Read it, THE DWARF by Pär Langerkvist, the story of a Medieval, princely, power-mongering buffoon.
"The confusion and instability of eviis revealed in The Dwarf's hatred of other dwarfs, while at the same time he claims superiority in his separateness."
~ THE DWARF, introduction, P. 1
4
' Most Germans think the Nazis a bit absurd here, a bit obsessive there... but the time for thinking was over'
- Sir Larry Olivier in narration to World at War perhaps describes many if not most Americans in 2016.
26
It wasn't Hitler that put himself into power it was the people. How can we turn away from the 40 million American citizens that support
deception, racism, sexism? How did our country become this bastion of hate? Trump is despicable. His actions outrage me, but this resonance with 40 million is terrifying? How do we change this?
100
When the libraries start to close we will then understand how far the country has descended. The real enemies of the people are the Electoral College system that supports and rewards false prophets, and weak military leaders willing to conveniently waive required congressional authority.
31
The evolution of cultures and their search for legitimate value is defined by the tension between the delusions and reality they embrace. Too often, we learn too late that the temptations offered by a decadent demagogue are a swindle and then, perhaps, remember the prophets' warnings.
Correction begins with recognition of reality, sometimes asserted from unexpected sources. It is reassuring to see notable elements of our culture proclaiming their disgust and taking action:
> Better minds in the GOP abandoning ship...
> Women and youth arising to declare they
have finally had enough and will name and defy the forces of exploitation...
... these are the growing teeth of Reality.
16
“History repeats itself, first as tragedy, then as tweet. No, the United States is not Weimar, but then Weimar was not the Austro-Hungarian Empire of 1914, nor the French monarchy of 1789.”
We have long since past the point of being the equivalent of Germany’s Weimar Republic, in fact you do not have to read between the lines to realize that Reagan based his campaign on the prevailing belief that we were internationally perceived as a “Paper Tiger” and the “problem government” had reduced us to the status of the Weimar Republic.
At the time his message was an easy sell: inflation was skyrocketing; Iran’s Revolutionary Guard overtook our embassy and held Americans hostage for well over 400 days without US retaliation; we were humiliated in Vietnam; and just 12 years before North Korea captured and held an American submarine and its crew, again without a US retaliation.
It did not take a gunshot or the guillotine to move the voters “to change, to stay the same” or more appropriately to desire a return to the greatness that never was.
The Reagan Revolution led to demonizing Unions as the antithesis of “virtuous American individualism,” the current revival of the Conservative “Bircher” Party, and the creation of the Great American Propaganda (GAP) machine whose primary mission statement is to spread falsities and misinformation to its loyal, predominantly White following.
The peons have lost to the new aristocracy, and the greatness that never was will never be.
14
Roger Cohen's disgust and nausea with Donald Trump is justified and understandable. But putting focus on Trump alone carries the same flawed thinking as blaming the Holocaust incessantly on Hitler. The leader of a pack of roving idiots needs the idiots. Each time people try to attribute the disastrous decline or the meteorite ascent of a nation's fortune to a single figurehead is missing the bigger picture and the deeper root causes. For the population of idiots to grow and multiply the underlying social structure and the political system must provide favorable conditions for them to fester. It takes years and decades. The dumbing-down of the American public is systematic. The telltale sign of their beginning is typically a referendum or plebiscite to cut tax to starve public projects such as school system, healthcare, infrastructure & social safety net. Selfish human instinct glamorized by the Ayn Rand cult and amplified by "conservative" politicians takes over. Kurt Andersen tried to traced USA's current malaise in his book "Fantasyland" and made some good points about the very religious Americans. Brainwashed cult followers cannot see how their delusional beliefs clouded their choices and action. The evidences and diagnostic: Democracy American Style is a failed and broken system. The blind belief in its exceptionalism guarantees getting more voters to the polls cannot cure the ills.
33
I continue to believe that Trump eked out his victory through a coalition of outright lunatics, wealthy greedheads, wacko evangelists, decent people with some ugly tendencies who just got scared and fed up, lazy and indifferent young folks who thought it didn't matter, indifferent and lazy liberals who thought they had this one in the bag, and prissy leftists who'll probably convert to Ayn Rand in ten years.
Of course, the gerrymandering, Russian bots, and profit-seeking media pitched in too.
25
Mr. Cohen is so typical of left wing liberal and yes progressive commentators who have seized on the personality of our President and levels insults as to his ability to perform the duties of the Presidency.
We have tendency to think that our democracy will rise or fall with the President. Nothing is further from the truth. The framers were smart enough to develop a form of government that was not subject to the actions of one individual but instead developed three equal branches with enough safe guards in the constitution to ensure our democracy would live on for ages to come.
It is important to note that it is not the individual person in the White House but the political platform that he or she represents. That and that alone will shape America. Remember that the greatest attribute of our democracy is that we hold elections every two years for the House and every four years for the Presidency. The Senate members is every six.
So Ramble on about the Nazis and Adolph Hitler, Donald Trump and the Republicans if it makes you feel like you are accomplishing something but the truth of the matter is it makes you sound and look foolish.
So next time around choose a candidate that has all the attributes you desire and will stand on the platform that you think will be good for America and see if you can get him or her elected. Remember though, no crying if someone disagrees with your choice.
10
There is more than enough complicity in this to bring us all down. I do not share your optimism of our current situation. From Korea, Vietnam, Nixon, Iran-Contra, Lewisnky, Iraq, Hillary's failures, and now this administration, it is death by a thousand little cuts. From the beginning America has had mistrust of the federal government, there will be a breaking point. When all trust of our institutions are spent, the American experiment will end. All signs point to a more authoritarian end, rather than a democratic awakening.
8
All the whining, crying, and complaining at this point is futile. We are in what could be the "final days" of our existence because enough women and "minorities" voted for a man that showed the entire country that you mean nothing to him except being a baggage handler or sex object. For those who wanted this, congratulations you got it. For those who actually thought this guy would actually improve our way of life, then not only do you probably own a vehicle made in China or Japan, but you are also just as clueless as he is.
14
America's word? "goodness" for us, breadcrumbs for you! At least, that's the president's message.
There will be decades of repair needed to follow this administration: correcting new gerrymandering, Federal courts with alt-right jurists, environmental collapse of disaster after disaster, tripled US debt, incomplete infrastructure projects---the list gets larger every day.
When any malicious whim turns into a policy we are in trouble.
8
"America’s word is near worthless today. It’s on America’s word that global security has rested since 1945."
Mr. Cohen, you argue that it will take a long time for us to restore other people's faith that our word is good.
It will take an extraordinarily long time if we maintain a belief that merely ousting Trump will restore us to ourselves.
What will shorten our recovery will be the Democrats' willingness to run a big tent, one that addresses some of the problems that Trump's ascendancy revealed: economic recovery in the heartland, an immigration policy that requires addressing; the cost of health care, the cost of higher education, and the cost of infrastructure.
The cost if the Democrats do not open the tent? A smarter, more disciplined demagogue who will "succeed" where Trump failed.
8
“No culture can rest on a crooked relationship to the truth.” Well, that’s not true. The Catholic Church is still going strong after two thousand years, as is Islam after 1300. Most people will believe anything when promised everything.
32
As you & the Princeton historian, Tim Snyder point out, we are under threat to fascism in our gov. We cannot ease up in our vigilance & resistance to Trump’s push to authoritarianism. Repubs especially must wake up. Full employment doesn’t justify losing our soul. Hitler brought a thriving economy to the doomed Germany in the late 30s.
7
Many of us, indeed a majority, are not "tethered" to this raging buffoon but loathe and despise him for what he is doing to our democracy. What is truly sickening -- and dangerous -- is how Republicans in Congress and the RNC defend this monster with vicious attacks impugning the character and motivation of fellow Republicans in law enforcement and the judiciary who try to uphold the rule of law. Have they now shame?
