A Vacation in Spain (1): Return to the Trumpocalypse

“O, wad some Power the giftie gie us
To see oursels as others see us!
It wad frae monie a blunder free us,
An' foolish notion.”

- Robert Burns, "To a Louse"

After almost four weeks traveling - mainly in Spain, I am back in the US.  I did my best to avoid news from the Land of the Trumpocalypse but it was inescapable.  Europeans are looking on in astonishment at Trump's tweets and his ongoing gaffs, outbursts and contradictions.  Nearly everyone we spoke with about the situation in the US was somewhat mystified and/or appalled by Trump's election, rhetoric and executive actions.  A BBC news anchor wondered how the Trump budget was in any way "populist". Spanish newscasters got a kick out of reporting the number of executive actions issued in the short time Trump has been president.

As Trump issued his second travel ban for six Islamic countries and continued blathering about a border wall with Mexico, I saw a "Refugees Welcome" banner on a public building in Madrid while on a city tour bus.  Spain's unemployment rate is among the highest in Europe - hovering around 18%.  Yet here is this huge banner draped atop a public building.  What a contrast to the statements and actions of the leader of the richest nation on the planet!

As in the US, European democracies are also under threat from the far right, complete with anti-immigrant and Islamophobic rhetoric.  Britain's exit from the European Union was partly due to the far-right's ability to play on those fears.  Trump's election in November and his right-wing cabinet and advisers seemed to be yet another victory for this nationalist/nativist "populism". 

Finally, though, some good news for democracy came out of the Netherlands.  Voters there rejected the far-right in the national election on Wednesday March 15.  "Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte won reelection by a wide margin on Wednesday, defeating anti-Islam and Euroskeptic candidate Geert Wilders in a vote that was seen across Europe as a crucial test of democratic liberalism." (Christian Science Monitor, March 16)  The Dutch put a finger in the dyke, so to speak, at least for now....France, Germany and Italy have national elections in the coming months and far-right politicians are trying to gain more power.

Now back home, I wonder how long it will take for working-class Trump supporters to realize how little is being done for them.  Tax breaks for the wealthiest, increased funding for the obscenely bloated defense budget, and drastic cuts in domestic spending, environmental programs and foreign aid: this first Trump budget moves the country further down the path of inequality.  Hardly what anyone would call populist.  Tim Murphy in a Mother Jones article notes the ways Donald Trump's budget screws over the people who elected him.

Or does Trump and his administration just have to toss out the occasional red meat of anti-immigrant, Islamophobic rhetoric, mix in accusations against our first black president, and demean Obama's policies to keep their allegiance?

On the last point, I wish a Republican voter or Congressman would tell me how a health care plan that almost immediately deprives 14 million Americans of their health insurance while simultaneously providing a huge tax break for couples making over $250,000/yr is better than Obamacare.  Even those on the right are scratching their heads over the Republican health care plan.

In an interview with Paul Ryan, Fox News political commentator Tucker Carlson "suggested that Ryan was missing the big picture.  'The overview here is that all the wealth basically in the last 10 years has stuck to the top end. That’s one of the reasons we have had all this political turmoil, as you know,' Carlson said. 'So, it’s kind of a hard sell to say, ‘We are going repeal Obamacare, but we are going to send more money to the people who have gotten the richest over the last 10 years.’ That’s what this does, no? I am not a leftist; that’s just true.' ” (Salon, Mar 9)

Health care protests are springing up across the country but the House is too overwhelmingly Republican for the protests to stop the health care plan from passing.  At least 23 representatives would have to defect against what has been the primary rallying call for the party's base for the past seven years. Assuming Republicans get their health plan through the House, it will then be up to Senate Democrats to stop it.  Even the most outrageous of Trump's cabinet appointees were approved by the Senate and there is no reason to think that 3 or more Republican Senators would vote against the health bill. Democrats will need to filibuster it.

The courts are keeping Trump within the bounds of the Constitution - most recently by throwing his own words back at him. "In placing a temporary restraining order on the revised version of a Trump executive order restricting entry from Muslim majority countries, a federal judge in Hawaii cited quotes from several TV and print interviews of Trump and his surrogates.  'These plainly-worded statements, made in the months leading up to and contemporaneous with the signing of the Executive Order, and, in many cases, by the Executive himself, betray the Executive Order’s stated purpose,' wrote District Judge Derrick Watson.  A second federal judge in Maryland made a similar case on Thursday in a second restraining order." (Time, March 16)

So thank the founding fathers for the checks and balances.  We may yet be able to avoid becoming an autocracy within the next four years.