Trump: Beyond the Moral Pale

Heather Heyer, killed by Neo Nazis in Charlottesville

The situation in USA is very dangerous as Neo Nazis are on the rise, egged on by a President who at times seems merely narcissistic and incompetent, but at times simply evil. The Guardian has a very good editorial which puts the case that Trump is ‘beyond the moral pale’. To me, USA now feels to me much like Germany must have felt in 1934, with a clearly deranged and hate filled leader supported by a fanatical band of supporters. In many countries and at many times in history small far right racist groups exist, but then in Germany and now in USA they have taken over the reins of power. The task humanity is faced with is getting rid of Donald Trump and all he stands for as quickly as possible, yet peacefully and in such a way as to strengthen democracy. If this is not done USA faces the real danger of civil war, or of Trump making a pre-emptive attack on another country just in order to try and unite Americans behind him.

Heather Heyer was killed in Charlottesville while peacefully protesting against the Neo Nazis assembling there. Her last words on Facebook were ‘If you aren’t outraged, you aren’t paying attention.’ Trump’s failure to clearly condemn the forces that killed her means he is totally unfit for office. Theresa May foolishly invited him on a state visit to the UK, which apparently he still intends to accept. This is comparable with inviting Hitler on a state visit to the UK in 1934, at that stage where he was in power, but while there was still an opportunity to limit the damage he was to do. Evil leaders must be opposed, strongly, peacefully and by the vast majority of ordinary citizens standing up for what is right. If Trump visits Britain the demonstrations will probably be the biggest in the history of this country. I would expect millions to be on the streets. One of the lessons from the Nazi era was that by staying silent we are complicit in evil. Good people must stand up and speak out.

In USA the ordinary citizens must join together to oust Trump. We have seen many Republicans distancing themselves from Trump: they need to go much further. I would like to see the majority of people encouraging politicians from across the spectrum of respectable political beliefs to work together to create a less confrontational and hate generating system of politics. The key is local people organising in their own communities but some top down leadership would also be useful. I’d like to see Jill Stein of the Greens, Bernie Sanders, Hilary Clinton, Jerry Brown and Barack Obama from the Democrats sitting down with respected Republicans such as George Bush, George W Bush, John McCain and perhaps Mitch McConnell and Paul Ryan. They may not agree about much, but rescuing American democracy ought to be a sufficiently unifying project. The most important thing is to change the tone of political debate. It has been too adversarial, confrontational and tribal for years. Putting proportional representation on the agenda might be the first step to help bring about a more collegiate atmosphere. American people are desperately insecure and atomized. A universal citizen’s income, free health and education would help to transform American people to feel more safe, secure and less susceptible to give their support to hate filled populist leaders. But these are just my ideas.

The new ideas and main opposition to Trump has to come from within American Society. Today I want to pay tribute to Heather Heyer and to the millions of Americans who are standing up, speaking out and putting their bodies in harm’s way in the interests of democracy.

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