Having grown up in Argentina
for my first 28 years I lived through military periods such as the dirty war
from 1976 till 1983, I also lived through fascism and demagoguery such as the
Peron administration from 1973 until 1976 that the military overthrew then President
Isabel Peron.
I was not born when Peron was
at the peak of his demagoguery and totalitarianism from 1946 through 1955 but I
had a wide opening experience for the year that Peron was the president until
his death in 1974.
He created the left wing
Montoneros only to turn his back on them.
As we are witnessing since the
beginning of the Trump campaign we are exposed in the US to the beginning of a
fascist, demagogue, narcissist individual who is using the misfortunes and
resentments of a group of people who have fallen through the wayside because of
globalization, because of politicians using them for their votes, and by a
other groups who want to impose their beliefs on the rest of the population.
I understand the first group
of people have heard the same speeches and promises for years from their
representatives promising them unattainable things and then turning around and
favoring the small minority that finances their campaigns, that if their
representatives favor the richest among us we will all benefit, that if we
dismantle the factories in the US and move them to China, Vietnam, Mexico, or
other places where there is cheap labor we will have a better standard of
living by being able to afford more and less expensive goods. The fact is that
those representatives are only interested in enriching themselves, being
politicians or lobbyists for life, with a total disregard for the people who
put them in power. To make sure that they can stay in power and chose who will
elect them they have made it harder and harder to vote, have made going to
college less and less affordable, poison their water (like in Flint, Michigan),
have sent their kids into harm’s way for unjustifiable jobs, have raised their
property taxes, while reducing the quality of education.
The second group are people
who hated the previous president, many of them, including Trump, alleged that
the president was not born in the US, that he was born in Africa, that he was a
Muslim, that he wanted to destroy America, that he was a racist. This group
also includes what are loosely called evangelicals, a group of Christians and
Catholics, who believe that Jefferson mentions God in the declaration of
Independence, although there is no reference of God or Jesus in the document,
or the constitution, the closest being “that they are endowed by their Creator”.
Jefferson was raised as an Anglican but thought of himself as an atheist. Most
of these people either listen to right wing radio (propaganda) and/or get their
news from Fox which based on studies has the most uniformed audience. I will
elaborate more about evangelicals in a separate blog.
So going to Trump, what he has
done and is doing is from one side of his mouth he is telling these groups, and
some other people that I may have left out such as white supremacists, that he
is all for them, for the little guy, that nobody but him can improve their
lives, that nobody but him can get rid of corruption, nobody but him can get
things done.
His actions, and this is where
my experience comes into play, tells something different. Peron in the 50s used
to say that he only earned 500 pesos a month. Interestingly enough when Evita
died in 1952 and the doors of the Casa Rosada were open so that people could
see her wardrobe
there were over 5,000 pairs of shoes, something that the 500
pesos a month that her husband was earning could not cover. Same can be said
about Peron living in exile in the most expensive section of Madrid in a
mansion for 18 years without working.
Trump first said that his taxes were being audited by the IRS and once sworn in on January 20th said he will never
release them, something that would allow the country to have some idea who
does he owe favors to through his businesses, he never divested his businesses,
just supposedly put everything into a “blind state” having his two sons run his
businesses, which does not make it a blind trust, he is willing to insult and say
that former American presidents have blood in their hands rather than criticize
Putin, an individual who was and is involved in the assassination of opposition
in Russia, reporters, and people with whom he disagrees. Trump does not admit
what 17 intelligence agencies have demonstrated and that is that Putin had his
hands all over the US election. One has to wonder what does Putin have against Trump
that makes the latter feel threatened.
Trump has not paid taxes in
over 20 years. He does not believe in the separation of powers. He never told the coal workers who have benefited from Obamacare in states such as West Virginia and Pennsylvania that once the ACA is repealed they will not have any coverage whatsoever.
Having questioned the
previous president for issuing executive orders and has done nothing since he
started but issuing executive orders. While he criticized Hilary Clinton during
the presidential campaign about her and her husband’s relationships with Wall
St, and that he would clean the swamp in Washington DC and then turned around
and chose the most elitist and unqualified cabinet in history full of Wall St
billionaires and donors, including Betsy DeVos, a billionaire who knows nothing
about running a school, a district or has ever served in an education job. Examples
of his unqualified staff include former Texas governor who did not know that
the Department of Energy had under its jurisdiction the nuclear stockpile, and
a surgeon as HUD (Housing and Urban Development) Secretary because he had been
a welfare benefactor although he had never lived in public housing.
This would not be something
unusual in Washington DC, but the fact that Trump has not stopped insulting
people who do not agree with, including calling the press dishonest, calling a conservative
judge that put an unconstitutional executive order on hold so-called judge, that
he tries to run over everyone that steps in his way makes “The Donald” not just
a bully, an individual with inferiority complex, but a fascist. To that if we see
his immediate circle Steve Bannon, a
white supremacist, Kellyanne Conway, a strategist that not only never answers
the question she was asked but gives “Alternative Facts”, a name she has given
to lies, and the VP Mike Pence, a bigot and anti gay, who believes that gays
and lesbians can be re-educated back to normal.
Trump has had a rocky start
with many of his questionable cabinet members held in the senate, ruffling the
feathers of presidents and Prime Ministers who have always been allies of the
US. He seems to live in a parallel universe with facts that cannot be backed such as the terrorist attacks in the US that have not been covered by the press, saying that the crime rate is the highest in 40 years when there is no proof of that, on the contrary, the FBI says it is the lowest in decades.
He is governing for the 43% who voted for him saying that he has a mandate, although he lost the popular vote for almost 3 million votes. He needs to start voting for all Americans. The polls show that he has the lowest approval in history for a new president.
For those who predict or would
like Trump to be impeached, beware of who would come next. Mike Pence is Rush
Limbaugh, Alex Jones and Michael Savage combined, and in sheep clothes.
In my previous blog I asked if the US was heading to a
fascism with Trump, today the White House did not allow CNN, the New York Times, Politico, the Los Angeles Times and BuzzFeed 