23
Sad words but all true, a brutus ignoramus at the helm of the stolen presidency of the United States, totally undeserved, and an ever rising danger of authoritarian abuse. But you realize that this ugly American, destructive as he is, superb liar and a crook, sexual predator, a racist and xenophobe, wouldn't stand a chance without enablers. It is almost understandable that, with his constant lies, insults and impromptu exaggerations, a credulous and misinformed mob would become his supporting base, oblivious to the truth and the facts. But the republican party has no such excuse, as it sits idly on the sidelines, complicit in this most corrupt pluto-kleptocracy of misfits, intent in destroying the republic. One of the worst 'crimes' Trump and his allies (and this included Fox Noise and pseudo-news thug Hannity) are committing is the loss of trust in our democratic institutions, and the essential trust in each other, which will take a long time to recover. We are giving up our freedom to think for ourselves, by accepting the false promises of a corrupt 'loose cannon' in the Oval Office, surrounded by sychophants (servile self-serving flatterers) 'a la Bolton, Pompeo and Pruitt (Ugh!). Having this cadre of incompetent lightweights, is it any wonder we've lost all credibility as a protector of human rights, a free press, and the rule of law. Unless we stand up to this perversion, Pogo may have a say: "We found the enemy, and it is Us".
18
Many of us share you outrage but the only thing left for us wee folk to do is to vote in November in spite of gerrymandered districts and voter suppression efforts by the GOP. It is obvious that the Republican congress is complicit in this world view held by trump and other despots so they are of no use.
12
Trump may have equivalents outside the US in terms of some of his beliefs but none that come close to him in terms of ignorance, narcissism, and disregard for the truth.To understand his popularity we need to look at ourselves through a cultural mirror.A country with love of celebrity and popularity but a disdain for education (in its true meaning) or knowledge unless it is about sports or entertainment.A country where phrases like "fake it till you make it" highlight the importance of form relative to substance and "freedom" includes being subjected to a continuous barrage of unchallenged half-truths or outright lies.These are the conditions that made it possible for this Bufoon to become President.Sad
9
Aristotle wrote ages ago "Nature abhors a vacuum." What Trump has created is a vacuum of decency, intelligence, respect for the truth and constitutional principles and virtually everything Americans have held dear since our nation was founded. The vacuum he's created will inevitably be filled by persons like Meuller and Comey who can't abide allowing such a profound moral vacuum to persist at the very top of our government. The whoshing sound you're about to hear is the air racing out of the greatest "Windbag" in our nation's history, and the destruction of the decency vacuum he and his enablers have created.
3
"the unthinkable repeated over and over can induce moral numbness..." Indeed, but this moral numbness is long-standing and precedes Trump by several administrations. In fact, at 70 years old, my life has been a succession of episodes of moral numbness, induced and encouraged by the distractions of entertainment and the advantages of white entitlement. Our global crisis did not happen overnight; the alarm bells have been ringing for well over 50 years. So it is as well with nuclear weapons, a bloated US military looking for adventure, rampant consumerism fouling the oceans...the list goes on. If we are numb to Trump's antics, it's because we are well-practiced.
5
Are we at risk of total annihilation because the POTUS needs a distraction from his domestic issues arising from the unprecedented raids on his lawyer? Is any one out there asking if this might be too high a price to pay??
5
Trump's worst instincts would be mitigated if the terrorist Republicans in Congress would stop bending to him. We have them to thank more than any other factor (including the Deplorables). How is it possible that one of our two major political parties has become so deranged, so anti-American, as to risk the entirety of not only America but perhaps of civilization itself? As we stumble toward the midterm elections, let us hope that the world can survive long enough to vote the Republicans out of power.
11
"...a factory worker in Michigan could afford a couple of quad bikes..."
Ummm, yes and no. Your Michigan factory worker could afford a modest house (if he was white, maybe in a Midwest Levittown-type place) one car, one phone, and one TV, and maybe a modest yearly vacation, not the 60s equivalent of a couple of quad bikes. They didn't imagine that most people had much more than this but richer people could have bigger, better, models, vacations, etc. Nobody had quad bikes.
I'm a minority female originally from the rust belt Midwest and I grew up more or less like this too, and had similar expectations.
But life today is very different than it was when I was growing up in the 60s. We all have different expectations. Your Michigan factory guy may well have the quad bikes, phones for every family member, 2-3 cars, and 3-4 TVs. He does not live like you think he did in the 60s. People have and expect to be able to buy a lot more stuff. Part of the reason we can afford this stuff, is because it isn't made here anymore. Nobody gets the Neiman Marcus Xmas catalog to gaze at stuff we can't possibly imagine ever having anymore.
Whether or not you thought life was better when we did, it ain't going back to that.
9
Good observation. Fifty years ago, I worked in Ford's foundry, I had six changes of work cloths and work boots.
Today, those same cloths have "Hugo Boss" on them and I wouldn't be able to afford any work cloths on that factory salary. The boots are by Eddie Bauer and would require two weeks of earnings to buy one pair--and I have to wear them to church.
If I hadn't gone to college, I couldn't afford the work clothes.
3
I predicted shortly after Trump's election that within a few years we would be facing another civil war...yes, a real one...in this country. I believe we are closer than ever. Dangerously close. This is the most dangerous time in our history for our democracy since the first Civil War, and then wehad a great president to save us. This time we have a frothing and cowardly buffoon. I hope I am wrong, but I don't think I will be.
10
Next thing you know, he'll be donning a custom made military uniform, complete with medals. Mission accomplished.
7
"No, the United States is not Weimar, but then Weimar was not the Austro-Hungarian Empire of 1914, nor the French monarchy of 1789."
That is correct, although the Trump administration is rapidly coming to resemble certain aspects of the Court of Louis XVI.
No, our best historical analogy, in my opinion, is with the Roman Republic in the period between the end of the Punic Wars and the "Crossing of the Rubicon" by Julius Caesar, with the conclusion of the Punic Wars roughly corresponding to our victory in WWII.
Some of the comparisons are truly uncanny, most notably a comparison of the rise and subsequent assassinations of the highly reformist brothers Gaius and Tiberius Gracchus to our Kennedys.
But it is in the more general aspects of the fall to the despotism of Empire by the Roman Republic that strikes me more closely. The wealthy seized more and more of the property of the lower classes, and often used war to do it, taking over the land of the conscripted plebs. Eventually, Rome was ripe for the picking by a very wealthy Patrician, Julius Caesar, who roused the rabble with a wave of populist rhetoric to defeat an actual Plebeian, Pompey, and his nephew Octavian who cemented in place the dictatorial rule of the Emperors that continued until Rome fell.
Of course, there are differences, headed by the fact that Julius Ceasar was a brave soldier and a truly brilliant man, which contrasts rather starkly to our Mr. Trump.
5
Only 63 million Americans voted for Trump. But he is the President of the United States for all 320 million of us. Unlike fascist Germany and Italy America is a divided limited power constitutional republic. But for Paul Ryan and Mitch McConnell's corrupt cooperation and conspiracy Trump would be on a short leash with a muzzle.
11
I am not sure why this going over and over Trump. Yes, he is vile, stupid, bigoted, and depraved. But so is at least 40% of the population in this country. It is common to present US electorate as hoodwinked by political hucksters like Trump and GOP. That's not the case. Trump and GOP are the reflection of the electorate. We deserve what we got, we have voted for it, and will vote again.
I have not voted for Trump and never will but blaming "them" is disingenuous. Not admitting that Trump was elected because he responded to wishes of most Americans is a mistake.
10
Very sad, but way too true.
