The Donald Trump Presidency; A Greek Tragedy

Character is destiny.  Heraclitus, Greek philosopher*

In the world that revolves around Donald Trump, we find a Greek Tragedy, not dissimilar to that of Sophocles’ Antigone.  In this modern tragedy, Trump plays King Creon who foretold the failure of the Greek political culture.  In Antigone, Creon is the victor in a civil war that results in the death of Polynices.  By decree, Creon orders that Polynices’ body lay unburied, in violation of Greek custom.  Antigone is Polynices’ sister who challenges the decree and is imprisoned.  The Chorus (public sentiment) rises up against Creon.  As with all good Greek tragedies, many people die and Creon ends up alone due to his excessive pride.  Antigone, Creon’s wife, and son, all commit suicide.  The German philosopher Hegel summarized the play’s lesson as, “A state that finds itself in a position of internal contradiction cannot survive.”

King Trump Greek Tragedy

While King Trump has ascended to the American throne 2,460 years after Creon, there are certain parallels here.  President Trump’s clash with Comey, and now Mueller, represents a contradiction between the rule of law and the will of the elected president.  The checks and balances built into our system of government provide conflict and stress between executive power and the laws and norms of American democracy.

In the national obsession that is Donald J. Trump, we have all learned things that we may have suspected were true but now know to be fact.  Many wealthy individuals have a different rulebook, a different set of morals, and a different set of standards by which they live.  I know that is a generalization and that there are certainly members of the “Community of One Percenters” that are decent human beings who respect the rule of law, common morality, and fair play.  Donald Trump and others in his orbit all seem to march to the beat of a different drummer and take direction from a different moral compa$$.

Money Compass

If ever you need to read about the special rules that seem to apply only to wealthy people, try this link to a recent Miami Herald investigation.  The article outlines the case of Jeffrey Epstein who repeatedly engaged in sexual activity with underage girls (as many as 80 were identified) at his waterfront Palm Beach mansion.  He got off with a comparative slap on the wrist.  

Served 13 months instead of life.
The 13 months was with work release, he only slept at the prison at night.

Epstein's wealth got him a sweetheart deal and provided his unnamed friends a free pass with no prosecution.  All of this was thanks to then-State Attorney Barry Krischer's and U.S. Attorney Alexander Acosta's handling of the case with kid-gloves.  Before you ask, yes that is the same Alexander Acosta who is President Trump's Secretary of Labor and, until November 29, 2018, a possible replacement to Jeff Sessions as the Attorney General.  Also in this circus is Kenneth Starr, who led the investigation into the Clintons and Whitewater and the Monica Lewinsky scandal, who just happens to be the child molester Epstein's attorney.  

Just a few of Epstein's victims

The article also mentions Donald Trump who is accused of having sex with a thirteen-year-old girl at Epstein's mansion in Palm Beach.  The cast of characters in Epstein's world included his friends former President Bill Clinton, former national security adviser Sandy Berger, former Colombian President Andrés Pastrana, Donald Trump, Prince Andrew, Kevin Spacey, and lawyer Alan Dershowitz.  Just another example of the "finest people" and their little peccadillos.

Donald Trump and the Clintons were not always enemies.

Politics makes strange bedfellows

When it comes to Donald Trump, money is at the heart of all his decisions.  He is not concerned with the U.S. economy except as it benefits him.  The Trump Tower he has sought for almost 30 years in Russia is at the center of his soft and preferential treatment of Putin and all things Russian.  When you delve into the backgrounds of Donald Trump, Paul Manafort, Michael Cohen, Roger Stone, etc., you find people who think lying, cheating, and deception are all just part of doing business and how the game is played in their rarefied world.

All 5 of the "Finest People" Guilty

The almost daily attacks by President Trump on Mueller, his legitimate investigation, the FBI, the Department of Justice, and virtually anyone not seen as supportive of his executive-centric rule, certainly should set off alarms.  His blatant obstruction of due process should result in universal outrage.

Cries of “Witch Hunt” are an attempt by a desperate man to delegitimize any eventual findings that wend their way into the public domain.  Have we as a nation come to the point where we idolize a draft dodging self-absorbed billionaire and demonize a man who volunteered for the Marines and won a Bronze Star with “V” distinction for valor?  Mueller's medal was earned rescuing a fellow fallen soldier during a firefight that saw half of his platoon become casualties.

Donald Trump has regularly stated that he surrounds himself with the finest people.  As we now look at those “finest people”, we find that Michael Cohen, Michael Flynn, Rick Gates, Paul Manafort, George Papadopoulos, and Samuel Patten, have all pleaded guilty to crimes.  All of these indictments are products of the Mueller investigation into Trump's "finest people."  The one key individual still standing without indictment is Roger Stone who pulls all of this presidential collusion speculation together and even provides links back to President Nixon's departure from office.  The dominos are falling and Roger Stone could be the linchpin.

