Thursday, January 4, 2018

Trump's Chaotic Dysfunction Is Everybody's Serious Problem

As Donald Trump and his Bannon-inspired tenure rolls on -- and regardless of the Trump/Bannon split, there's no doubt that it was Bannon who inspired the blow-Washington-up unraveling we're witnessing --more than just the political life of the nation is at stake. We are on a very dangerous ride.

This man in his comfort zone was always a wack job. But increasingly cornered
by Robert Mueller? We should all fear what may lie ahead.

This editor's blog post by Josh Marshall of Talking Points Memo is ostensibly about the absurdity of suing Steve Bannon and eventually Michael Wolff for their commentary on Trump's first days/months in office, but I was drawn to the last two paragraphs for the larger implications.
Have you ever seen a coiled hose that suddenly has hugely pressurized water run through it? We all have. It swings and jerks violently this way and that. It gets everyone wet. There’s violence and chaos but no real plan. It’s reflex. That’s our President. But it’s not water. It’s fire. This instinctive, peristaltic kind of chaotic action is the way to understand him. Not any theory. That’s what’s happening today and will continue for every day of his Presidency, albeit with lulls of lethargy and torpor here and there.
He is likely the most reviled and mocked man in the entire world today. He is also the most powerful, because of the unique attributes and powers of the American presidency. He’s tossing around nuclear threats with another man on the other side of the globe who has power similarly because he was born into it. Another legacy kid with nuclear weapons. The whole situation is comical, mind-boggling and deeply dangerous.
Read the whole fascinating thing. But the implication that this is what democracies slipping into autocracies look like is horrifying.


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