Trump Ignores Oath to Preserve, Protect & Defend Constitution: Guest MINDSETTER™ Schoos

Wednesday, July 18, 2018

Geoff Schoos, GoLocalProv Guest MINDSETTER™

Donald Trump

On February 1, 2017, GoLocalProv published my MINDSETTER™ piece, “The Banality of Trump.” At that time, I warned that Trump’s outrages would become our new normal. I regret that I was prescient in my analysis.

It is easy to ignore the antics of this carnival barker President, but that would be dangerous. This is a president who attacks the independent media, calling the media a “public enemy.” The proud labeler of the term “Fake News” has himself, by most counts, told over 3200 lies since he took office.

These lies are not only limited to comments about domestic political opponents but extend to our once and hopefully future allies. One recent and comparatively minor example was after the recent NATO meetings he claimed that he got other NATO members to increase their contributions to 4% of the GDP. French President Macron immediately debunked that statement as what could only be described as “Fake News.”

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As he “prepared” for a visit with British Prime Minister May, in an interview with a British tabloid, Trump undercut May’s already tenuous political position saying that she ignored his advice to sue the European Union (for what?) and opined that her political rival, Boris Johnson, would make a great Prime Minister. At a subsequent press conference, Trump stated that the tabloid omitted the wonderful things he said about May. He further commented on the nature of “Fake News,” stated that his own press secretary had a tape of the interview and would share it with the media (as of this writing it has not been shared) and then attacked CNN.

Trump's Assault on America

Trump’s assault on the overall veracity of the media is nothing less than an assault on truth and facts. Who can ignore Kellyanne Conway’s star turn defending “alternative facts?” This is nothing less than the political equivalent to Lewis Carroll’s journey through the Looking Glass. Too many of our fellow citizens are eager to take the trip through that Looking Glass, ready to believe that out is in and down is up. “Facts” now are in the eye of the beholder and no longer objective and generally agreed upon information.

This is an acute danger to the survival of our democracy. A vibrant democracy depends on vigorous forensic discussions over “facts” to arrive at a consensus agreement on any issue moving forward. If we are now left to debate the existence of facts, then a democracy has nothing with which to form a consensus vital to its survival.

But more egregious is Trump’s assault on the rule of law. Since his inauguration, Trump has waged war on the courts, the law enforcement community, the concept of due process under law, and in particular the investigation into possible foreign interference with the 2016 election.

Since his inauguration, Trump has discharged one Assistant Attorney General, the Director and the Assistant Director of the FBI. Further, he has threatened the current Attorney General along with the Assistant Attorney General with loss of their positions.

He has belittled the investigation into the possible interference with the 2016 election, calling it a “witch hunt,” and has ignored the findings of his own intelligence community as to the 2016 interference and the likelihood of interference in the 2018 elections.

On July 16, 2018, he once again showed his true colors. Standing next to Vladimir Putin, just three days after a grand jury of Americans handed down an indictment against 12 Russian intelligence operatives, some high ranking in the Russian government, President Donald J. Trump disregarded the findings of his own government and those of an American grand jury and, citing the “strong” denials of Putin, sided with the Russians.

Trump ignored his sworn oath to preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of the United States. His joint press conference gave a preview of how he will justify this blatant capitulation of his presidential duty. When asked about the indictments by an AP reporter, he launched into an assault on Hillary Clinton, her emails, and the DNC servers. We can expect this deflection tactic to expand and become more virulent over the coming days as he resorts to the only tools he knows how to use: the exploitation of the divisions in our own society, and the hatreds and biases of his hoodwinked supporters.

Will Hope Prevail?

Earlier this year, historian Jon Meacham’s book The Soul of America was published, a paean to the American spirit. His thesis is that American history has seen battles between hope and fear, and in each battle, hope – the spirit of progress in our liberal democracy – has prevailed. Acknowledging that we are now in a fearful time, he is certain that hope will ultimately prevail because, if for no other reason, it always has.

Meacham writes about the efforts of presidents such as Lincoln, Wilson, the two Roosevelts to restore hope. Implicit in his thesis is that, no matter how bad presidential leadership is at a given time, successor presidents will reject the fear and attendant hate and restore our values of hope, so intrinsic in our national soul.

That said, there are a few points that must be made. First, we have never seen a president such as Trump. Even those poorly regarded by history are eminently superior to the current occupant of the Oval Office. No president has sowed divisions, fueled hatreds, and attempted to dismantle the organs of government and the rule of law as has our current president. And no president – none – has ever sided with a foreign adversary to the detriment of the American people.

Related to the first is the second point, our post-fact world. As noted above, we no longer discuss or argue over the meaning of facts, we question their very existence. And this has been exploited by those partisans who care only for their political success at the expense of our democratic processes.

Third, as Meacham notes, much of our progress born of hope has been driven from the people, and not elected leaders. We have the power to make common cause with our fellow citizens, even those with whom we disagree, to restore traditional democratic values and reject the messages of hate and division propounded by those who seek to advance their own narrow interests at the expense of the public interests.

Trump Ignores Oath to Preserve, Protect & Defend Constitution: Guest MINDSETTER™ Schoos

Related Slideshow: GoLocal Statewide Poll - Conducted by Harvard’s Della Volpe - June, 2018

Registered Voters

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Top Issue

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Optimism

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