One year ago, we were the world leader in so many areas. These included:
- Our trade relationships including NAFTA.
- Our international treaties which included the Iran Deal.
- North Korea was a problem, but was not volatile.
- Our leadership in development of renewable energy sources and environmental policies.
- While we were far from being leaders, we were on the path to provide affordable healthcare to a very large number of Americans.
- Our country respected and championed diversity.
- Immigrants and refugees were welcomed.
- Our country was respected and trusted by rest of the world.
Now that Donald Trump is our president, his policies and those of the Republicans are now in ascendancy. In my opinion, these policies have profoundly weakened America in many ways, some of which I’ve listed below:
- We are no longer the respected and trusted leader of the world.Many of the deals and treaties that have been in place for years are to be “renegotiated” (translation:abandoned).
- The individual primarily responsible for our foreign policy has been called a “moron” by the Secretary of State.
- NAFTA is in shambles with the US making one outrageous demand after another.
- The White House wants to terminate the Iran Nuclear deal.
- The North Korean situation has become so dangerous that the Republican Chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee has suggested that we are on the verge of World War III.
- Our leadership in renewable energy and sustainable environmental policies is fading.
- Our policies now give vast benefits to the rich at the expense of everyone else.
- The US Congress is planning tax reforms – Translation:Tax cuts with 80% going to the top 1%.
- Obamacare is being sabotaged. The Republican alternative to repealing it is to profoundly weaken it. Reason: To fund the tax cuts.
- Corporate America receives huge subsidies and tax breaks.
- An additional $100 billion has been allocated to our already bloated military budget. In other words, it is more important to build more bombers than it is to invest in our schools, bridges and power grid.
- The White House has been referred to as an adult day care center.
- Science is disparaged and disregarded whenever convenient.
- Many federal departments are now headed by people who are opposed to their traditional missions.This includes the EPA and the Departments of Labor, Interior, Education and Justice.
- Diversity and respect for immigrants are now expletives.
- Ethics and transparency have been abandoned in many parts of the federal government.
- Hypocrisy, chaos and greed reign.
- Governments of two major Western powers, namely the US (Trump) and Great Britain (Brexit) are in the midst of major disruption. Both were engineered by Steve Bannon and paid for by the Mercers.
All this has happened in less than a year thanks to the leadership of Donald J. Trump and the complicit Republican Congress. Congratulations to Vladimir Putin who supported him. Putin has accomplished so much at so little cost to himself and his country. And he didn’t even have to start a shooting war.
P.S. Some might tell me that some of these points are exaggerations. I won’t dispute that. However, keep in mind my major point which is that Trump is doing major damage to the citizens and institutions of our beloved country and that some of that damage may well take decades to undo, assuming that we survive the four years of this presidency.