Trump, the irresponsible boss
Many American analysts portray their president as an immature egomaniac with zero tolerance for frustration, a profile that is often that of dictators.
Donald Trump has launched the campaign for his reelection in 2020 in Orlando, Florida, near Disneyworld. More than a joke, it looks like a symbol. And he has done it with the same weapons that led him to victory in 2016: the lie, the insult, the excessive attack on the media that he considers hostile, that is, all except Fox News. This time he has gone too far by accusing The New York Times of treason. Even the conservative 'The Wall Street Journal', owned by Rupert Murdock - also owner of Fox News - accuses him of having crossed a red line. He's funny: he's been crossing all the red lines for two and a half years.
Many American analysts portray him as an immature egomaniac with zero tolerance for frustration. This is usually the profile of dictators. In the US political system, there are enough checks and balances to prevent a president from acting (too much) outside the law. One is the 'impeachment' (impeachment process). The Democrats still do not have a united criterion on whether they should initiate it, knowing that it will be difficult to win it, or to wait.
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It is not that he breaks the laws, which he cannot, it is the tone of a bully, a language that normalizes an anomalous behavior before the citizens. It will have consequences beyond his mandate, the depth of the damage will take years to emerge because it affects all levels of society. With Trump, various norms of democratic behavior are blown up. With it, one of the engines of a mature free society is being lost, understanding that no one is absolutely right, that dialogue with those who think differently is possible and advisable because it is a way of collective enrichment.
Praise and applause
With Trump, everything that is not the homage and applause is treason, any number that does not coincide with his is an alternative fact. He fires some collaborators and burns others all in an emotional mixer to which they are not used. The last to fall has been her spokesperson in the White House, Sarah Huckabee Sanders, who has left much of her prestige in defending the indefensible.
We are facing a guy who writes to the president of Twitter to denounce that the company is stealing followers from him. For him it is the tool of government, from it he issues orders, appoints and dismisses. And, above all, he insults. In the first 18 days of June he has tweeted 44 times against the media. Of the journalists he has just affirmed: “I would never kill them, but I hate them. (…) Many are liars and unpleasant ”.
The president of the United States does not know the Constitution that he swore in (in Spain we have examples), or does not give a damn. He violates the First Amendment several times every day, the pillar that guarantees and defends freedom of religion, of the press, of association and expression in the United States.
It is improper for the head of state to declare traitors to the newspapers that report on his growing legal problems. It is improper for a democratic president to attack the special counsel (Robert Mueller) who investigated him for the alleged relationship with Russia to harm Hillary Clinton and alter the outcome of the elections. It is inappropriate to listen to a compulsive liar who has installed himself in a parallel reality, who makes fun of the weakest, be they handicapped, immigrants or poor. America deserves another president; we also.
Not long ago I read a tweet that said - I write from memory -: "Fox News has done to our parents what they said they were going to make video games to us." This ultra-conservative chain, as well as ultra-websites and radios that leave Jiménez Losantos in a dangerous leftist position, have helped to fertilize the ideological field in which false news spreads. There are two differences with the lies of a lifetime: they are massive and are directed at an audience that has ceased to be interested in the truth. We live in an increasingly ignorant society, despite hyperinformation, and scared that it faces one of its greatest technological revolutions - robotics - and one of the most important challenges for the survival of the species - climate change. Instead of bravery and audacity, we have a string of populisms that are based on xenophobia and the attack on the dissenting party.
The media in democracy, with all the defects and dependencies of the economic power that is wanted, are essential to supervise the action of the Government, to deliver honest and contrasted information to the citizens. Eliminating the messenger is the first step in reaching the Orwellian world we are headed for. There are still weapons for defense, the most important of all is called a vote. Use it.
