Free AI web copilot to create summaries, insights and extended knowledge, download it at here

Abstract

ignores or tramples. For starters, he lies constantly and exactly fits the definition of a pathological liar. Another example is smashing the ‘tradition’ that a candidate for president has at least some experience in public service, and has successfully served as a senator, representative, governor, mayor, etc. There have been a few exceptions to this tradition in the past — Ross Perot comes to mind — but we usually want and expect our foremost leader to have a positive political track record.<h2 id="2d2d">Weaknesses in our Constitution and political foundations</h2>Yet our system and our Constitution do not include any effective rules or laws about this. In fact, our Constitution says almost nothing about needed qualifications to run for president. Weirdly, the only specified qualifications are being a native-born American and being over the age of 35 — and today, in dealing with Trump, this profound lack of guidelines is proving to be a huge problem.The first time he ran for president it was a problem because he had no experience at all in the political arena (which some Americans saw as a big plus), and he also had no tact, ethics, or basic politeness — so he ran roughshod over all his primary opponents in the debates, and then he steamrolled his final opponent, Hillary Clinton, as well.But it’s his third, current run for president that is proving to be a massive political minefield — and is revealing some glaring deficiencies in our system. Unbelievably, our Constitution and our laws say nothing at all about whether an accused criminal defendant, or even a convicted criminal, can run for or even BE our president! (And this last horror is a distinct and growing possibility.)Plus, Trump is using his many indictments to play the aggrieved martyr. He is constantly inciting his followers with his endless yelling about the U.S. justice system being ‘weaponized’ against him — and being illegitimately used to undermine and derail his presidential campaign.<h2 id="1f3e">Abusing our legal and justice systems</h2>A huge part of his overall campaign strategy, now, is to constantly attack and disparage the courts, prosecutors, his judges, court officials, and anyone else directly involved in his ongoing legal jeopardy.This too is a direct attack on America’s ‘social contract’ and guardrails — because no criminal defendant in history has been able to get away with so much open defiance, lying defamation, and public incitement. Anyone else would have been slapped with contempt charges and thrown in jail, by now — but due to Trump’s exalted position as the current GOP front-runner (and our ex-president), the courts and his judges are having a devil of a time trying to rein him in.Of course, he and his enablers claim his public speech is all ‘protected’ free speech, due both to his status as an active political campaigner, and his basic free speech rights. This argument, however, is nonsense — as anyone who really studies our free speech laws can tell you. I’ve <a href="https://readmedium.com/what-is-free-speech-really-and-why-has-it-turned-so-destructive-7724d05f86f3">written</a> about this issue extensively elsewhere, so I’m not going into it in depth here.Suffice it to say, in the free speech arena Trump is once again transgressing and wrecking vital American values and norms — with the full support of most of the GOP. He’s also abusing our entire legal system with his time-dishonored technique of gumming up the system — and effectively disabling it — with a constant barrage of legal gambits and frivolous appeals.It’s a truly freakish and dangerous time in America.<h2 id="e5da">The outdated, unfair Electoral College</h2>Then there’s the outdated holdover of the Electoral College. This system made some sense, once upon a time — but that time is past, and we can no longer afford to be ruled by a system that allows a major loser of the popular vote to nevertheless win in the Electoral College — and thus win the actual presidency.Amazingly, in two of the last six presidential elections, the winner has lost the popular vote: in Bush v. Gore in 2000, and in Trump v. Clinton in 2016. This outdated system gives vastly more power to rural, lower-population (mainly ‘red’) states, while taking power away from more highly-populated, coastal (mainly ‘blue’) states. It is highly unfair and undemocratic — yet we refuse to amend or get rid of it.The tremendous, and perhaps unsolvable, conundrum the U.S. now faces is that Trump’s manic candidacy and demagoguery; his

