The Madness of King Trump

So, Trump has claimed that he won't run for a third term as President.  Leaving aside the whole issue of legality - it would require a constitutional amendment to allow such a thing - and what Steve Bannon thinks - obviously Trump would say that.  Because he doesn't intend running for a third term when he can simply ignore the democratic process altogether, suspend the 2028 election and refuse to leave office.  No, I'm not joking - he's already invoked a fake 'state of emergency' to justify the 'disappearing' of immigrants to foreign jails without due process, so I don't think that he'd have any qualms about throwing out the democratic process.  He is, after all, a psychopath (as we've previously established here) elected by a nation of psychos.  That's the key to understanding the Trump II presidency.  Forget all the bullshit from political commentators about 'plans' and 'long term strategies' - the reality is that Trump is demented.  He was already economically and politically illiterate, so this combined with his clear mental instability is resulting in what is, in effect, governance by whim.  It's become increasingly clear that he is influenced in his deranged decision-making processes by whoever he has spoken to most recently and what he's last  seen on TV.  Judging by his latest crazed outpourings, he's just seen Escape From Alcatraz and been told about how many US film productions are nowadays actually made overseas, often in the UK, Canada and Australia.  All countries that he's lately pissed off with tariffs and the like.  Worse than that, he seems to have realised that entirely foreign made films won't necessarily embrace 'American values' and will instead promote alternative world views.

If it isn't obvious from this first hundred days that Trump is certifiable and unfit to hold office then, well, there is no hope for the US, is there?  But the fact is that it was patently obvious that he was certifiable in the run-up to last year's election, but still the psychos of the US voted for him.  But just how unhinged do Trump's behaviour and pronouncements have to get before Congress takes action to remove him from office?   Probably there is no limit while the Republicans are in control.  Even if the Democrats regain control in the mid-terms, (presupposing Trump doesn't find a pretext to postpone these, of course), they have so far been so timid that it is difficult to see their leadership growing spines any time soon.  Their timidity, I suspect, is a combination of shock - they probably secretly thought that Trump would never follow through with his more extreme threats and respect democratic norms - and the idiotic notion that seems to hold sway in the US that they have to respect the voters and not challenge the 'democratic mandate' that Trump has.   The latter, of course, completely ignores the fact that opposition is essential to the effective working of any democratic system.  It is the primary job of elected representatives to hold the executive to account on behalf of the people.  Of course, the US somewhat undermines this concept with its insistence on 'two thirds' majorities in Congress to get anything done.  But that's still no excuse - the Democrats really should be doing a better job of holding Trump to account on a daily basis.  There are a handful of Senators and Representatives who seem prepared to do this, both inside Congress and outside in the wider world, but their activities seem to frowned upon by the party leadership, who obviously think it 'unseemly' for elected representatives to actually go out and fight on behalf of their voters and in defence of the constitution.  I'm afraid that their genteel approach of sipping tea and offering mild opprobrium while the house burns down around them is unlikely to be effective in curbing mad 'King Trump'.

(It's good to finally go on a proper political rant - I've been holding off a bit on the politics of late for the sake of my sanity, but the withdrawal symptoms just got too great for me, I'm afraid!).