America is no longer the land of the free and home of the brave. Under President Donald Trump, it has become the land of the despot and home of the deranged.
Image: Mandel Ngan / AFP
America is no longer the land of the free and home of the brave. Under President Donald Trump, it has become the land of the despot and home of the deranged.
It is today a country under siege as fascist elements are determined to maintain the status quo in a democracy gone berserk under a leader who has lost his bearings, as his country drifts rudderless into an abyss.
Political insanity was the cause of the graphic scenes that emerged from Washington because an out-of-touch demagogue is determined to sow destruction as he continues to behave like the new uncrowned emperor of the northern hemisphere.
Day by day, the pieces are falling into place, together resembling a 3D picture that looks eerily like the sinister beginning of a civil war.
Republicans do not want to confront reality.
As events escalate out of control, the reckless are striking, a willingness to tap into the darker currents, and the American political climate a complete disregard for the rule of law. Trump is lecturing his White House staff: the press is the enemy.
Trump is an accomplished strategist, with a deep understanding of today’s politics, but his hatred of the liberal press will eventually consume his presidency. He is nursing his anger and resentments; and is weaponising them with Machiavellian tactics.
The American president resembles the figure of a volatile, unpredictable leader, obsessed by his enemies, real and imagined, and callous in his disrespect for the US constitution, which he sees as an impediment to his rightful exercise of untrammelled power.
Trump’s bravado, hubris and battery of lies, will prove to be his undoing. His errors and outright fabrications are legion. Trump is radically escalating his vicious campaign to reshape the political landscape of America.
He is willing to lie, commit perjury, prepared to obfuscate and to conceal, for the purpose of grimly holding on to the illusions of grandeur. Be afraid, very afraid. This is the beginning of the end for the mighty USA. History will record that the events in Washington caused the USA to lose her moral high ground.
FAROUK ARAIE
Benoni