Options

role as ‘insurrectionist-in-chief’ on Jan. 6, 2021; his continued refusal to admit he lost the 2020 election; his endless lies about ‘fraudulent elections’; his mounting, intense legal woes and jeopardy; and his inflammatory campaign themes and rhetoric are all getting tangled up together in what can only be described as a massive, very public cluster-fuck. Excuse the language, but it’s really exactly descriptive of what’s happening.The U.S. IS in an unparalleled and dangerously explosive situation, and there doesn’t seem to be any good way out or any likely positive resolution.In short, it’s a huge friggin’ mess. A true ‘cluster-fuck’ if there ever was one.<h2 id="a143">Have we, as a nation, learned anything at all?</h2>Now, back to my original question: Have we, as a nation and as a people, learned anything at all from the past eight excruciating Trump-dominated years?The one bright spot, during this entire period, was the way our legal system held strong, and rebuffed Trump’s unending attempts to overturn the 2020 election and ‘prove’ it was fraudulent. Luckily, our courts saw through his devious machinations, and almost universally rejected all such claims.But our other social or governmental systems have not fared so well — and there have been many serious casualties. Our vaunted ‘fourth estate’, the press, is in tatters, after endless assaults from Trump and his MAGA followers; the press and media are now in disrepute and bear the scornful label ‘fake news.’Our legislative branch is tied up in knots, as extreme MAGA Republicans hold their own party and the nation hostage to their far-right ideology and demands (though to be fair, Congressional dysfunction long preceded Trump). And our justice system — the other face of our legal system — is having a devil of a time dealing with Trump and attempting to bring him to justice.Even our venerable, once-admired justice system has come under vicious attack by Trump, his MAGA acolytes, and much of the GOP — the former ‘law and order’ party! — to the extent that many of them want to ‘defund’ the FBI, undermine the independent powers of the federal Department of Justice, and place it all under the supervision of the executive branch (that is, Trump and his lackeys, if he’s re-elected).Such a shift, of course, would be a total disaster for our independent justice system and the American people.<h2 id="e6fd">We’re facing a nightmare scenario</h2>Here’s where we stand, in my estimation: As a nation, we have allowed our society and our political processes to be hijacked and often ruined — first by a lying, cheating, amoral, and vicious demagogue named Donald Trump, and second by an amoral and devious group of his enraged MAGA loyalists.One of our two main political parties, the GOP, has chosen to enable and totally support a man facing four consequential indictments — 91 criminal counts altogether — and the coming 2024 election cycle (and its aftermath) is shaping up to be both a social and political disaster.It’s also quite unclear whether our slow-as-molasses justice system will be able to convict Trump or, realistically, do anything substantive to stop Trump or disable his campaign. Plus, many of his trials and major court dates are not even set to start until Spring 2024 or later — when it’s getting close to election time. That’s a terrible miscalculation and another disaster-in-the-making.Due to our own folly, insufficient guardrails, and idiotic enabling of Trump, we are all facing a horrendous nightmare scenario in 2024 and early 2025. We, along with Trump, MAGA, and the GOP, collectively created this nightmare; we all set it up this way through both our actions and, more importantly, our cowardly inaction.And now, we’re going to have to face the music, and reap what we have sown.It won’t be pretty, or easy to live through. And it remains to be seen whether we will truly ‘learn our lesson,’ firm up our guardrails, and make some much-needed reforms to our legal and political systems.If past experience is any indicator — dammit, we probably won’t. We may tinker around the edges — but we’re unlikely to make any deep, meaningful changes.That would mark a very, very sad milestone for America — and the beginning of the end for our nation. I truly hope we learn from this ugly Trumpian mess and then apply our new understanding — but as I said, our track record isn’t good.</article></body>

What Have We Learned from the Devastating, Never-Ending Trump Debacle?

If things continue ‘as is,’ we’re facing a horrific nightmare scenario in 2024

This morning, amid the usual flurry of news about Donald Trump’s latest outrageous behavior or furious PUBLIC STATEMENT (he tends to spout off in all caps), I found myself wondering: Have we, as a nation and as a people, learned anything from the past eight years — since Trump rode down that golden escalator and straight into American history and global infamy?

My first thought was: No, we haven’t. Not really. Since all the chaos and legal and political scrambling surrounding Trump continues … and continues, and continues — we’re still very much in the thick of this madness. Trapped in the madness.

And of course, all this mounting chaos is happening while Trump is again running for president, and as he is again set to be the Republican nominee. Despite all the terrible things he has done, is accused of, or is now being actively prosecuted for, he is just as popular as ever — and 60+% of Republicans strongly want him as president again.

This is truly a major WTF?! moment in American history.

Deep social failures and weaknesses

But today I want to dig a little deeper. I want to examine, in detail, exactly what the failures and weaknesses are within our system that allowed and enabled the rise of a tyrannical, cruel narcissist to the highest office in our land. I want to examine these issues both within our social sphere and within our legal and political spheres.

First, the social sphere. America has always had a reputation for disparaging intellectuals and for adoring ‘manly men’ and aggressive, controlling ‘strong men.’ Clearly, Trump fits the second category perfectly — plus, he has the added ‘benefit’ of being crude, mean-spirited, racist, and openly hostile and vicious towards anyone who disagrees with him or tries to contain him.