2
Marek Skowronski, you make some very good points, but I'd like to point out (yet again), that we did not, in fact, get what we voted for. We got what the Electoral College determined for us. If we elected our presidents the way we elect ALL OTHER OFFICE HOLDERS, I would agree with your conclusions, but until we elect our presidents using the truly democratic one voter/one vote, I am not willing to concede your ultimate conclusion.
8
Surely, there is a large group of Americans who support the President. But to claim he won legitimately is just not true. He and his co-conspirators gamed the system with infoweapons: Fox News, Russian Facebook trolling, Wikileaks and an unprecedented level of lying and character assassination. Authorities took away Lance Armstrong’s dope enabled title; it’s up to Congress to take away the President’s.
11
I recommend Erik Larson's "In the Garden of the Beasts," meticulously researched and based on cables, correspondence, journals and government documents. It focuses on America's ambassador to Germany during the time that Hitler came to power. This research shows that the German public did not take Hitler very seriously as he spread nationalist propaganda and consolidated his power. By the time people woke up, it was too late. What is frightening is that the same script, the same propaganda that Hitler used is being heard today from Trump and his ilk. Unfortunately, we don't have an educated electorate as to what happened in Europe that led to WW II. I am very concerned.
15
"We are tethered to a buffoon." Finally, someone in the New York Times makes the bold statement that has been called for, one year and 83 days in.
16
Trump is not as stupid as he would like you to believe. However, he is a traitor. The traitor is aiding Russia in its attempt to disrupt the West. Everything he does makes sense once you understand that he is a traitor.
As to the rise of the right and its hate and fear, that is a function of globalization having been hijacked by the wealthy to increase their profit margins, concentrate their lucre and leave lowered standards of living in their wake. Through their propaganda the wealthy turn the different groups of people against each other,
11
Traitor, no. Trump is, and always has been, dedicated and motivated by his own self interest. He is loyal to none, beholding to none, driven by the pursuit of wealth and self promotion. We are all to serve him and his interests. ( example; Trumps reaction to Cohens office being searched) Trump is not intelligent, in the traditional sense,but he is cunning and manipulative, and an expert grifter.
3
The thinking on display in this essay is so loose and shifty that it's embarrassing. Linking Hitler to President Trump is beyond idiotic. That Hitler wanted to bring Germany out of massive economic and social collapse doesn't mean that he and President Trump are similar because our President wants to restore our country to its great foundations. They both ate and slept, does that also mean they are similar?
4
"our President wants to restore our country to its great foundations."......Horse manure. The great foundation of our country is the concept that "all men are created equal". I haven't seen a single thing that suggests that either Trump or his supporters have any idea what that means.
31
Discouraging that so many Americans are indifferent to honoring"the fragility of freedom", unless it is tied to owning guns.
12
I liken the anti- Trump people who comment, as well as Mr. Cohen to children attempting to gather belongings as they escape a burning house with the help of a fireman they hate. Rather than follow the fireman and support him they bicker and point out his faults. Maybe it's his past, his uniform, his helmet, his tools or possibly his speech. Anything to diminish him. Rather than support the man and the process they are resigned to the plight of self interest and criticism.
1
"Anything to diminish him."....What a joke. There is nothing possible that I could do or say that would diminish him more than what he has already done to himself by his own words and actions. Wake-up call.
29
For me, it's Trump's uneducated ignorance, incompetence, and bald-faced lying that I criticize rather than a uniform or helmet he has never worn (by the way).
11
That's just silly. Trump is the arsonist.
12
There are many appalling things about "Make America Great Again," but the "again" is probably the worst. Obviously it raises the question of when, exactly, we were "great" if we're not great now, and what else went along with that "greatness." Segregation? Second-class status for women and others? But at least as bad as that, it imposes a backward-looking slogan on a nation whose prestige and leadership has always rested on being an emblem of future-oriented, forward-looking thinking. Whatever its adherents fantasize, to the rest of the world this is a branding fail of epic proportions.
9
With only 50-53% of Americans voting in the presidential, and 35% in midterms, this country has been in a crisis for some time.
Conservative reactionaries have exploited this as a grand opening to their strategy.
17
Freedom is SO fragile. It has never been more clear, thanks to the Trump Administration, how tenuous all democracy is. We all need to be awake and vigilant and not be lulled to sleep by the overwhelming waves of lies and outrages. It is exhausting, yes. It makes one want to nestle into our little lives. But now is the opportune time for intervention. For demanding and marching. This time is fleeting. As this well-presented column notes: there was a time for outrage and action in pre-war Germany, but it was fleeting. Stand up now. At the very least vote! March and read and talk. Start local political action groups. Do it BEFORE our new dictator decides to executive order us right out of our democracy.
19
It is a travesty and a shock, an echo of Weimar, that a buffoon controls our fates. A lowlife, in his own words. I hope, post-Trump, America will institute laws and regulations where there are only norms today to ensure obedience to the rule of law by the President. Norms are not enough. We are learning that a very hard way.
11
On the day after the election in 2016, I expressed a hope that Donald Trump would prove to be "neither more nor less than a harmful charlatan." Why "neither more nor less" is immaterial, now.
I was thinking of the degree of harm inherent in charlatanism, the damage that must result from the incompetence of a crowd-pleasing fake. But of course power tends to corrupt, Donald Trump had a head start in that direction, and he was made of meaner stuff than the charlatan who rose to the top in the Emerald City.
Soon our charlatan in the White House showed himself in the form of a swollen ego. Then the ego proved to be the corona of a white-hot id. And, well, there you are.
A government of laws, not of men, is necessarily a government of powers and duties vested in offices. We're finding that when the highest officeholder is something more primitive than the "men" envisaged by 18-century thinkers like John Adams, even enlightened self-interest may cease to reign. Then the best-conceived government is liable to become a burned-out shell.
Now, the hope of maintaining a government of laws rests with "men" -- people -- both inside the governmental structure and outside acting from their noblest convictions.
If we've ever wondered how we'd behave in a crisis, we now have the chance to find out.
9
Yes, Trump is a raging buffoon. But Cohen has one part of the analysis precisely backwards.
Trump doesn't care one way or the other about "cultural modernism." He doesn't care about the time when Michiganders had two quads or when marriage was between a woman and man. He didn't carry a retro-conservative, authoritarian philosophy into his political "career." He wasn't a ideologue who attracted sympathetic followers. He was, first and always, a preening narcissist without values. He ran for president because a black man made fun of him in public.
His positions on things from immigration, race and gun rights to religion and reproductive rights did not attract followers. He adopted these "positions" because they were the "positions" of the only people in America who might vote for him. When he discovered that his boorish, bigoted, provocative statements drew cheers, he took them on as "values."
Had it been a different group of people who turned out to cheer for him, he would have embraced and crudely echoed their positions and values.
25
Barking Doggerrel - Uh...you get things 1/3 right. While Trump does respond to the crowds applause...he's always been the things he's now accused. He's always lacked intellect. Ignores reality and facts. (he still thinks the exonerated Central Park attackers are guilty by being black) Has long held regressive and outmoded economic ideas. (bolstered by his dismissal of facts)
And while he has flip-flopped politically, he has long believed, again contrary to the facts, that the President has total power over all branches of govt. That all the branches and depts - and their agents,etc - work for and are expected to act on the Presidents behalf.
All these long held beliefs and "trump-facts" formed his campaign rhetoric. It's why he believed that he could enter the Oval and day 1 do X, Y and Z. And it would be the law of the land. That he could simply flip a switch and the ship would immediately change course to his version of the Promised Land. (of course mostly for him and his family)
As a NY'er Ive been listening him spout the same stupid stuff for decades. It's just that we deemed him a buffoon a long time ago. Thought that's how the rest of the country saw or would see him. Figured the nakedness was obvious...
But alas...we gave the rest of the nation too much credit...
