Recently I’ve been wondering whether we’ve been getting this all wrong. Perhaps it was the media who colluded with the Russians to put Trump into the White House!!! After all, what would they have to report on if boring old Clinton had won!!

I am being tongue-in-cheek of course! But part of what I am saying is true. Myself, for one, has been thoroughly obsessed with the continuing nose-dive of the Trump presidency. His total lack of competency has been mind-blowing.

Those of you who know me personally know that I have never been a Trump supporter. In fact, during all of my adult life I have tended toward liberal and progressive politics, not conservative.

In Canada I have voted Liberal, New Democratic Party, and even occasionally Green Party. I feel pride in Alberta choosing NDP in our last election. For our “red-neck” province to vote in the most left-leaning party was freakish. And wonderful. The Conservatives had been in power so long (over forty years, I think) they had become complacent at best, corrupt at worst.

I have never been attracted to conservative political ideas. It has never made sense to me that any working class person could support parties who legislate against their own best interests. To cut benefits for the working class while cutting taxes for the richest in society is not only unproductive overall, it is immoral in my books.

But there is more to the Trump presidency than his being demonstrably unsuitable for the office. I can actually see some benefits resulting from his election to the highest office in the land. Trump has exposed an underbelly of hatred and racism heretofore being kept largely under wraps. His own language of hate has unleashed attitudes against pretty much anyone who is “different”. I think that, in the long run, bringing such ugliness to light will assist in eradicating it. Yes, it unchains violence. But it also forces us to face the reality of who we are.

Another thing, look at the active resistance he has fomented. It has been wonderful to see thousands and millions of people getting out to voice their opposition to the Trump presidency. From day one of his administration people have gathered to express their views. This is nothing less than democracy in action.

Trump’s ignoring the Constitution of the US has also forced more of us to increase our own knowledge of what is right and what is wrong. Apparently lying to his own people (something he does almost every time he opens his mouth) is not a crime. But soliciting campaign aid from a foreign power is. And it is becoming eminently clear that that is just what he has done.

If the results weren’t so frighteningly serious, it would be almost comical how absolutely everything Donald Trump has accused his political opponents of doing is exactly what he himself is guilty of. “Lying Ted.” Trump is a proven pathological liar. “Lock her up.” Now Trump’s own son and son-in-law are possibly facing criminal charges for their actions during the campaign. His creed of helping the working class find employment and better living conditions is now so laughable as to be pathetic. His, and the Republican Party’s, policies are designed to directly affect the lives of the poorest in society in negative ways. These policies will make for extremely desperate times for millions if they come to pass; and they will make the richest among us even richer, widening the gap between rich and poor. Such a widening gap has always, throughout history, created instability in societies.

Usually, in my lifetime at least, conservative policies have been attempted on the sly. Republicans have been adept at covering up their true agenda. They know how to make their insidious policies sound as if they will benefit the average Joe. The blatancy of Trump has brought these devious schemes right out into the open. There no longer seems to be any attempt to hide what they really are trying to do.

And what it looks like they are trying to accomplish is oligarchy and hegemony. The democratic freedom experiment of the United States of America seems to be on its last leg. The forces that be seem absolutely determined to end this experiment.

One of Trump’s latest diatribes that “France is no longer France”, or “Paris is no longer Paris”, seems to be coming full circle. The US of A is no longer the United States of America I grew up in and love. It is slowly and surely being destroyed from within.

It is sad to see this happening. Many people I know, both family and friends, live there still. We visit there regularly. I do not want to see this death happen before my eyes. I still have hope that the American people will have the courage to face what is evident and stand up and take a stand, no matter what the cost.