I have watched in amazement, and with incredulous disbelief, the rise of that odious human being that is Donald Trump. I have American friends who refer to him as “the one who shall not be named” for fear of giving him even more power than his narcissistic self demands or deserves.
I have watched YouTube clip after YouTube clip of the inhumanity that he spouts, of the bullying he fosters, of the terrorism he encourages, of the racism he declares is the American way, of the open audacity with which he encourages and sanctions his supporters to enact his ideologies.
And I am appalled.
I am appalled not only that he is a person that believes in such trollop (and I question if he does indeed believe in it, or has found some very clever way to tap into the fear of others to bring about his own dreams of ultimate power), but I am appalled that in a country that has built its sense of nationhood on democracy, equality, free market, freedom and liberty, that he has been allowed to continue for so long with this rhetoric and treatment of it’s own people, not to mention the open threat to other citizens in countries around the world.
And so, after watching yet another video footage of the abuse of a rally attendee, and reading the president’s views in this BBC article absolving himself of all responsibility, I felt compelled. I felt compelled to write to Barack Obama, who until the 20th January 2017 is still president.
I felt compelled to write to him because until that time, he is compelled and has a constitutional obligation to protect ALL of his citizens.
I felt compelled because he also has an obligation as the most powerful leader in the world to ensure the safety of the citizens around the world.
America spends 3.5% of its GDP on its military, a large portion of which is spent on campaigns around the world ensuring that terrorism does not alter our way of life. Whether you believe with this ideology and methodology is not up for debate here. What is up for debate is the duplicity of spending that kind of money against perceived terrorism around the world and yet doing nothing against a man who openly calls for it in your own country, simply because he is white, rich, and is an American citizen.
There is much that could be said about this. There is so much I want to say about how we are on the brink of something really terrible. There is so much I want to say about so many parallels that could be drawn with dictators of the past that still ring terrible truths some 70 years later. Have we learned nothing?
#THISISNOTDEMOCRACY
Until next time,
HEAR, HEAR, Sarah! …
what DT is espousing, is appalling! … he has primed himself for a long time, having the money and the power of “the celebrity” … he is a very shrewd man!
1930’s European history repeating itself and that is a very scary thing indeed!
I do hope you send that letter to Barack Obama I think he is very approachable and has been an incredible president in these difficult times!
much love m:)X
Thanks Merilyn. I too am afraid of what Trump is becoming, and the more the media feeds him, the more power he seems to draw. I sent the letter to Barack via FB and Twitter. I don’t expect any reply of course, but I felt better for having asked the question anyway. Thank you for stopping by and for taking the time to comment. xx
Very well said! No one can argue with this… unless they are as nuts as the one who shall not be named. Every time he comes to my attention, (which is not often because I shun all ‘news’ programmes on TV and other fear mongering propaganda), I can’t take him seriously. He is like a grotesque cartoon show with really dark humour. But then I remind myself he isn’t a comedic character – he is a real man with a sick mind and a lot of power. A deadly combination. This world gets weirder by the day! Hope your president does read this letter – he will be in London at the end of this week, maybe I should bust through the steel ring of security and wave it in his face! Nah – maybe not the best idea I’ve had.
True Gilly, he who shall not be named is a despot in my book. Alas, Barrack Obama is not my president, if only he were. Instead, we had Tony Abbott and now Malcolm Turnbull here in Australia. These are people without identity or direction, whose favourite past time is ping pong politics. Still, we have strict laws against owning guns at least. Ho hum 🙂 xx