7
Aw c'mon, Bo. 1/3? Maybe 2/3. I"m a former New Yorker too, but if he had been "accepted" by the more dignified rich, he would be preening at Planned Parenthood events, served on the board at MOMA and hosted a fund raiser for the Black Panthers.
Of course you're right that he's always been a crook and held regressive economic ideas (or none at all).
For nearly two years, it was forbidden by the mainstream media to refer to Hitler in any reference to Trump even when things like the “big lie” and demonizing a minority to explain the issues facing everybody had a direct reference to “the Austrian corporal.”
Now, it’s logical to make the connection as is the tendency of serious Op-Ed writers to sound like stand-ups when referring to the antics of Trump.
Dr. Krugman’s piece on Paul Ryan on Friday 13th was as precise as the scalpel of a surgeon with a small dollop of humor; and one wished that analysis of Trump could be done in a similar fashion.
But, there is a difference; at least Ryan presented his ideas in papers, in journals and even on his own blog-space. No matter how wrong-headed his ideas proved to be, at least there was enough there—at least in volume—so that serious economists wouldn’t be ridiculed by colleagues for taking the time to refute them.
But how does a serious journalist, writer or scholar justify writing a book, thesis or paper on inane policy tweets from Trump with misspelled words?
I’m as uncomfortable with evaluating a president (still in office) “as “buffoonery” as I am with the gratuitous profanity of stand-up routines that are otherwise extremely funny.
Perhaps Cohen has discovered the secret of Trump’s survival— “… there is no ‘there’ there.”
7
Don't forget that he is also lazy. Does that cover all seven deadly sins?
11
The tables are turning and the people are engaging. While we're not out of the woods yet, it's hard to imagine this Administration being in office another six months.
9
As bad as The current Zeitgeist is, Bush-Cheney was far worse and created damage that has yet to be truly assessed and understood.
Where’s the outrage?
3
Its there...but what can we do fix that history? We can't. Nor do we have the will of the people, or politicians to drag those charlatans and some criminals back for a proper flogging. Ain't gonna happen.
We Americans are today people. Its about what have you done for,or to me...right now. We dont do historical introspection,much less reverse justice. Not very often, and when we do its just a lame apology. "Oh hey, sorry we put you or your grandparents in concentration camps for being Japanese...here's a few bucks. We're golden now!" La de dah!!
We need to focus on what we can do now with what Bush-Cheney did to us and the world. What can we fix now?How can we fix it? Not who can we keep blaming!?
Lets focus on who is doing the damage now, and fix that! And right now its Trump and his Circus Clowns. Then maybe we wont need to be angry in hindsight...
1
“The fragility of freedom is the simplest and deepest lesson of my life and work.”
It is a sadly tragic truth. Our Democratic Republic only stands by an equilibrium created by a dynamic tension of counter-forces. That it has lasted for 231 years is unprecedented. That it as recovered from major treasonous attempts to destroy that balance (the secession) is a near-miracle. Around the world, nations with far less balanced equilibrium have imploded into one-man rule and dictatorship. It takes more than that to destroy ours, but Trump seems to be the final tool in the battle to destroy it, a battle that has raged since Jerry Falwell began his quest to undermine confidence in our free press, and in Science (whose "evil-lution" mean Genesis is a metaphor, not history) 40 years ago. Falwell's gone but the cancer he fomented, seeking a return to White rule, dominated by Southern WHITE Baptist Fundamentalism (that justified slavery and segregation) has slowly snowballed over the decades, and every Republican President starting with Ronald Reagan has played to that theme, heating it hotter and hotter. When America elected a Black President, that heat burst into flames. Now, Trump has poured gasoline on it, seeking to burn down EVERY pillar of our freedom. And for what? His own enrichment, ego, and need to crush anyone who ever called him to task.
And, yes, his incompetence and cowardice are his only brakes. Because Ryan and McConnell, who COULD stop him, won't.
8
Daof2 - agree. Esp.withthe Falwell stuff.But I'd add Newt Gingrich.He was right alongside Jerry, and other Evangelicals...with his re-writing of the Founding Fathers words and beliefs - to make this a by and for and only a white, male, Xtian, hetero nation.
2
Wonderful article, which speaks of the truth and opposes the fake president, the fake GOP party which supports Trump. I hope these have a downfall on Nov 6 2018.
4
At first I disagreed that it won’t take as long as Mr. Cohen suggests to recover from Trump both here and on the world stage. Regarding the former, I thought how easy it was to ‘recover’ from what I thought was a giant leap forward - electing Obama. For the latter, I think the world sees our justice system feverishly investigating Trump, his poor approval ratings and the protests. They understand the electoral college as part of the problem. A new administration will be a sea change just like Bush to Obama. But then Cohen reminds us that Trump is a symptom and not a cause and now I am depressed again. For 2 years I have read countless articles about Trump voters and talked to them myself. Something is terribly wrong with 40% of us. They rationalize his behavior with what they think they are getting from him (tax cuts or NOT HILLARY) or it’s normal (locker room talk) or it’s FAKE NEWS. Still - He beat 17 Republicans in the primary - everyone of them would have worked hard for the GOP Holy Grail of tax cuts, conservative judges and dismantling the ACA. Nope - the GOP primary voters and his 40% had many choices: they chose a cruel, narcissistic, lying, cheating, opportunistic degenerate because they like HIM. His failure to keep promises (healthcare for all) and flip flopping on policy (Iraq War horrible! John Bolton-Scooter Libby) etc. don’t seem to matter. They just like HIM. So yep - he is a symptom.
I am depressed again!
14
The vast majority of the citizens work to hard with long hours at low wage jobs to worry about Trump or Washington DC.
It is exactly what the oghlicarcs and their paid stooges in DC wanted.
They people sent Trump to smash everything, he is.
The working class is ready to burn this bought off government to the ground. Trump was just the first volley.
7
If we do not stop/stymie Trump and his Republican henchmen in November, I truly worry what will happen to America. Will he want to change our name from America to Trumplandia? I put nothing past him and that includes turning 'his' generals against 'the' people. His latest move - to pardon Scooter Libby - is an open and transparent message to those who know too much about him that they should not worry about going to prison. He will pardon them.
And we Americans - or Trumplandians - will sit and watch the boob tube, we will watch him steal our freedoms, our republic, our democracy, away. Want another beer while we watch our country being destroyed?
7
Yes, good call: buffoon.
The problem is he is also a liar, vainglorious bully, serial-adulterer, serial draft-dodger (while saying 'women' were his Vietnam War, and McCain and POW's weren't really 'heroes' - so it's rather shameful to see so many military personnel cling to his side), treasonous, poisonous, spoiled billionaire (actually, he's probably only worth in the hundreds of millions).
This is Republican, conservative, right-wing, evangelical moral leadership. Remember this. Do not forget this. Remind citizens of who this man was (I mean, after he falls so hard for so many corrupt and criminal things he's done) and who supported him. The right-wing and all the others will do their best to move on and forget and make us forget. We must not. All of these people have put America, honor, justice, democracy and truth in peril. They have put our civilization and our children in peril. At the very least, in moral peril.
I'm tired of the questions of 'Why?' would Trump not be more forceful with Putin or any other billionaire. Trump is the moneychanger, the pirate, the con-man, the poster-boy for avarice and craving. That is Republican. Do not let them distance themselves from this.
We all know the main thing Trump and the Republicans have done so far: cut taxes for the richest Americans, like Trump. Un-American, they are. Untrustworthy, immoral, unethical, criminally selfish, heartless, they are.
Enough already. Enough. Sit back and watch the dirty King fall. For good.
11
It's enough. We know he's horrible. I, too, can recount his failures and failings though likely not as eloquently. And I agree with everything written here but at some point we need to look to remedying the situation not just recounting the horribleness of it.
Over 30% of the U.S. 'strongly supports' Trump according to recent polls. These columnists' time would be much better spent figuring out how to reach them and how to build bridges not continue to divide.
