Reflections on Trump in Retreat: Remission Doesn't Mean Cure

But if Trump has dimmed the prospects for future fictional bestsellers the coincidence of his departure only two days after the country honored Martin Luther King offers an opportunity for writers of all sorts the arrival of a president whose administration is pledged to pursue the values King championed and Trump abhorsTrump39s defeat of course will not undo his damage Its measure the insurrection fomented two weeks ago that put the destruction in plain sight Like December 7th and September 11th two dates that carry meaning beyond their events January 6th is more than the day of Capitol Hill39s desecration For Americans who never thought their democracy fragile it conjures the moment they saw that its demolition is only one demagogue awayNothing that happened should have been a surprise Like crack dealers who give away free hits to build a clientele Trump peddled hatred from day one decrying immigrants Blacks reporters opponents The vitriol became applause lines that his almost allwhite audiences loved It would have been a wonder if his rallying call on January 6th had provoked anything less than the mayhem his far right extremists in the crowd had already plannedWhether or not Trump39s second impeachment produces a Senate conviction his carcinogenic politics will metastasize The diagnosis is obvious For one thing Trump has devoted four years to building a base of support including a mob that can deliver violence as well as votes Charlottesville39s rioting and Lansing Michigan39s capital where guntoting goon squads marched previewed the Capitol Hill assault January 6th will have its violent sequels as wellTrump39s final day in Washington sent that instruction to his menagerie of militias from their commanderinchief The requested pomp a 21gun salute ersatz crowd and red carpet to Air Force One presumably helped assuage the aspiring authoritarian39s angst over lost trappings But selfpity wasn39t the reason for the tasteless farewell Like Il Duce39s balcony scenes or Stalin waving from atop Lenin39s Tomb Trump39s strongman imagery was his message stand back and stand byTrump39s caudillolike cancer in the body politic also is enabling opportunistic infections to flourish The Republican Party is their Petri dish where racism xenophobic grievances and religious zealotry are feeding growing national divisions as well as its quotbasequot Ironically fear dominates Republican politicians as well as their party line With the mob at the door two weeks ago twothirds of their House members still voted to endorse Trump39s stolen election lie that ludicrously as well as illogically somehow put them in office but denied Trump hisThe party39s postelection trauma testifies to Trump39s continuing impact From the terminally ambitious Senators Ted Cruz and Josh Hawley to Marjorie Taylor Green the bizarre QAnon quisling in the House Trump wannabes are continuing to peddle his lies With 90 percent of GOP voters still supporting the expresident more mouthpieces are on the way For example in Georgia where Trump lost in November his loyalists want to throw out their Republican governor and secretary of state Both dumbfounded them after the November election when they actually counted votes and followed the lawThe media business that caters to Trump39s crowds already is moving to monetize the Republicans39 postelection appetite for mendacity Fox News is adding even more opinion to its daily TV lineup A purge this week at its digital operations axed a veteran editor who had infuriated Trump by calling Arizona correctly for Joe Biden on election night along with a dozen others Whatever line existed between news and opinion on the network39s web site the fiction that Fox features real journalism obviously also is going out the doorFor all Trump39s seclusion in his final months his faithful have had no doubt about his wants and needs Obsessed with his election loss he has pushed the massive lie that he and they were denied victory in November As Andreas Kluth wrote last week Trump39s mendacity is a menace because of the incessantly repeated big lie Consider the claim Germany didn39t lose World War I but was quotstabbed in the backquot by Jews and traitors Kluth argues The Nazis leveraged the lie into power As if on cue this week Trump vowed in his farewell that quothis movement is just beginningquotHow far Trump can go as a former president of course remains to be seen Twice impeached under investigation by a bevy of prosecutors and with a business to run politics could well take second place to selfpreservation Contemptible or not for their complicity in the Capitol Hill insurrection Cruz Hawley and other wouldbe successors also may chisel away chunks of his converted Indeed Fox News39 propagandists and others even further to the right are putting extra chairs on their studio sets to give them their onair tryTrump39s seditious speech on June 6th wasn39t the first to feature the National Mall in attempting to bring crowds that could help change history On January 18 1968 another movement met to draw up a plan to use the venue to do just that including a mass march in Washington DC The objective a campaign for jobs a fair wage education and a new cooperation among people of all colors and backgrounds to gain a decent life respect and dignitySome in the room that day spoke up calling the demands too ambitious Martin Luther King disagreed King wanted to focus the nation39s attention on economic inequality and poverty He put it this way at the staff meeting of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference quotLet39s find something that is so possible so achievable so pure so simple that even the backlash can39t do much to deny itquotKing knew well the deep divisions in the country But he saw the National Mall as a place to bring people together to address their cause King didn39t live to see the thousands of women who trooped onto the mall that Mother39s Day in May as the first wave of the Poor People39s March on Washington His celebration on Monday and Trump39s departure on Wednesday couldn39t be a better coincidence to highlight King39s goals or those of a new president and his administration as they begin their effort to find a cure for the nation39s diseasesClick the social buttons to share this story with colleagues and friendsThe opinions expressed here are the author39s views and do not necessarily represent the views of MediaVillagecomMyersBizNetamp160

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Reflections on Trump in Retreat: Remission Doesn't Mean Cure

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Kent M. Harrington

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