The Gap and the Glory

The task of scrupulously monitoring the presidency soon to be before us is daunting and depends much upon Republicans many of whom if not most in Congress seemingly have lined up like good soldiers behind the authoritarian Trump.  The motivation behind the two thousand opinions I have written since 2004 has crashed. I feel like Sisyphus pushing that massive rock up the mountain only to be smacked down by its weight making him begin all over again. 

As President Obama's term winds down I have wanted to write two opinions: one about the massive gap between the right and left and what makes us so entirely different.  What makes one group want to embrace the variety of human beings on the planet, care about them and help them but the other on the right wants to obliterate them as they seek world domination of their own singular (white) tribal group?  What make one loathe war and the other love the fight's killing?  What makes these groups so opposite and their fight for power between them so verbally and sometimes physically so bloody? How did we get an Alt Right sympathetic president paying homage to American Nazis or Nationalists putting Steve Bannon, the champion of the right wing extremist sometime conspiratorial Brietbart.com just 5 feet from the president's ear.  Why is the media of sensationalist origin paying homage to a right wing nationalist Nazi-like Party that shows outstretched Heil Trump Nazi-like saluting arms?  This is an America I do not recognize and worse this cancer is globally spreading courtesy of Trump.

The subject is vast requiring, perhaps, a well researched book.  My question is not only about the extremes but everywhere in between them.  It encompasses psychology, sociology, economic philosophy and more.  It is the difference between the extremes of Karl Marx on the left and Ayn Rand on the right. In short, why is the right's philosophical base characterized by giving an inhumane uncaring cold shoulder to the poor but possessing a feverish heat for world dominion and the left is noted for its compassion toward those who have less and are dogged by fortune's flight.  The right of center George W. Bush, who made war on a people who did nothing to us and eternally fractured the entire Middle East, called himself a "compassionate conservative."  I always thought if one had to put that adjective in front of "conservative" then conservative must be noted for its lack of compassion and cruelty without conscience.  Who would say compassionate liberalism?  Liberalism by it very definition is inherently compassionate.

The other opinion I wanted to write is a thank you note to President Obama whom I wish could occupy a Rooseveltian presidency for more years than 8!  He seems to me now so wonderful despite those within the Democratic Party who decried some policy.  President Obama is a giant intellect arguably made for the highest most powerful office in the world.  We get now, compared to him, a deranged narcissist, anti-intellectual, ignorant, incompetent and unfit-to-occupy-the presidency, Trump, lining up to take President Obama's place.  I shudder at the thought.  Yes, I am indescribably scared.  What on god's earth will Trump do with his legion conflicts of interest?  He has over 500 businesses in all parts of the globe.  He sometimes says he will put it in the protection of a blind trust within the Trump family.  That is NOT I repeat NOT a blind trust.  The con Trump will use the presidency as his cash cow with taxpayer money and there is no one to blame but 1/2 of this vast nation who put him in office. You will get the president for whom you voted.  The gap between left and right and between Obama and Trump is as wide as the oceans. 

I saw the president, yesterday, bestow 21 Medals of Freedom on a most diverse array of humanity who have contributed so much to this nation and the world.  The president said that the Medal of Freedom was “a tribute to the idea that all of us, no matter where we come from, have the opportunity to change this country for the better.” Those who received the medal from Michael Jordan and Karem Abul Jabar to Ellen DeGeneres, whose tears receiving the medal welled up in her eyes, are what excellence looks like and is composed of what America is or has been.  Ellen made me cry too.  All those wonderful artists from all walks of life received this nation's tribute of the Medal of Freedom from a president whose academic brilliance shines like a star in the heavens.  Those who received it were a rainbow flag of color as Obama tried to project his presidential legacy in the little time he has left to occupy the office.  The subjects about which I am thinking require a Herculean effort.  My mantra is always onward.  I hope I and all of us can now live up to the glory of its calling.