisor to Henry VIII, asked this question. He didn’t get to find out the answer, because he was beheaded shortly after uttering those words.
It seems to me that we should be asking the same question these days, watching Donald Trump trying to bully his way to dominate every single aspect of American life; and I mean every single aspect, down to school mascots. Donald Trump is the Secretary of State, the Secretary of Defense, Secretary of Education, Environment; you name the department, he is ultimately in charge. Not one of these puppets that he has installed, with the backing of a pliant Republican Senate, can act without his permission and blessings. The days of Dean Acheson, Colin Powell, Rumsfeld, Kerry, Holder, and all those giants who helped guide this country to prosperity and security; who, using their influence and power, separate from the White House, were allowed to make deals and concessions that benefited America—those days are a wistful echo of a yesterday that might have been a dream, considering the reality we are now living in.
But do not despair. Not everyone is bowing to the Crimson King. Canada and Australia and Germany and Poland, along with the EU, are pushing back. Mexico and Brazil and some of the Caribbean nations are also pushing back, gently so. China has put him in his place, because they understand that he is in way above his head, being led by a group of billionaires and right-wing zealots who cajole him into making unsustainable decisions which benefit him, and them, the hell with the rest of us. People worldwide are voting against any candidate who tries to emulate this embarrassment to the most powerful office in the world.
It will require a strong and determined populace to push back as hard and as relentlessly as possible. It will take the courts and (forgive me for saying this) the lawyers, and the business community who are already feeling the wrath of his misguided tariffs. It will take Republicans who haven’t been MAGArized, who still have some backbone left, who believe in the Constitution. It will take the media to call him out on his hypocrisy, his lies, his authoritarian policies and tendencies. It will take every one of us to fight off this wannabe, manipulating, delusional, spiteful, narcissistic politician and his messianic supporters in order to start making America, and the world normal again. Wat a ting!
America has been through chaos before, but not with its leader in the White House. This is new; and if we seem confused, we shouldn’t be. We all knew what we were getting; we just thought it would be in small doses, and easily controlled and contained. Well, folks, he’s not nibbling; he’s taking huge bites out of our psyche, our economy, our democracy, our way of life as we know it.
And all those who should know better, but because of greed or fear or selfish ambition, have acquiesced to his basest instincts, will have to pay a price for their actions. We all know who they are. They should know history; and according to history, every dog has its day!
Glen