How else are we to understand his immense popularity and continuing sway over the GOP and many millions of Americans — other than to admit that many Americans DO see his negative traits as a ‘benefit’? While he was still our president, I compiled a list of all the worst, meanest, and most inhumane character traits — and Trump literally embodied all of them. Horrible character traits like hate, racism, bullying, vengefulness, greed, selfishness, deviousness, lawlessness, vindictiveness, lust for power, and gleeful demagoguery.

Amazingly, Trump really does embody the worst character traits of humanity — in the form of a dangerous ‘malignant narcissist,’ as some psychologists describe him. The fact that he and his character are very appealing to many Americans tells us all we need to know, in a sense, about our current ‘American character’ — and about our deepest desires and longings.

If Trump is seen as a positive role model by a vast cross-section of Americans — as he seems to be — well, God help us.

Our failing ‘social contract’ and guardrails

But how did this all come to pass? Exactly how did Trump rise to power and effectively take over the GOP and much of America?

To my mind, this is where various inherent weaknesses or problems in our legal/political system have had lasting negative effects — and caused grave damage. I’m thinking particularly of the so-called ‘norms’ and ‘guardrails’ that have usually protected — until recently — our society and our government from unscrupulous, power-hungry demagogues and ‘strong men.’

These norms or guardrails primarily consist of widely-accepted social agreements; they are the backbone of an informal yet crucial ‘social contract’ that we make with each other — such as “lying is bad and wrong” — to maintain and protect our society. In fact (and many Americans seem to have totally forgotten this), without such norms and guardrails it’s well-nigh impossible to even have a workable society.

But these are exactly the kind of social agreements and norms that Trump despises and actively ignores or tramples. For starters, he lies constantly and exactly fits the definition of a pathological liar. Another example is smashing the ‘tradition’ that a candidate for president has at least some experience in public service, and has successfully served as a senator, representative, governor, mayor, etc. There have been a few exceptions to this tradition in the past — Ross Perot comes to mind — but we usually want and expect our foremost leader to have a positive political track record.

Weaknesses in our Constitution and political foundations

Yet our system and our Constitution do not include any effective rules or laws about this. In fact, our Constitution says almost nothing about needed qualifications to run for president. Weirdly, the only specified qualifications are being a native-born American and being over the age of 35 — and today, in dealing with Trump, this profound lack of guidelines is proving to be a huge problem.

The first time he ran for president it was a problem because he had no experience at all in the political arena (which some Americans saw as a big plus), and he also had no tact, ethics, or basic politeness — so he ran roughshod over all his primary opponents in the debates, and then he steamrolled his final opponent, Hillary Clinton, as well.

But it’s his third, current run for president that is proving to be a massive political minefield — and is revealing some glaring deficiencies in our system. Unbelievably, our Constitution and our laws say nothing at all about whether an accused criminal defendant, or even a convicted criminal, can run for or even BE our president! (And this last horror is a distinct and growing possibility.)

Plus, Trump is using his many indictments to play the aggrieved martyr. He is constantly inciting his followers with his endless yelling about the U.S. justice system being ‘weaponized’ against him — and being illegitimately used to undermine and derail his presidential campaign.

Abusing our legal and justice systems

A huge part of his overall campaign strategy, now, is to constantly attack and disparage the courts, prosecutors, his judges, court officials, and anyone else directly involved in his ongoing legal jeopardy.

This too is a direct attack on America’s ‘social contract’ and guardrails — because no criminal defendant in history has been able to get away with so much open defiance, lying defamation, and public incitement. Anyone else would have been slapped with contempt charges and thrown in jail, by now — but due to Trump’s exalted position as the current GOP front-runner (and our ex-president), the courts and his judges are having a devil of a time trying to rein him in.

Of course, he and his enablers claim his public speech is all ‘protected’ free speech, due both to his status as an active political campaigner, and his basic free speech rights. This argument, however, is nonsense — as anyone who really studies our free speech laws can tell you. I’ve written about this issue extensively elsewhere, so I’m not going into it in depth here.

Suffice it to say, in the free speech arena Trump is once again transgressing and wrecking vital American values and norms — with the full support of most of the GOP. He’s also abusing our entire legal system with his time-dishonored technique of gumming up the system — and effectively disabling it — with a constant barrage of legal gambits and frivolous appeals.

It’s a truly freakish and dangerous time in America.