Headlines like this are exactly what Fox news and its readers look to when pointing out how 'the left' hates them. And harping on it again and again (and again and again) is barely better than Fox's use of disparaging news about 'Trump haters' and 'snowflakes'.
Use your intellect to build bridges, help us reach the people on the other side and avoid this happening again.
3
But have you ever tried to talk to a die-hard Trump supporter? It's impossible to reason with them.
8
Truth is critical not only for Americans, but for global order and America's standing. Unfortunately, we non-Americans have seen America’s global standing decline over more than Trump’s term. Trickle down economics, lies about weapons of mass destruction, voodoo economics and unfettered individualism without a trace of concern for a greater good (American or Global) have led to wars and in the world’s opinion, an America that is increasingly not such a great nation. Trump’s shoot from the lip approach to distract has exacerbated the problem on key issues with global implications, such as peace, trade and global stability. No, this has been building for a long time, but it is rapidly crystalizing under Trump.
America is now defined externally by Trump’s threats and actions, yet the American political system can’t seem to rein in his posturing or questionable actions. Hence, a narcissistic buffoon with the attention span of a gnat is dismantling the global order that once made America so great. Threats of nuclear destruction, tearing up trade agreements, imposing tariffs on the world before America clearly defines its new positions translates externally as an America out of control.
3
So well written. This is a column I shall keep and share. We need everyone from young students like the ones at Parkland to old white people like me who still have some brain cells left to speak up. I cannot believe what I am seeing in my country. Thank you for this wonderful column.
4
I do not think the GOP understands how angry those of us who abhor Trump are. The GOP will ramp up Fox News propaganda and court Putin's attacks with a blind eye. Enough while they glorify their destruction from the EPA to national health. The advertisers are the best tool at present.
Remember in November. On every bumper and lawn.
9
No, no, no, no.
Roger Cohen has lost his soul. Perhaps sold, maybe simply lost. I won't speculate.
Remember Roger Cohen? The man had such a unique perspective on the world (and such a way with words) that the reader was transported to a new realm, a new perspective on reality - where humor and tragedy emerged in new forms.
Why I signed up for the NYT.
He's gone, reduced to writing hit pieces for the progressive left. Not a new "Cohen realm", but the perverse progressive left. Labels and insults, comparisons to Hitler and Saddam Hussein (would never have believed it). A standard postmodern neo-marxist propaganda piece. No, no, no, no Roger.
Tragic. But let's remember who Roger Cohen was, and applaud him for that. There are archives.
3
Trumpism is a total perversion of what was once the Republican Party. Cohen’s vivid description of trump, with his appeal to the nativists in this country, is dead on accurate. Many former Republicans have joined with Independents and Democrats to denounce this terrifying presidency. The flashing lights of disaster are in front of us every day. We Americans of every party, faith, color and creed will unite as one, without the labels of “progressive” or “liberal”and do our civic duty in November, for the good of the country.
8
Yggdrasil,
What is wrong with being progressive or liberal? I’m proud of it!
5
"So, Hitler wanted to make Germany great again. Sure worked out."
You fail to point out that, for non-Jews, Germany was prosperous under Hitler from 1933-1940, and that it took an alliance of world powers to destroy him. Mussolini had similar success for the same period. Dictatorships are brutal for the persecuted, but the favored often thrive, and such regimes don't necessarily collapse from within. Outside forces, stoked with anger, must do the job. Maybe November will save us from Trump, but maybe we need, too, some storming of the gates.
80
Yes, Germany and Italy prospered due to massive public works. At the expense of private enterprises.
10
Umberto, you need to reevaluate what you mean by thrive. Common Germans didnt thrive. What was taken fromthe Jews, businesses etc...didnt suddenly become places that Germans thrived. Burning out, or otherwise destroying Jewish businesses didn't leave a functioning operation/s where a German - with no training - could jump in and prosper.
You cant ignore the War effort and its effects on everyday Germans. With its on-again, off-again rationing, with the relocation of Germans to the East - in Hitler's hopes of their colonizing and thriving. (Which never happened)
Where the elite Germans in Hitlers circle, their families, were plundering everything they could get their hands on. In Austria, in Poland, Czechoslovakia, etc, only the connected locals had a chance of thriving...much less living.
And this notion of anyone not Jewish thrived, or were exempt from persecution is down right false.
Even if the US had further delayed their entry into WW2, Germany and Germans were already suffering back home. The respite of '33-'39 for them was just that...a very fragile respite from the deprivations of postWW1. Their factories were not producing any real goods, using slave labor was not creating a wealthy middle-class. And their poor were only getting poorer.
Its a falsehood to say that Germany or Germans were truly thriving pre WW2.
9
Thank you Mr. Cohen, for raising the specter of how Germany turned into Nazi Germany. Most Germans did not see it coming.
There is a pervasive taboo to drawing comparisons of Trump to Hitler. It is considered impolitic to impute the immensity of Hitler's crimes against humanity to Trump, but we don't know what is in Trump's mind, what he is capable of, beyond his thirst to grab and squeeze the jugular of those who oppose him.
What we do know for certain is that a sick society is a fertile ground for tyrants to sprout. We know that Germany was sick in the 1930's and America is sick now. One-third of Americans would prefer to destroy the federal government and our republic rather than fix them. Their anger blinds them to reality, making them a rapt audience of Fox propaganda, an ill-informed electorate for Republicans and a tribe of worshipers of Trump.
We can't pacify these Republicans, we can't reason with them and we can't ignore them. America is sick but Trump is not the remedy, he is the cancerous consequence of Republican Party black arts.
We have learned that it is imperative for healthy Americans to act, that Republicans should not be allowed anywhere near government offices, that our Constitution needs an educated populace to see beyond propaganda and democracy dies when citizens fail in their responsibility to vote.
Could Trump be another Hitler? Let's not find out.
"This is no time for bystanders."
232
"Most Germans did not see it coming."
But, most Germans welcomed it. That lesson is playing out here and now in the Republican Party, and in the Republican held Congress. We should all remember that Mussolini and Hitler both came to power through democratic elections. This is playing out in Europe again today -- and, sadly, in the U.S.
17
Statistically most Americans are not welcoming this. It's far more complex than that. Gerrymandered maps, suppressed votes and electoral meddling by outside forces are playing out. Trump does not have card blanche even though he and his supporters think so. There are similarities and differences to Hitlers rise. Vote in November.
1
"Most Germans did not see it coming." But, most Germans welcomed it". The difference being: Most Americans did see it coming and most Americans did not welcome it.
Bravo. A person who boasts about killing the families of your enemies is a man to be exiled. That is Trump. The Congress is so afraid of exercising the obvious judgment that impeachment and removal is vital that they allow this monster to stay in office. Enough.
8
Great op-ed...another alarm sounded...in the fall of 2016 (before 77,000 combined voters in Wisconsin, Michigan, and Pennsylvania were manipulated by Robert Mercer’s Cambridge Analytica), I gave a presentation to a small group of ‘liberal’ church members which I titled...”Is America Flirting With Fascism Again?”...the answer to that question is much clearer today than it was then...why do we Americans have such a difficult time recognizing fascism and fascists? I think it’s because we haven’t suffered through a fascist phase like Germany, Italy, Spain, a Gen. Pinochet...but a few do remember or know of, the German-American Bund...the other reason may be that we Americans are so shallow, uneducated, misinformed, and easily manipulated that we don’t recognized fascism or fascists unless there’s a Nazi flag or armband, or jackboots, or crematoriums. Our thanks to this op-ed writer for sounding another alarm...better late than never, as my maternal grandmother said.
9
I read this article and these comments and feel optimistic, wrapped in a blanket of shared observations. Then I remember - 41% of Americans approve of Trump, 86% of Republicans approve, 61% strongly approve. Keep that in mind when you go out today. In my area, I am in a small minority.
