On the EDge: I genuinely fear for the future of the United States

August 28, 2017 Utah Channel 3

OPINION — I didn’t expect it would get so bad, so bitter, so utterly out of control that there would be such a feeling of dread each morning as I turned on the television to catch up on what happened overnight.

I knew there would be discord.

From the very beginning, it was perfectly clear that the president is one of those people who thrives on chaos and an environment that pits those who work for him in constant, often brutal, confrontation. One viewing of that horrid reality television show he starred in would tip you to that.

But I really didn’t think it would be this bad.

I wasn’t prepared for the lies – from his super-inflated crowd estimates for the inauguration to his conspiracy theory-flamed charges that President Barack Obama had tapped his telephones.

I wasn’t prepared for his lack of understanding of the way government works. Surely, I thought, he had taken a high school civics class. But even with a Congressional majority, he cannot find consensus for his legislative agenda.

“I thought being president would be easier than my old life,” he has said.

It was clear from the get-go that he had an ego that needed constant stroking. But I didn’t realize he was so insecure, that his self-esteem is so low, that he would require his staff go around the table at a meeting and sing his praises and that he would require news briefings filled with only positive news.

“My IQ is one of the highest — and you all know it!” he said. “Please don’t feel so stupid or insecure; it’s not your fault.”

I knew he was a man of questionable moral character. He is three wives in and often brags about his conquests, from his crude remarks to Billy Bush on “Access Hollywood” about grabbing women by the crotch to his admission on network television that he enjoyed cheating on his first wife with his second wife.

“My life was so great in so many ways,” he said during an interview with ABC Primetime Live in 1994. “The business was so great… a beautiful girlfriend, a beautiful wife, a beautiful everything. Life was just a bowl of cherries.”

But I didn’t know his moral compass was so out of whack that he would consider launching nuclear weapons without the ultimate provocation.

“Why can’t we use nuclear weapons?” he asked not once, not twice, but three times during a foreign policy meeting.

I knew he had difficulties with minorities, but I didn’t expect him to equate those who oppose the Ku Klux Klan and neo-Nazis with terrorists.

He still insists that he will build a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border and that Mexico will pay for it.

He recently banned transgender people from serving in the U.S. military.

I knew he wasn’t a particularly courageous man, claiming bone spurs to keep him out of the military draft during the Vietnam War, but I didn’t realize he was so cowardly that he would bury the controversial news of his pardoning former Maricopa County Arizona Sheriff Joe Arpaio in a Friday night news dump while a dangerous hurricane was bearing down on Texas, North Korea was firing missiles into the sea and one of his most controversial aides resigned.

But that’s what happened when Sheriff Joe was given a pass after being convicted of repeatedly violating the Constitution with his illegal racial profiling.

Finally, I knew he has, generally, held the media in complete contempt, feeding false items to make him look good in the gossip columns and castigating reporters who have written inconvenient truths about him, whether as a ne’er-do-well trust baby, candidate or president.

But I didn’t expect him to put up such a prolonged, savage attack on the media, which has repeatedly included his tired playground taunt of “fake news.”

“For the most part, honestly, these are really, really dishonest people,” he said during his campaign-style rally in Phoenix last week. “And they’re bad people. And I really think they don’t like our country.”

Tom Brokaw, the dean of U.S. news reporters, responded immediately with a Tweet.

“mr (sic) president, i’ve been a journalist 50 yrs. Never met one who didn’t love USA. Many risk their lives reporting on US values. Cheap shot.”

Indeed, a cheap shot.

Look, I don’t like Donald Trump.

I don’t like writing about Donald Trump.

But I also don’t like what is happening in the United States, from all the infighting and incivility to the suspension of our constitutional rights, either through such unpardonable actions as cutting Joe Arpaio loose to sidling up to hate groups like the KKK and neo-Nazi fascists.

We’re better than that, are we not?

“The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing,” Irish statesman Edmund Burke said. It’s time to apply that message. It is our moral obligation.

We endured a disgusting presidential campaign filled with uninformed policy positions, ridiculous promises and crude references often interspersed with the mantra “Make America great again.”

We should have realized America had no place in that dime-store catch phrase. In reality, the campaign was all about “Make Donald Trump great again.”

The president has failed at that, of course.

But not as much as those who bought into this sham, voted for him and continue to remain in his dwindling base.

The nation has not been this divided since the Civil War.

We have not held each other in as much contempt, suspicion or disregard as we do now.

And I am sad to say that I am, at this time, truly afraid for the future of the United States, not only because of this lack of respect for the rule of law, but more importantly for this lack of respect for humanity, dignity and freedom.

We cannot, we must not, sit back and do nothing.

No bad days!

Ed Kociela is an opinion columnist for St. George News. The opinions stated in this article are his own and may not be representative of St. George News.

Email: edkociela.mx@gmail.com

Twitter: @STGnews, @EdKociela