Nobel Prize winning Princeton economist Paul Krugman may view the rise of Trump to POTUS as an unmitigated catastrophe. As a fellow Trump loather I choose to take another view. I believe that a President Trump will create such a reaction to his cliptocracy that much good movement towards progressive legislation will result from his four years in office. After the GOP fails to replace Obamacare with a functioning program, America, under the next progressive president will demand and receive single payer Universal Health Care. This is but one of the benefits that await us because of the incompetence, bigotry and world class corruption that will soon be in charge of the government.
None of the current Democratic leaders will be serving as the next Democratic President, or candidate. Sorry HRC, I loved your wonkiness, your decency, and your deep experience of government, but for all the popular votes you got, you failed in the worst way. You did not rise to leadership in the weeks following the theft of the Presidency by the Putin/Trump partnership, perhaps the greatest challenge that any President might face. Instead you have kept a discreet silence -- perhaps necessary for your pride but unacceptable at this dangerous time. Obama, I really loved ye, but helping to make a smooth transition to the Trump presidency was the last thing required of a man like you who dearly loves his country. We need noise, complaint, a rowdy takedown of the crooks and liars he has appointed to his cabinet. We may find our next leader during the confirmation process -- the one who asks the questions and will not stop until he gets answers -- but that leader is invisible at the moment. Nevertheless, the appointment of oligarchs, bigots, zealots, and ignoramuses, is the stuff out of which a great progressive leader is born in opposition to them.
There is a virtue in state and city run government -- the Ancient Greeks flourished with it -- and so shall we. As the federal government removes many of the liberties we have fought for since WW2, the right of choice for women, the right of a decent public school education for all children, the right for minorities to vote, the right to speak freely, indeed everything covered by the Bill of Rights and more -- those of us fortunate enough to live in progressive cities will maintain those rights -- come what may -- we do pay the taxes that keep the country going -- or at least we did until Federal taxation was removed by Trump on the very rich. State taxes and city taxes, wisely used, can run cities and towns effectively. Remember the first revolution cry of "No taxation without representation" and if we the people are not represented in the government that cry should be heard again...and again.
It will take awhile for those who voted for Trump to realize the full depth and breath of his betrayal. Guys, your America is not coming back, and he has no plan to find a place or a job for you in his America. You bought the snake oil, now mix it with the beer. The free press should use every occasion to investigate this administration -- never since the Gilded Age of Mark Twain has there been so many flimflam men in power. We need an Ida Tarbel and a Lincoln Steffens to stand up and expose the reprobates and I believe that we shall find them. The crooks will fall over each other as the rape of our coffers, and the selling of our institutions begin. This will be our first Casino presidency -- dice loaded, wheel fixed, cards marked - all against the player. A true reform movement is sure to follow, embraced by Progressives and the few straggling GOP men of conscience.
Hiding in the next four years will do nobody any good. The robber who invades your home knows to look under your bed and in the closet for you. Boldness is the only way to protect yourself - be as large as you can be -- the meek may be blessed but they will not inherit Trump's earth.
Minorities, African Americans, Latinos and Latinas, Muslims, your numbers are growing. Despite all the talk of deportation you will remain a large force in America. Make certain that your young are part of the voting force. And you will find your voice, your spokesman, because demographically, the old white men and the foolish middle class white women who put Trump in office together with the dancing bear in Moscow are no match for you, organized, educated, and prepared to take on your role as saviors -- not as the oppressed.
Jews, sorry, you're are not safe because of Ivanka and Jared --in fact you are in greater danger than ever because of them. Trump may use talented Jews in his government but it is clear that he has no love for members of the tribe. He has surrounded himself with anti-Semites and any Jew who voted for him because they did not like the Clintons will learn a bitter lesson. He sees a Jew and he sees a progressive -- which means he sees an enemy. He will give such support to Israel's settlements as the backlash on Israel multiplies (and sadly the many Jews who opposed Bibi's expansionism will also suffer) because Trump is leading our ally towards becoming an apartheid nation -- unacceptable to the modern world. Israel faces a greater isolation in Trumpworld. There was a good case to be made that the fault was on both sides -- a reluctant Palestinian leadership refusing to accept the reality of Israel, and meeting the restoration of Palestinian lands with acts of terror, but the new settlements -- a bow to the right wing orthodox -- worsened the bad and turned it into the terrible so Trump will leave the Middle East in worse shape than he now finds it, and that is hard to do. By destroying the Iran nuclear agreement he will further isolate America from its allies, and help to create a new nuclear enemy. Voices must rise and shout out against this madness.
The nation states of Europe will be having small fascist tantrums of their own, and sadly, we must watch the destruction of Estonia and other Eastern European countries because of Trump's future dismantling of NATO -- but the result will be an alliance against the Putin/TRUMP AXIS by the small Eastern Europen countries -- you know, the ones where the mail order brides are ordered and the Russian Bear seeks to expand. This is the bad news that I see. A Secretary of State willing to let Putin have his liebensraum in exchange for oil rights. The good news is that in four years fossil fuels will be more expensive and less valuable than thriving alternative sources of energy.
Oh, and one of our skilled writer-artists should be working on a graphic novel which shows in plain language how Trump has screwed his followers and that their lost jobs no longer exist, replaced by robotic automation -- and that the states will be the superhero that helps to train the young and pension off the old for the new economy. This should be distributed free to the voters who put Trump into the Presidency. The continuing starvation and alienation of the poor during the Trump years will ultimately make the villagers light their torches and march on Trumpenstein. Movies are a good precursor to life.
Last but hardly least, schools will begin to institute civics classes again so that an educated voter will be able to see through the lying rhetoric and the empty promises and recognize a malevolent huckster the next time one appears. All this will take time -- but if the states hold fast to the liberties that the feds and the new Trump appointed justices would deny the people we shall truly overcome. Our mantra must be "There are more of us than them." All that we lack are the firebrands, the bold leaders, the truth tellers with a bullhorn - but they will rise from the people -- they have in the past -- they will again. And a truly free press will report on all the skullduggery of the Trump administration -- and not be put off by his tweeting of "Mein Kampf" -- God bless us all. There is reason to hope because the past is prelude to the future, and we have overcome all the tyrants, large and small, but only by facing the realities of our world -- together -- not with despair but with strength and resolve.