The Greek tragedy that is the Trump presidency, continues to be told.  The circle is ever widening and perhaps only history will be able to pull all of this together in meaningful fashion.  The fact that this story even has ties back to Watergate and includes a cast of international characters tells me, this tragic tale will be studied for years to come.  The current witch-hunt has found its fair share of witches.  I think Mueller’s broom closet will need to be enlarged.

Mueller Will Need A Bigger Broom Closet

* “Character is destiny,” is a quote attributed to the Greek philosopher, Heraclitus. This quote implies that destiny, or fate, is not a predetermined outside force, but that one's future, or destiny, is determined by his own inner character.

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The majority of people have no understanding of the things with which they daily meet, nor, when instructed, do they have any right knowledge of them, although to themselves they seem to have.  Heraclitus

A Nation Divided Shall Not Stand

We have been here before and we survived.  Not without painful consequences, but we survived.  In 1850’s America, slavery divided our nation.  Much of the south could not foresee their economic survival without the cheap labor provided by slavery.  The Missouri Compromise of 1820 admitted Missouri as a slave state and Maine as a free state.  Prior to this legislation, we were a nation divided 11 states to 11 states, split between slave and free.  With the exception of Missouri, all states north of the 36°30′ latitude would be free.  With Maine admitted free, the balance of free and slave states remained.  We were a nation divided, but equally divided.

A Nation Divided

By 1861, we were a nation of 34 U.S. states.  In February of that year, seven Southern slave states seceded from the union and formed the Confederate States of America.  Four more slave states would eventually join the Confederacy.  We were now truly, a nation divided.  The end result of that division was the American Civil War where over 700,000 Americans were killed.  This loss of life exceeds the U.S. military deaths in all other wars combined.  Our nation paid a terrible price for this division.

There were an estimated 700,000 people killed in our Civil War

While the issue of slavery was not the only factor that divided our nation in the 1800’s, it was a major component.  White southerners believe that the emancipation of slaves would destroy the South’s economy.  Some even feared a repeat of the 1804 slave revolt in Haiti where all whites were killed.

Note the graphics on this Confederate 100 dollar bill

Now, in 2018 we are again a nation divided.  While it is not slavery that divides us, the lingering racism that is a holdover from that period is still with us.  Political leaders still use fear to motivate people to action.  We are a literate nation but not one steeped in our own history.  The average American knows little of our history and younger generations get their information from social media, not history books.  Politicians are but border collies herding their flocks in one direction or another with the barking of lies that provide them with the power of persuasion.

Border Collie herding his sheep

President Trump, using his bully pulpit, has used that pulpit to bully.  In its original implementation under Teddy Roosevelt, the term bully was an adjective more in line with the British usage to indicate superb or wonderful.  Today it is used as a noun as in a person who uses power to harm or intimidate those who are weaker.  Trump works his crowds like a tent revival preacher, whipping up their fury with chants of “lock her up.”  His relationship with this sea of red hat zombies is a symbiotic one where they chant and he soaks up as much of the crowd’s energy as he can.  He waves, pumps his fist, points out individuals in the crowd, and applauds along with his supporters.  His crowds thrive on his political incorrectness, showmanship, and jovial nastiness.  They rightfully saw an ineffectual Congress in need of change.  They know that Trump is a bully, but he is their bully.

Trump the Bully

While it is clear to even the casual observer of Donald Trump, the man is full of himself.  Some use the more clinical terms of Narcissistic Personality Disorder or Sociopath.  I’ll just say that the man is one good enema away from looking like Woody Allen.

Woody Allen

Instead of using his office to heal a divided nation, Trump, always the businessman looking for a bargain, has chosen to use this divisiveness to distract his constituents while he is lining his own pockets.  He has used fear of immigrants as the bogeyman responsible for all the nation’s ills while he and his Congressional partners in crime pushed through tax cuts that primarily benefitted large corporations and wealthy individuals.  Trump already conducts his real estate business in a favorable portion of the tax code but now stands to really make some big bucks.  A divided nation suits him just fine.

I realize that his followers couldn’t read this article and come to any realization that would change their minds.  You can’t use facts or logic with the faithful.  We are once again a nation divided and, just like the 1850’s, we seem to be equally divided.

The ballot box is where our trust and hope must be placed.  We can only hope that future generations can look up from their misnamed “Smartphones” long enough to see what is happening all around them.  A year ago I wouldn’t have held out much hope for our youth but after the February 14^thStoneman Douglas shooting, I heard some of the students speak.  They gave me hope for the future.  This was written on Election Day, November 6, 2018, before the polls closed.  I'll have to wait the day out to see if these midterms will be a starting point to Make America Whole Again.