I’m baffled and appalled to read that around 40% of Americans still approve of Donald Trump and his actions as president. It should be obvious that Trump is a malicious thug who is destroying American democracy as well as our political and economic position in the world solely in order to satisfy his vanity and his voracious need for attention, power and money.
Why do the 40% not see that Trump’s aggressive military actions against Venezuela without any congressional authorization and without any justification of legitimate self-defense violates the Constitution and international law and threatens to kill democracy? Why do they not see that attacking another country to steal its oil and to “run” it without knowing how to run it or the costs of running it won’t make America great, that instead it turns friends and allies into enemies and drains American resources? Do they think, like Trump and his minions, that military aggression makes Trump look strong, although he stays safe in the White House and isn’t doing any actual fighting?
Why do the 40% not see that “taking” Greenland and forcibly incorporating it into the U.S. against the will of its people would be monstrously irrational, self-destructive, and unjust?That the reckless deployment to U.S. cities of federal forces such as ICE and federalized National Guard troops to usurp the law enforcement functions of local police against the wishes of local authorities is a huge step toward dictatorship? That Trump’s unabashed embrace of white supremacy, repudiating the basic principle that all people are created equal and have equal value, weakens rather than strengthens the nation?
I think that one answer to the “why” question is that so many billionaires who fancy themselves masters of the universe practically own the minds of many people through their influence over, or control of, mass media. Think Rupert Murdoch’s Fox News, Elon Musk’s X, Mark Zuckerberg’s Facebook, Jeff Bezos’ Washington Post, as well as an increasing number of radio stations, newspapers, and TV stations. Then, too, these billionaires, who care only about increasing or preserving their wealth and power, fund a host of “think-tanks” that flood mass media with “reports” that are nothing but propaganda for the self-serving views of their billionaire donors.
Alas, billionaires practically own the federal government through their political donations, lobbying, and media campaigns. (They completely own the Republican Party now.) The federal government under the leadership of billionaire Donald Trump shamelessly showers the people with lies that benefit billionaires, such as the claims that the threat posed by climate change is a hoax and that renewable energy such as solar and wind are bad for the U.S. economy.
Trump and his billionaire supporters (mostly white males) think that they are the only ones fit to rule because their immense wealth proves to them their superiority over ordinary people. They oppose majority rule because they think that most people aren’t intelligent and knowledgeable enough to deserve political influence and they know that in the long run, most people will not be fooled by them. That’s why Trump has been struggling to ensure that as many people who live in blue states or blue cities as possible are disenfranchised, establishing rule by the minority rather than rule by the majority.
We who make up the approximately 60% who now oppose or Trump must do all we can to help the 40% who still support Trump to see him for what he is.
Emmett Barcalow lives in Amherst.