Skip to main content

Response to "Trump: America's Last President?" by Lily Wobbe

Response to "Trump: America's Last President?" by Lily Wobbe

The U.S. will not be a fascist dictatorship anytime in the foreseeable future, good job, go team! I agree with this premise expressed in "Trump: America's Last President?" on Lily Wobbe's blog "Fakes vs Facts", but I must respectfully disagree on some key points made in the post. Let's start off by stating that I do not believe Trump will be America's last president. I don't understand how someone could think that. However, it seems to me that Trumpism and its rhetoric is a clear sign of the decline of western democracy, whether a symptom or a cause. 

Lily states that "(Trump) is not "destroying democracy" like some people argue", but I would have to say he, slowly but surely, absolutely is. Trump's reckless and callous disregard for the fine balance of institutions that keep our nation running is dangerous to democracy at the very least. The most blatantly obvious example of this from the J&C wing would be his countless assaults on the free press. Even though the American people may be desensitized to it now as this absurdity has become routine, the current President of the United States of America has repeatedly called the media "the enemy of the people". I shouldn't need to tell anyone reading why that is a textbook definition of destroying democracy. Trump lost the popular vote by over three million votes, but he denies this fact and falsely claims he won if you don't count illegal votes. Our president's campaign had a meeting with representatives of a hostile foreign government seeking to influence the race for president and interfere with the democratic process. These are just a few examples of a plethora that could be called upon to show how Trump has fueled the degradation of democracy as we know it. I would love for someone to show me exactly how this hasn't weakened our republic, but unfortunately, I doubt that anyone can.
           
Of Lawrence Britt's Fourteen Defining Characteristics of Fascism, each and every one is present in the U.S. today. By my count, Trump has worsened every last one of those symptoms. Certainly, we can all agree that Trump has brought a heightened sense of nationalism, protected corporate power and given the military a "disproportionate amount of government funding" despite "widespread domestic problems" Lily points out that Trump only has a little over two years left. She makes it sound like he couldn't feasibly have a second term, but it is quite possible he has six years and four months left. Anyway, I don't mean to sound alarmist, but I do mean what I write. We have checks and balances, but our system isn't foolproof. Our systems and institutions take time to decay, but they will without proper care. Nazi Germany wasn't built in a day, a foundation of hatred had to slowly be built up first before the seemingly sturdy Weimar Republic could be torn down. It could happen here. Trump certainly isn't Hitler, his supporters absolutely are not nazis. No, Trump will not be the last president. However, many of his actions are a potent threat to our as of yet unfailing democracy. 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Not with a Bang but a Trickle

Not with a Bang but a Trickle The history of mass communication has inevitably become intertwined with the history of technology at large. When learning the history our lessons usually start with the advent of a new invention. Lessons have started with the metal moveable type printing press, the phonograph, and the camera. On the surface, the picture some lectures paint is that history has hinged on critical individuals and that broader social phenomenon have been propagated by the "great men" of history. This posit is based on discussions from multiple classes, but the idea came back me because of the discussions about music and sound recording technologies.  I have multiple problems with the aforementioned implications of some lectures. When our class learned about music, it all started with Thomas Edison. We learned about his phonograph, and Berliner's gramophone and then all of modern musical history as if these late 19th century inventions kickstarted an imm...
Post a Comment
Read more

We Forward in this Generation Triumphantly

We Forward in this Generation Triumphantly A Response to Isabella Bonilla's  "A Reflection Of the Past 72 Hours" The past few weeks, months and years have looked bleak for the grand arc of human triumph over tribalism. From Brexit to Bolsonaro, rifts between groups of people have become evident if not enlarged.  Isabella responded to  a class discussion on hate crimes committed in recent days with an eloquently worded piece. (Yes I realise I have already responded to one of Isabella's posts, but they are thoughtful and not too many posts for this continuation have been made yet). In it she makes many points about the media's role in covering a tragedy. She also points out that the internet, the modern marvel it is, has a rampant problem with disinformation and promoting radicalizing echo chambers. I agree in many regards that the internet and social media are not beneficial to the state of public discourse. I don't have any social media because I ...
1 comment
Read more

Yellow Journalism and Democracy (Mama Mia, here we go again with historical connections to what we learn in class)

Yellow Journalism and Democracy Mama Mia, here we go again with historical connections to what we learn in class Why does fake news exist? I have briefly dabbled into the topic of fake news in previous posts, but today seems like the perfect time to do a deeper dive as we talked about yellow journalism in class on Wednesday. More specifically, what happens when a news organization is willing to compromise its integrity, truth, and loyalty to the people in order to sell papers or today, ads. This year's J+C freshman class has had it drilled into our minds from day one that a journalist's first loyalty is always to the people, and for good reason. The original era of yellow journalism was born from a natural and capitalist desire of corporations to make money, and from the public's desire to be entertained. In class my classmates and I learned about yellow journalism in the context of Joseph Pulitzer and William Randolph Hearst, not Rupert Murdoch or Ted Turner. But woul...
Post a Comment
Read more