Confronting Mediocrity

But only if the country survives his presidency.

It’s possible that Trump may end up making America stronger, but only in the way an infection with a deadly virus can strengthen its host. In both cases, the outcome is binary. One either survives an Ebola infection and gains immunity or one dies.

The same is true of Trump. Either America will allow his ill-informed, bigoted, self-serving actions to continue, or there will be some awakening of a collective consciousness that recognizes that he is destroying the country one ignorant policy at a time.

We are past the prodromal stage of the national infection that is Trump. The signs and symptoms of the malady that is the Trump presidency must be apparent to any observer, but I fear they are not.

Trump supporters remind me of the person infected with Ebola who notices early signs of the disease but ignores them because they seem unimportant at the time. I mean, everyone feels a little sick from time to time and may have a low-grade fever. It’s only after the fever has spiked and the hemorrhagic effects of Ebola have become manifest that the patient realizes the consequences of not taking the early symptoms seriously.

We’re in a similar position with Trump. His supporters are all too eager to dismiss as mere “quirks” his personality disorders, his ignorance of history, his nepotism, his lack of interest in policy, and of course, his pathological lying. To them, these traits are no cause for real concern. In reality they are the low-grade fever that is destined to spike and cause America to experience its own form of hemorrhage.

Left untreated, the Trump infection will cause America to lose its position in the world as an icon of justice and fairness. We will lose our economic influence as Trump realizes he can’t build “THE wall” and instead build walls of economic isolation through absurd tariffs. America will lose any moral high ground as Trump’s supporters accept his statements about shit hole countries, infestations of brown skinned migrants from the south, and separating children from their mothers. While at the same time, the Trump infection causes his supporters not to take pause when he extols the virtues of immigrants from Norway and proclaims moral equivalence in Charlottesville. There are too many signs of the Trump infection to list, but they are there and they are real.

As with an Ebola infection, America is facing a binary outcome with the Trump infection. Either he will stay in power and eventually cause the demise of all that we have held to be American virtues, or there will be a tipping point where his supporters have the epiphany of realizing that Trump is not a common cold, he is Ebola.

Treatment must start soon to avert a catastrophic outcome. The first therapeutic intervention with a chance of containing the Trump infection will be on November 6, 2018. The only question will be if enough people realize the true, lethal nature of the infection that is Trump and vote accordingly.

If Americans actively reject Trump, it will be a sign that our country’s moral immune system is strong enough to survive and we will be better prepared to recognize the emergence of another despotic leader that may try to emerge in the future. However, if the Trump infection continues unchecked, then the America that has been a bright beacon of hope for the world will soon fade into mediocrity.