Heil PresidentTtrump

January 20^th marked a new day in our history, for our country has now embraced the new movement, “Make America Great Again.”  However, accompanying this movement is the morphing of the Constitutional right of freedom of speech into restricted intimidation.

Individuals with whom we now disagree are no longer considered simply misguided, but instead are labeled as malevolent and toxic.  More and more Americans now fervently characterize any person or institution providing facts challenging their point of view as liars engaging in demonized brainwashing.  They also prefer to rely on social media as their sole source of information, ignoring its authenticity, and in many cases accepting one-sided propaganda as long as it supports their political ideology.  Sadly, many Trump supporters have chosen to replace the fourth estate with presidential Tweets.

Dictators embrace and reinforce this type of behavior because their control over those they govern is dependent upon their success in totally eliminating news sources that question their authority or decisions.   President Trump seeks to accomplish this by delegitimizing news sources that question or challenge his decisions.  He uses disparaging terms like “fake news,” “liars,” or “a failing piece of garbage” when discussing these sources.   Additionally, as is the case with most thin-skinned dictators, he promotes other media sources that feed his ego as the only source of the “true facts.”

President Trump’s inner circle just recently initiated another component of his well-orchestrated game plan to discredit some media sources.  This involves the crafting of “alternative facts” as cover for the many false media statements Trump makes that are not supported by empirical evidence.

However, they do provide another unintentional side benefit by protecting Trump’s fragile ego.  These “alternative facts” allow him to keep intact his desperate need to always appear to be the best in all his life’s endeavors.  They also help feed his self-proclaimed image of the savior, the only one that can rescue this nation from doom and gloom, but let's keep in mind that "alternative facts" are lies.

Another troubling aspect of our new president lies with his obsessive intolerance towards radio and TV talk shows, influential U.S. bloggers and websites, and even TV comedy shows that don’t agree with his political actions.   A review of his many disparaging Tweets indicates the degree to which this obsession borders on abnormality.

Tragically, what President Trump and some of his supporters fail to understand is it’s essential for the survival of this democratic nation that all types of multidimensional perspectives continue to exist.  It is not the role of the Commander-in-Chief to assist in the demise of any, for they help to keep everyone honest.   We do not live in a dictatorship!

As the singer/song writer Rosanne Cash so aptly noted, “It is the people who scream the loudest about America and freedom who seem to be the most intolerant for a differing point of view.”  Unfortunately this has reached a boiling point in our nation.  What is even more disturbing is that President Trump has intentionally adopted a demagogue role that continues fanning the fire to keep it raging.   This is not how one “Makes America Great Again.”

Hipocracy at its finest

During the tenure of former president Barrack Obama he invoked executive orders 277 times.   He was lambasted by the Republicans in Congress, including Louisiana representatives Steve Scalise and Bill Cassidy, for thwarting the Constitution by ignoring the balance of power and acting without Congressional approval. Conservative talk show hosts fill the airways with ‘alternative facts’ that President Obama invoked executive orders more frequently than any other recent president, when in fact, President Obama’s use of them was the second lowest in recent years

In the first four days of President Donald Trump’s term he has issued 12 executive orders.  At his current rate he will most likely surpass the king of executive orders during the last 36 years, Ronal Reagan, who clocked in at 381.

President Trump comes from a business environment where if the CEO of a corporation makes a decision it is immediately implemented without debate or discussion.  There is no such thing as the balance of power concept in his world. It closely resembles the political governing style of a dictatorship.

It will be interesting these next four years to see how long it takes the present U.S. Congress to hold President Trump to the same standards as it did the previous administration.  However, from the praise that Rep Steve Scalise opined concerning Trump’s executive order limiting federal dollars to national and international organizations that provide abortion services, it’s apparent that the wide-spread use of executive orders is only negative when it runs counter to the political agenda of the party in power.

Apparently, as indicated by the total silence of the present majority party, the issuing of executive orders was never about violating the Constitution, it was simply the political party issuing the executive orders.

It will be interesting to see when Reps. Scalise and Cassidy will rein in our new president and demand that he operate within the Constitution as they so vigorously argued for in the past.

Isn’t the hypocrisy of politics amazing?