Is Donald Trump the leader of the Free World?
I heard a few pundits nitpicking this question last week. One said, yes, whether you like him or not, he’s the president of the United States and the United States is still the leader of the free world. The other quietly put forth that Angela Merkel is the clear leader. They didn’t beleaguer the point and soon moved on. But it really got me wondering.
How far has America fallen on the global stage since Trump has ascended the White House staircase? Certainly after his rude ice princess performance in Helsinki, not to mention his teddy bear picnics with Putin and Kim Jong Un, it’s hard to imagine that any nation feels that America is a steady and certain ally. Pulling out of international agreements and treaties that were carefully negotiated in good faith, intentionally sabotaging anything that President Obama previously put his name to regardless of its merit...these are not the actions of a stable leader.
Looking even deeper, one really has to ask, is Trump even the leader of America? Nathan Gardels of The World Post points out in his article last month that “Trump is not the leader of the U.S. — just of his base; ” in fact, that is the title of his article.
Ivan Kurilla is a professor of history and international relations at the European University at St. Petersburg who also supports this theory:
Critics of the president and supporters of the president live in two divergent worlds, within completely different sets of references. Since the end of 2016, Americans have been engaging in a new exacerbation of old conflicts about race, gender, monuments to Confederate history and other divisive issues. One might call them culture wars.
With his most recent war on his own intelligence community, coupled with his obsession of demonizing the free press (and fact-checkers) it seems Trump’s grasp on the reins of American democracy slips more each day.
Seriously, if you can’t lead your country, can your country lead the world?
By the time we right our ship, (and it will be righted, eventually) how far back in the fleet will America have fallen?
Does it matter? To whom? How much?
Interestingly, in my mind, it is the Republican Party who has always had an infatuation with world power. One would think they would be a little more far-sighted here. Then again, the image I have of McConnell, Ryan, and Trump’s other enablers, is that of greedy little boys who found the cookie jar with the lid off, on the edge of the counter while mom and dad were at work, and the Russian babysitter locked herself in the bedroom with a big bag of cheetohs and a bottle of wine. What could possibly go wrong?
But one of those parents is gonna get home sooner or later. Hopefully the house won’t have burned done by then. In the meantime, I wonder if any of the neighbors will want to step in and help the family out?
We need to remember, tRump is just a drunken babysitter. We are the parents. This is our house.