9/9/20
After Labor Day, President Donald Trump's reelection campaign will shift into high gear — but his plea for four more years is being drowned out by the outrage over charges largely confirmed by CNN that he called America's war dead "suckers" and "losers." This, of course, is not Trump's first self-inflicted wound. It is merely the latest in a long list of scandals and revelations, which make the case that our impeached-but-not-convicted president is undeserving of reelection but also the worst president in US history. After Trump's first term in the highest office, the US, in many ways, is unrecognizable. More than 189,000 have died of Covid-19 and the economy has collapsed. Much of the of the world now pities us for the poor leadership we must endure. Trump has wounded the nation's psyche. He denigrates those who won't kowtow to him, including elected officials, the press and anyone who dares to challenge his actions. He does all this as he tries to claim excess power for himself. It feels to many like the US has become a nightmare. No wonder a recent Gallup poll found Americans are more politically divided than they have been in the over 80-year history of the poll. It is audacious, of course, to suggest that someone is categorically the worst president in history, but it is no more audacious than Trump's own first-term claims to greatness, made with more than 20,000 untruths and deceptions documented in running fashion by the Washington Post.
The President's most absurd claim — a main theme of his reelection campaign — is that he did everything he said he would do. His slogan, "Promises Made, Promises Kept," is another lie. Among the promises he failed to fulfill are: building a border wall that Mexico would pick up the tab for, replacing Obamacare with something better, heavily investing in rebuilding our infrastructure, reducing the federal debt, ending trade deficits and creating vast numbers of jobs. In many cases, the good things that have happened during the Trump years depended on momentum created by his predecessors. Coming out of the Republican convention, Trump signaled that we will get more of the same from him between now and November 3. He practiced his signature name-calling against the mayor of Portland, Oregon, resumed undermining the use of masks to protect public health, and demonstrated his contempt for mail-in voting by suggesting people vote twice — of course this is against the law — because the system may not work. The President's behavior is irresponsible but consistent. By Election Day the man who has always demanded to be regarded as special may well have cemented the title of first among the worst of Americans. But we won't be delivered from his traumatic era if a convincing majority fails to recognize this reality.