3
"he is a symptom, not a cause. " spot on, Mr. Cohen. Trump is the manifestation of the worst of human nature, which is extraordinarily visible in this time of extraordinary change. We can fight change with fear, or we can make every effort to meet the challenges of change. Time for a change!
3
Great Musil quote and, from what was roughly the same time period, Mencken also observed,
"As democracy is perfected, the office of president represents, more and more closely, the inner soul of the people. On some great and glorious day the plain folks of the land will reach their heart's desire at last and the White House will be adorned by a downright moron.”
How were these two (and many others) so prescient? Likely they saw then what we see now, too many leaders guided by venality, hubris, and very loose connections to the truth as they reach for more money and power (and, in our case, to try to stay out of prison).
5
Trump has Narcissistic Personality Disorder. Americans are doomed by the narcissistic Trump presidency. We (not I, however) did this to ourselves through a crazy process called democratic elections. Welcome to Trumpzania!
3
"... the Nazis [...] hated [...] Judaism" Not really. Their antisemitism was based on the delusion that the Jews are a race! Actually, just after he had 'decided to become a politician' (must have been 1919 or 20), Adolf Hitler wrote a pamphlet in which he elaborated why the Jews would be by all means a race, and not a religious group. Unlike in earlier persecutions of Jews, you could not escape the Nazi murder-machine by getting baptised. The mentioned Fritz Stern and his family were Lutherans. Like many others, they had converted end of the 19th century, but still had to flee. Another prominent example is philosopher Edith Stein, who had been born Jewish, converted to Roman Catholicism, and become a Discalced Carmelite nun in 1922, but was murdered anyway. A lot of people did not get the difference back then either. Most notably pastor Martin Niemöller (famous for his monologue: "First they came..."), who initially thought the Nazis and he were on the same side. In a sermon in the early 1930's he had declared the Jews a "doomed people". "Doomed" in a theological sense however. Something that could be fixed by becoming Christian. He was a relgious antijudaist, not an antisemite. When the Nazis came for some fellow pastors who had either converted from Judaism, or had Jewish ancestry, he realised the difference, opposed the Nazis, co-founded the movement "Bekennende Kirche", and spent the years 1938 to 1945 in Sachsenhausen and Dachau concentration camps.
4
Trump is the quintessential archetype grifter. I wouldn't matter if he was selling vacuum cleaners, used cars, or the need to bomb Syria. He's all about the quick sell, the ponzi scam, and taking the gullible for all they're worth - make your money and get out.
But now he (and his family of grifters) has a problem. Just as Icarus paid no heed to advice, Trump's been seduced into believing his own lies (or in their awesome power) and thought he could fool us all. As the Trump's run their scams on us and our government they are discovering that people are watching, records (old and new) are being reviewed, and since they can't just move on, they see that they're going to get caught.
A grifter becoming president - that's become our yellow-haired archetype grifter's worst nightmare. The Trump's are likely having some very frightening dreams.
6
To Republicans in the Senate and House, without permission from “A Man for all Seasons—“
It’s profits a person nothing to give his or her soul for the whole world, but for Trump?
The November mid-term elections will tell us whether we have been paying attention to what is happening. Anything less than a complete rejection of the Republican Party will be sufficient reason for this ignorant demagogue to continue in his self-absorbed destruction of a one great nation.
5
Excellent essay from Mr. Cohen.
1
The life expectancy of a working class person went down for the second year in a row.
https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2017/12/21/572080314/life-expe...
You wonder why the working class on the right and left are revolting?
2
Mainstream Republicans in Congress are in a tough spot. We do nothing wrong in admitting it. If they take on Trump, many risk loosing a primary to Trumpites. Okay, you say, but then what if Trumpite wins the seat. The result is worse. So what they have tried to do is draw a redline--fire Mueller and we will stand up to you Trump--and stay silent as they are doing now. My opinion, fwiw, is that it hasn't been shown that Trump personally conspired with the Russians yet. Those in his circle, almost certainly, but him? Only sixty percent. On the other hand, it's almost certain that he knew something and didn't care and a grifter.
2
Trump is the embodiment of everything terrible, awful and dangerous but do not forget that this republican congress with majorities in the house and senate are wholly responsible for the dismantlement of our agencies, the raid on our treasury the installment of unqualified judges that threaten us all.
It is congress that has enabled this dangerous, corrupt crime boss president and we must deal with congress at the ballot box
7
Excellent. No I don't have to write a long comment. Thank you.
1
" His cabinet looks terrorized, the way Saddam Hussein’s once did."
Heckuva statement when considering that Saddam killed the half of the cabinet he terrorized.
2
What is so unsettling is that Trump is a reflection of so many of his supporters. He did not reach the Presidency in a vacuum. He voiced the attitudes of far too many Americans. For too long we have fed ourselves an airbrushed version of our History and come to believe in our exceptionalism. Yes, we have had some exceptional moments and people. But we have faults, shortcomings and blemishes. The Founding Fathers realized that and established a dynamic system of government to account for that and allow us to evolve and overcome our faults. Among other causes, voter apathy has led to a breakdown in our system of civil debate and compromise. We have allowed the unfettered flow of cash to replace rhetoric as the driving force of our elections. November 2018 will be telling. Possibly with the stimulus of some energetic young people we will see enough Americans take their civic responsibilities seriously and go to the polls. The sane amongst us must truly regain control of the country. Our survival as a nation depends on it.
3
Trump is not Hitler or Stalin. There is no evidence that he really has a burning desire to "make America Great again" or do anything other than to continue on his unexpected ego trip. He had and still has no cadre of devoted and able assistants who can actually carry out any of his various whims in an effective way. The greatest danger may come from a more competent successor who can see what dissatisfactions led to Trump's election and capitalize on them. The major parties are still making little effort to address the sources of still-growing economic inequality.
3
A democracy is only as good as its voters.
As long as a large percentage of our electorate supports Trump (and 30% to 40% is a large percentage), foreign nations are wise to be skeptical about the United States' ability to be a constructive and reliable partner.
8
It's easy to be a newspaper columnist these days. All you have to do is keep a list of Trump lies and initiatives and tick off a few twice a week. Enlightening readers on how to prevent such incompetent leaders -- starting with the repeal Citizens United -- would be a lot more work.
7
Excellent column. History does not repeat itself but is offers warning signs from the past that can be applied to the present.
4
When future historians confirm Mr. Trump as our worst-ever president, their lengthy list of justifications will certainly include his recent tweets threatening another nuclear power and introducing even more uncertainty in the volatile Middle East. The casual, unthinking nature of his communications indicates someone incapable of grasping the potential consequences, but rather someone who only feeds off the momentary energy of being the center of attention and power. What a sad period for the USA.
14
excellent article!!! the sad truth. be vigilant americans.
4
So many of us are in a constant state of agitation and anxiety as our very survival depends on the impulsive, self-serving decisions of a pathological liar.
Two things that scare the daylights out of me and literally keep me up at night:
1. How do we address the issues that motivated 60 million Americans to elect a madman and who continue to support him no matter what he does?
2. What will be the long-term effects of living through an administration devoted to dismantling democratic values, and the dissemination of propaganda and falsehoods?
Will we become numbed to the effects of hearing lie after lie after lie? Is this the age of the devaluation of the intellect and of truth itself?
History will judge these dark times in America. I am already wondering which version my grandchildren will be reading in their history textbooks. Will they be reading propaganda or historical fact backed by empirical evidence? The fact that I can not answer that question scares me to death.