The outdated, unfair Electoral College

Then there’s the outdated holdover of the Electoral College. This system made some sense, once upon a time — but that time is past, and we can no longer afford to be ruled by a system that allows a major loser of the popular vote to nevertheless win in the Electoral College — and thus win the actual presidency.

Amazingly, in two of the last six presidential elections, the winner has lost the popular vote: in Bush v. Gore in 2000, and in Trump v. Clinton in 2016. This outdated system gives vastly more power to rural, lower-population (mainly ‘red’) states, while taking power away from more highly-populated, coastal (mainly ‘blue’) states. It is highly unfair and undemocratic — yet we refuse to amend or get rid of it.

The tremendous, and perhaps unsolvable, conundrum the U.S. now faces is that Trump’s manic candidacy and demagoguery; his role as ‘insurrectionist-in-chief’ on Jan. 6, 2021; his continued refusal to admit he lost the 2020 election; his endless lies about ‘fraudulent elections’; his mounting, intense legal woes and jeopardy; and his inflammatory campaign themes and rhetoric are all getting tangled up together in what can only be described as a massive, very public cluster-fuck. Excuse the language, but it’s really exactly descriptive of what’s happening.

The U.S. IS in an unparalleled and dangerously explosive situation, and there doesn’t seem to be any good way out or any likely positive resolution.

In short, it’s a huge friggin’ mess. A true ‘cluster-fuck’ if there ever was one.

Have we, as a nation, learned anything at all?

Now, back to my original question: Have we, as a nation and as a people, learned anything at all from the past eight excruciating Trump-dominated years?

The one bright spot, during this entire period, was the way our legal system held strong, and rebuffed Trump’s unending attempts to overturn the 2020 election and ‘prove’ it was fraudulent. Luckily, our courts saw through his devious machinations, and almost universally rejected all such claims.

But our other social or governmental systems have not fared so well — and there have been many serious casualties. Our vaunted ‘fourth estate’, the press, is in tatters, after endless assaults from Trump and his MAGA followers; the press and media are now in disrepute and bear the scornful label ‘fake news.’

Our legislative branch is tied up in knots, as extreme MAGA Republicans hold their own party and the nation hostage to their far-right ideology and demands (though to be fair, Congressional dysfunction long preceded Trump). And our justice system — the other face of our legal system — is having a devil of a time dealing with Trump and attempting to bring him to justice.

Even our venerable, once-admired justice system has come under vicious attack by Trump, his MAGA acolytes, and much of the GOP — the former ‘law and order’ party! — to the extent that many of them want to ‘defund’ the FBI, undermine the independent powers of the federal Department of Justice, and place it all under the supervision of the executive branch (that is, Trump and his lackeys, if he’s re-elected).

Such a shift, of course, would be a total disaster for our independent justice system and the American people.

We’re facing a nightmare scenario

Here’s where we stand, in my estimation: As a nation, we have allowed our society and our political processes to be hijacked and often ruined — first by a lying, cheating, amoral, and vicious demagogue named Donald Trump, and second by an amoral and devious group of his enraged MAGA loyalists.

One of our two main political parties, the GOP, has chosen to enable and totally support a man facing four consequential indictments — 91 criminal counts altogether — and the coming 2024 election cycle (and its aftermath) is shaping up to be both a social and political disaster.

It’s also quite unclear whether our slow-as-molasses justice system will be able to convict Trump or, realistically, do anything substantive to stop Trump or disable his campaign. Plus, many of his trials and major court dates are not even set to start until Spring 2024 or later — when it’s getting close to election time. That’s a terrible miscalculation and another disaster-in-the-making.

Due to our own folly, insufficient guardrails, and idiotic enabling of Trump, we are all facing a horrendous nightmare scenario in 2024 and early 2025. We, along with Trump, MAGA, and the GOP, collectively created this nightmare; we all set it up this way through both our actions and, more importantly, our cowardly inaction.

And now, we’re going to have to face the music, and reap what we have sown.

It won’t be pretty, or easy to live through. And it remains to be seen whether we will truly ‘learn our lesson,’ firm up our guardrails, and make some much-needed reforms to our legal and political systems.

If past experience is any indicator — dammit, we probably won’t. We may tinker around the edges — but we’re unlikely to make any deep, meaningful changes.

That would mark a very, very sad milestone for America — and the beginning of the end for our nation. I truly hope we learn from this ugly Trumpian mess and then apply our new understanding — but as I said, our track record isn’t good.