Call Me What You Will

As I've said before my most American quality is that I'm stupidly optimistic. I like to think that I look at data, people, and situations and generally try to see the best coming forth. But with that I try to balance it out with preparation for a worst case scenario. Right now, my optimism is shattering.

I want to be wrong right now. I want to believe that my fears, great and small, are unfounded and that I my growing pessimism is folly. But like I said, I look at data.

I fear that Donald J. Trump is going to irreparably harm the United States of America and the world at large. He could be helping to set the stage for a literal Third World War and a new age of civil rights abuses in this country.

Two or three years ago a friend told me that I was mistaken that Russia was the nation that posed the biggest threat to the US. He agreed that Vladimir Putin was an awful, authoritarian person but that we faced bigger problems with China. At the time he may have been right. But flash forward to December 2016 and we have highly reputable reports that Russians have hacked into both Republican and Democratic National Committees servers and used that information to sway the election to allow Donald Trump to win. And this is following his very open respect for Putin and an alignment with Russia. His current choice for Secretary of State is Rex Tillerson, a long time friend of Putin. And just like Putin when faced with charges of steroid abuse in his country's Olympians Trump hasn't denied any of this, he's simply mocking people for making the claims. Puppet or comrade, Trump is siding with the country that has most directly worked to compromise American democracy.

I understand why there are people who hate capitalism. Some hate money altogether but the truth is that it has a multifaceted purpose. One of those purposes is peace. People who hate each other can put aside their differences when there is mutual benefit to their commercial interactions. This is why free trade is such an important part of international politics. When two or more nations are placed in a situation through trade in which they can find mutual benefit, whether it's the stuffing of coffers or simply the coddling of an otherwise adversary, a peace can be found. And by peace I don't mean harmonious love. By peace I simply mean the absence of war.

Trump doesn't give two fucks about peace and, based on his campaign promises he isn't a fan of free trade either. He is trying to destroy our trade relationship with the country my friend most feared, China. Tariffs, taxation, seeking "fairness," whatever you want to call it Trump is trying to disrupt a flow of commerce with the greatest manufacturing force in the world and that's economically dangerous. But you know what else is dangerous? Taking phone calls from Taiwan's president and thereby disregarding 40 plus years of tenuous diplomatic relationships with the country most capable of causing America military harm.

Do I need to go on? YES?! Okay, how about Muslims? You know who hates Muslims more than Americans? Europeans. And if Trump colludes with Russia to assist the Assad regime in Syria to fight ISIS there will be a greater exodus of refugees and with his "extreme vetting" he promises they are more likely to go north than west. Boy, that won't act to destabilize European relations, will it?

And speaking of destabilizing...how about the fact that the vast majority of his Cabinet appointees have all expressed a vested interest in weakening and dismantling the very Departments with which they are to head? And not in some sort of libertarian fighting-government-overreach sort of way. But in a I'm-not-qualified-or-I-have-sued-this-Department-or-have-opposing-commercial-interests sort of way. I'm not even putting forth my worst case scenario here. I'm not even trying to put my most pessimistic spin on it. This is the reality any critical thinking person would have to acknowledge.

We need to fight to defend our civil liberties, to understand the meaning of "black lives matter," to allow our LGBT community to just live their fucking lives. We have to protect reproductive rights and fight theocracy. But I fear that we may be so fatigued from those struggles that we are unable to solidly plant our feet in a peace movement and that our fragmented society will be used as a tool to flaming the fires of war.

So what will the gust of wind that will blow the house of cards over? Iran bombing Israel? Israel bombing Egypt? A terrorist attack? Another stupid fucking phone call with Taiwan? I don't know. And I hope I never find out.

I want to be wrong so hard. I want people to be able to look back at this blog and say "Chuck, you were a X and you totally interpreted the current events incorrectly."
I suggest X = "silly goose" OR "dumb motherfucker." Either one has a poetry to it I can appreciate.

I'll be happy to be wrong. More than anything in the world I want to be wrong. And I'll put some skin in the game. In four years if we avoid war, if our economy is booming, if our unemployment is low, if our civil liberties are secure, if women can safely get abortions, if native lands are protected, if incarceration is down, if we return to community policing, if we have healthy trade relationships with the rest of the word, if cyber security is fortified, and America can guarantee that democracy will be preserved and our elections are safe and trustworthy, I'll vote for Trump. But for that to happen something needs to happen to seriously restore my optimism.

Call me what you will.