14
It is also Mr. Trumps sense of entitlement. 'We', by that I mean the 58% or so of us who haven't been brain wiped by the continual right-wing propaganda machine, all know the truth about Donald Trump. It is there, out in the open, for everyone to see. It is his sense of entitlement he uses to compensate for his incompetence. He equates money to any success. His monetary success means he is always correct, always. He cannot accept otherwise. Did he not just appoint a commission to audit the post office because their officials disputed his claim that Amazon was driving the post office to ruin?
And anyone in the world, who is poor, is worthless in his universe. Ergo no sympathy or empathy to the plight of others, who haven't earned the monetary right, is possible.
In referring to Mr. Trump's exponentially increased sense of entitlement since being elected I will throw out another Alan Rickman line from the same movie, "Look at him; it's like throwing gasoline on a flame."
6
Mr. Trump reminds me very much of our dog, Frankie. Frankie was a bulldog who was loved by my daughter; she found him charming. Yes, he was a good watchdog, but utterly without discrimination. The mailman stopped delivering our mail because of how Frankie charged the screen door. We dared not let any children in the house or yard unless he was confined to a crate. For no reason he suddenly and viciously attacked our other dog while she slept under a lilac bush. My husband had to start carrying a baseball bat if he got up at night to use the bathroom. There was just no controlling him. But my daughter was so attached to him and in denial about the true nature of his personality. We finally had to act like responsible adults and acknowledge that even though he did one or two things right (he never had an accident in the house), and even though my daughter would be mightily angry with us, it was time for Frankie to "go live in the country" before someone was seriously hurt or we got sued.
3
Once again, we read an opinion which demonstrates that Trump is nothing less than the cover for the Republicans. It appears from taking a peek at the voting records that Mr. Stephens comments (tirade ?) about Trump would be just as true, if one replaced the word "Trump" by the word "Republicans". The Trumpian Republicans in Congress can do their worst, and then let Trump take the heat for it.
2
Well said, Mr. Cohen. The Donald has a long history of using bluster and bravado to get what he wants then leaves a wake of destruction behind him. It is anyone’s guess how much damage he will cause to our Nation and our rule of law before he exits the Oval Office.
In Atlantic City he put some small companies out of business when he refused to pay for work done on his casinos. He also managed to bankrupt casinos where the odds are stacked in favor of the house.
In NYC, he destroyed historic limestone carved relief sculptures that were affixed to the beautiful Bomwit Teller building. He tore it down to build the hideous Trump Tower. Trump had promised to donate the panels to The Metropolitan Museum of Art, instead they were jackhammered apart. Trump also used undocumented workers on this project.
He used Chinese steel to build in Las Vegas and Chicago.
Trump is a two-bit huckster who hoodwinked many into voting for him.
There’s much much more. Google it!
and-culture/a12030857/donald-trump-bonwit-teller/
151
I feel mentally and emotionally drained. My strength seems sapped. Every word of this article, Mr Cohen, explains why. But I WILL RESIST!
3
"The fragility of freedom" has brought our troops to the four corners of the earth. "The fragility of freedom" is what many have sacrificed their lives to shore up. Freedom is what America was known for until many gave away their freedom to a leader who said he, by himself, would make American great again. They willing gave up their freedom to pretend that our nation could return to the days of a world gone by, where white people had more control over their futures just by being white, and you didn't have to work for opportunities to succeed. His supporters have given up their freedom to think for themselves and learn more about the world, becoming tethered to others who tell them how to think and vote. They give up their freedom to make educated choices because they refuse to educate themselves about the issues, which is as easy as switching a station on your television or googling a topic. They have made freedom much more fragile for all of us by voting and continuing to support a narcissistic "buffoon" who they've given the most powerful position in the world to with little thought and less concern for the peoples of the world and even their neighbors. Our"so-called" president has done nothing to make their lives better, but has denigrated everyone else's life that doesn't support his policies that are all based on fears of not being great enough with no concern for working harder to learn and grow into greatness. We are all being held hostage now, freedoms diminished.
7
When factory work in the US both existed and paid well there were no quad bikes, only three wheelers. Three wheelers were banned because the government figured out they were killing people.
I doubt either would happen today - the figuring out or the banning. But the killing would.
1
This article should be shared widely to counter the Republicans exploitation of Comey's salacious references to Trump. There is more than enough to hold Trump accountable for without writing about degrading references to the President's appearance.
2
The first three paragraphs say it all about Trump. Yet we, as a nation, and congress continue to sit idle and let it happen.
WE let this abomination happen. WE are at fault. WE allow this charade of a presidency to continue.
WE the people can make it stop. The time has come to heal the wounds and divisions Trump has inflicted on OUR nation and the world.
Call your representatives. Let them know you are done with this. Let them know you are done with them unless they stand up to this man and do what is right.
The time has come to lift up America by its boot straps, and make it great again!
WE can, and WE will make America a better place by putting an end to this mans power. Time for Trump to go home, and for all of us to begin to heal the gaping wounds he is leaving in his wake.
2
Perhaps the greatest danger is the apparent belief on the part of GOP leaders and the non-base segment of the conservative electorate that while he is a self-absorbed buffoon Trump is more sound than fury, containable while the agenda is implemented, and therefore tolerable. The dangers, however, are very real, as you detail in this excellent column, and without question the greatest threat comes from his all-too-successful assault on the concept of truth. That will, once entrenched, prove very difficult to overcome. And when that happens we will have permanently lost our way.
3
I have hope. One day soon, Trump will be defeated and it’s Stormy Daniels who will have brought him down. She’s the Joan of Arc of our times. I hope the Pope is listening, because this woman deserves beatification. Even now, it’s not too early to refer to her by the title she deserves - Saint Stormy!
3
Trump's support is manufactured by right-wing media, which relies on incendiary distortions. Why should we allow corporate control of the public airwaves? The FCC is an example of corporate capture. If a Dems succeed in winning back Congress, they should move urgently to craft legislation that will protect the essential functions of democracy: something like the Fairness Doctrine to break down the polarized news silos, and strong funding for public television. Limit the imperial presidency. Work to build support for publicly financed elections. Prohibit the revolving door between government and corporate/regulatory/lobbyist positions. Regulate social media so it can't function as a surveillance tool.
15
You seem to have a lot of faith in the sanctity of men as once the govt is given "control" of anything, the anything becomes a reflection of the State's values, not the Peoples'.
Then again, if the State can be counted on to do things "right" and erase corruption and lies from the airwaves, all the better, correct?
Be it to discover and understand base realities (facts), or detect defects and root causes, or devise solutions/objectives/goals/plans one has study and reflect with intellectual curiosity, honesty, and openness.
One must assess all viable alternatives using a method or set of "rules" that drives impartial fact based conclusions.
When I read articles like this I double down on my critical thinking. I look for flaws, exaggerations, unfairness. I look to falsify.
Why? because at this point in this horrible era articles like this so clearly presented seem to so fully support my conclusions.
Confirmation bias the bane of honest analysis!
But try as I might to play the other side I come to the conclusions this article articulates so well.
I think any real honest player with a clear psychological pathway and a modicum of intelligence would.
But here's the rub: about 42% of us either have a selfish agenda or don't have the skills, knowledge, or psychological pathway to see it as Roger Cohen does herein.
I accept that that 42% is a fact of life now in USA. Incorrigible they are.
I hope that the 58% if us that can intellectually accept what Roger Cohen says herein as basically true musters enough urgency, honesty, courage, and patriotism to put aside their Progressive vs. Conservative approach arguments and votes collectively to save our Nation come 2018/2020 elections.
15
You call him raging buffoon, I call him degenerate buffoon. In either case he is an illegitimate president who was elected with foreign interference.
Trump should be booted out of office as as possible.
13
Trump is the symptom, that's for sure. He's the perfect foil for the Alcoa Crowd. If you don't know metal barons, you might miss this joke about their yokes. This ox is gonna get gored.
2
Name-calling shows a lack of an intelligent idea on your part, Mr. Cohen.
