Trump may remake this nation in ways many of us never dreamed of

By Michael O’Looney

There has been a lot of talk in the liberal media about a “constitutional crisis” and whether President Donald Trump is a dictator (like he said he wanted to be), a despot, a tyrant or just your everyday fascist. It’s not for me to say. But we should take a moment to reflect on some parallels between our national leader and another individual who behaved in a way reminiscent of our commander in chief.

Some time ago in Germany there was a man with unbridled power who sought to make Germany great. Again. He used the despot’s old playbook to consolidate his position of power. He criticized the weak democratic government that was installed after the Great War. As he gained the affection of the working people, he managed to turn German’s democracy into a one-party state. 

He was “enabled” to do this by cajoling a faction of oligarchs, wealthy industrialists and military leaders who believed his policies of Germany First would help the country regain its prestige and respect in the European community. Emboldened by an adoring public, he set up a state police to silence his political enemies, silenced the press and replaced it with his own propaganda machine to propagate the idea of Germanic superiority.

OK. Admittedly, the above comparison may be a bit extreme, perhaps even misleading. Our national leader doesn’t have the rigid adherence to an ideology or the disciplined mind to carry through with an overriding vision to implement a rigorous plan to bring about substantive social change (like the German demagogue outlined in “Mein Kampf”).

Half the nation distrusts him

Most importantly, he doesn’t have a populace that would follow him into a scorched-earth war of self-annihilation. Although our leader won the presidential election, he did not win the hearts of all the people. Some — about 50% — find him untrustworthy and agree with nothing he does or says.

Many still find his actions or inaction on Jan. 6, and the lies he perpetrated about an unfair election, unpardonable defining, a man who on one unforgettable day showed us he was not worthy of being our leader.

Let’s review what he’s done so far. He liberated 1,500 traitorous insurrectionists who brutalized policemen, threatened the life of the vice president and the House speaker in a violent attempt to overturn a fair election. He has appointed a coterie of inexperienced Cabinet members of unimpressive acumen, and dubious moral character, whose main qualification is their allegiance to their leader; he seeks to dismantle USAID and the Department of Education; and to purge the FBI as part of his vendetta against his political enemies.

Always the one to cast blame on his political adversaries, he accused California’s governor for the devastating fires in California, then blamed the horrific air crash above the Potomac River on the former secretary of Transportation.

Expansionist fantasies

He has “fantasized” about taking over the Gaza Strip and the Panama Canal, proposed making Canada our 51st state, gave the go-ahead to resume drilling in the Arctic, suggested we buy Greenland, and hopes to overturn the citizenship of those born in this country. He has encouraged 2 million federal employees to leave their jobs, terminated DEI hiring practices in the federal government and plans to defund PBS and NPR.

The president was elected in part because Americans were fed up with a government that failed to do anything about gun laws, immigration, rising prices, urban crime, the fentanyl crisis and endless congressional bickering.

Many felt America had changed over the past few years, but not for the better. When this happens, we turn to the past when times were better, or so we like to think.

Now it’s time to think about what our democracy might look like four years from now. Will we even recognize it? Will we have forgotten the time when our two-party system seemed to work, when the ‘checks and balances’ kept parity among the three branches of our government? And when one man thirsting for power could be restrained by those who remembered their allegiance not to a politician but to their country?

Michael O’Looney lives in Talent.