The mindless extent of the United States' jingoistic tribalism — shows itself in pronouncements that President Trump is "traitorous"

© 2018 Peter Free

 

17 July 2018

 

 

Trump's a traitor?

 

Isn't that widespread announcement a bit extreme?

 

See, for example, a discussion of the definition of treason, here.

 

And consider that the President is probably irate that the Democratic Party — upset about his victory against Hillary Clinton — managed to persuade the American Deep State that:

 

 

(a) Russia's alleged (and comparatively trivial) election meddling

 

had

 

(b) puppetized Trump into becoming Vladimir Putin's "bitch".

 

 

Is the President autocratically inclined and arguably naive — when it comes to confronting dictators?

 

Sure.

 

But neither quality turns him into a traitor.

 

Especially so because he retains roughly 40 to 48 percent approval among the public. And, prior to the Putin "summit", he had about 90 percent approval among the Republican Party.

 

It is difficult to be reasonably called a traitor (or traitorous) with half of the American public supporting one's overall leadership perspective(s).

 

 

Nevertheless — when President Trump sided with Russia . . .

 

. . . and against our FBI about 2016's election meddling — the American Lamestream went ballistic.

 

There were lots of hysterical cries about the President's allegedly treasonous behavior in ass-kissing Vlad the Impaler.

 

You would think that the world had ended. Even historian Michael Beschloss idiotically climbed aboard the Jingo Train.

 

I am living in country that has lost even a remote connection to sanity.

 

(Frightening, of course, to recognize that one's fellow countryfolk have been certifiably nuts since birth, simply as a result of having been born human.)

 

 

Serendipitously, last night — a relevant "spot" of history

 

Yesterday, I was reading William Shirer's The Nightmare Years: 1930-1940.

 

His chapter on the beginnings of the fall of the Third French Republic eerily hinted at aspects of today's American persona.

 

Shirer suggested that France dissolved itself into anarchically composed and armed gangs, during the early to mid-1930s. These mobs' explicit purpose was to tear down the civilized Republic — in favor of something more explicitly violent and authoritarian.

 

French Government's lack of defense of its own institutions assisted these fascists and communists in tearing French civilization and freedom apart.

 

French governmental passivity (in those days) reminds me of our own Congress's acquiescence to:

 

 

(a) the whims of the Executive Branch

 

and

 

(b) fascistic corporatism.

 

 

More broadly, the intemperate wrath of the 1930s French destroyers puts me in mind of the current American tumult, surrounding whatever President Trump does or says about anything.

 

We seem to be living in an era in which violently expressed (Freudian metaphorical) "id" takes precedence over civilized thoughtfulness and calm.

 

We are imprisoned in varieties of emotionally base and unthinking tribalisms.

 

This is not all President Trump's doing. He's just punctured the bag of pus that seems to reside inside a whole bunch of Americans, sampled from every social strata.

 

 

The moral? — Can purported freedom long survive the everywhereness of mindless screechings?

 

The United States seems to be increasing its velocity toward cultural self-destruction.

 

Figuratively speaking, we have put way too many "ids" (and way too few "superegos") on daily public display.

 

Does no one left in popular view model a capacity for reasoned sense?