1
It’s not name-calling. It’s an accurate description.
7
Mr. Cohen, you yourself have a dubious connection to the truth. You write about america as if it were dying. It is already dead. Stop pretending.
#calexit - bury the body already, it's beginning to stink.
2
You sound like a Russian bot.
3
“Hitler in a coalition with the Center will be working with statesmen who are not drummer boys but experienced realists. And it is a great deal easier to organize revolts than it is to rule. I predict that Hitler will be extinguished.” – American journalist Dorothy Thompson, after interviewing Adolf Hitler in 1932
8
I think that the reason Trump is popular is that Republicans have gotten meaner and meaner. They elected the stupid bully in high school whose rich dad got him out of trouble and gave him a Corvette. The smart black kid who went to Harvard and succeeded in everything drove them crazy. They hate education, want tons of money for idiotic jobs and are easily manipulated by slogans. I'm sure German factory workers weren't that different.
21
Revolt is on the horizon....beware.
6
It was good to see that Cohen took the time to address the oft-repeated remark that Donald Trump is not, in fact, Adolf Hitler. First of all, has the bar been set so low that anyone who can distinguish themselves from Hitler is fit to lead the United States?
In any case, when Trump apologists say “he isn’t Hitler and this isn’t 1930s Germany,” they clearly mean Hitler at the height of his totalitarian power and Germany in full thrall to genocidal madman. But as Cohen rightly points out, Hitler took advantage of the desperate economic circumstances and perceived humiliation of Germany. Hitler’s message was that Germany was once a great nation (an German Empire in fact) and that but for the treachery of lesser races and the weakness of the establishment, it would be great again. How many otherwise reasonable Germans chose to disregard Hitler’s unhinged rhetoric in the hopes that their economic situation would improve? And it’s easy to turn a blind eye to injustices visited upon “those people,” especially when you have your own troubles. And of course, the rest is history.
It is plain and simple arrogance to believe that the U.S. is somehow immune to the same moral failures that transformed Germany into the Third Reich. We all know PRECISELY the kind of monster Trump could become and our nation is playing a very dangerous game right now. Trump apologists are acting like this is poker between liberals and conservatives, but it’s not. This is Russian Roulette.
23
All this is true dear friend, and still, 80% of republicans, Evangelicals in front, approve of this buffoon. President Reagan, please Sir, come back, the country has never needed you more...
2
Cue up another pardon. Get the Fox sycophants to ramp-up disparaging commentary on Obama, Clinton, Mueller, Comey, Sessions, et al. Play nice with the Chinese. Muster remaining close friends to Florida for a few rounds of golf. Tend to the business of the United States? Probably not.
5
Thank you for an apt article. It is not too early or inappropriate to raise the warnings of Nazi Germany.
President Trump is a grotesquery. In real time, we see the steady destruction of America’s reputation and honorable traditions. We seem helpless whilst a bratty child with a nasty personality takes the helm of our national ship. He wishes many people and many things “into the cornfield” on a daily basis, as he recklessly steers our vessel from one rocky shoal to another.
I believe we are going to recover. I hope this President is soundly thrashed at election time if he is not already gone by then.
7
Every time I resolve to cancel my NYTimes subscription, I read an excellent opinion piece such as this one. And postpone cancellation.
3
I’m not too fond of comparisons with Nazi Germany : such historical transpositions are unnecessary, rarely pertinent and often grossly mistaken. And they tend to make commonplace events that should be singled out as unique in their horror. But since we are at one of such comparisons, let’s make a point : when you look at archives of the Nazi regime, with Hitler making a speech, you don’t see only Hitler. You see immense crowds in ranks and files, extending to the horizon, shouting Siegheil ! How can you possibly think that all evil was concentrated in one single man ?
Now, if you want to go further with your historical comparisons, remind us of the ratio of Trump approvals in the polls.
5
Can any comment here actually beat the headline?
It says it all.
7
Criminal Understatement, Mr. Cohen....
2
Most of us on this comment thread are tethered against their will. The Republican Party, on the other hand, is fully symbiotic, with tethers traveling both to and from the buffoon. Witness the RNC's coordinated smear campaign on Comey and the FBI/DOJ. And finally, the Republican voter: are they not ultimately to blame for ignoring facts and science ... or their own conscience? In favor of a tribal instinct I still do not comprehend.
4
My 90 year old mother watches two channels on television. Fox News and the channel carrying the local Major League Baseball team. We speak regularly but from time to time I have trouble understanding whether her anger is that Hillary Clinton is responsible for causing an unearned run in the 9th inning or for helping sex-criminals from Central America cross the Mexican Border into the USA. But the "good" news is that Mom has voted a straight GOP ticket for the last 69 years and will until the day she dies - and her sister lived to be 106. Apparently there are many more like Mom out there, and Mr. Trump can probably go ahead and order extra stationary printed with the While House address.
3
25th Amendment, Section 4.
4
When I travelled abroad, in the past, I felt proud to be an American. I could observe the rule of law in other countries and feel pride in my country. America has its faults but at least we didn’t have a thug for a president. I just feel ashamed now that we have a proven liar and immature adult (an I use the word adult loosely) as our world representative. It didn’t take the world very long to figure trump out.
Obviously pride goes before a fall. I did not vote for trump, but I’ll never be able to understand why people voted against their own best interests. My brother voted for the president and I don’t know if the rift in my family can ever be healed. It’s hard for me to believe we were raised by the same parents.
And for all those Americans so dead set against immigration. Unless you are a Native American someone in your family was an immigrant.
20
Your love of unlimited illegal immigration helped bring about this mess Mr. Cohen. You deserve about as much blame as the average Trump voter. Or the so called Green Party cranks.
2
Any evidence to support your first claim?
1
Please: no more NYT editorials on how terrible Donald Trump is! We're way past the point of needing to be convinced. If democracy is truly at risk, we need the op-ed writers at the Times to spare us the history lessons and use their incredible platform to share information on who is effectively resisting and how we can work together.
13
His cabinet and White House staff look like the losing Iraqi national soccer team returning home to face the wrath of Saddam's son.
3
I recall during and after the first presidential debate between Clinton and Trump, being singularly aware that Trump was using the type of rhetoric Adolf Hitler used in his rise to power in the 1920’s. The theme I most recall him employing: "I can't be any worse than what's been." I thought, sure you can. And so he is. So much worse.
At the heart of the man and the nationalistic/nativist movement is fear. FDR instructed in his first inaugural address, “The only thing we have to fear, is fear itself!" But fear is a natural, oft present, emotion in the lives of people. In response, great leaders layout a vision, backed by action and resources, to transform fear into hope and optimism that leads to mobilization and creation. Donald Trump however has no vision beyond his self-interest. The problem of course is that he now holds a job that at its roots, requires him to see and think way beyond himself, to consider and care mostly for others. And he is wholly unfit for the task. So he proceeds, as Mr. Cohen so aptly and courageously points out, in self-service in his engrained manner: by destruction.
His methods will not change, and he must be fought until he is removed, along with every trace of detritus that accompanied him to our nation’s capital. There was no swamp in DC before Donald Trump. There is a deep one there now.
7
Good points, MW .
For a second when I saw the name "Cohen" with the headline for this column I though it meant Michael Cohen. How I would love to read a column by him with the same title!
2
Vote, Americans. Vote. Your country needs you.
7
Whether or not James Comey is "a total slime ball" is not the issue. Trump used to boast how he "knows a lot of words." But his vocabulary seems perfectly suited for Twitter (and the corner bar); I can't recall when he's used a three-syllable word. Is he a buffoon? Buffoons make you laugh. Not the Donald.
3
We may be lucky that Donald J. Trump is a chaotically raging buffoon. If he were a truly smart, calculating, rationally strategic incarnation of evil, America and the world might be in an even prettier pickle than they find themselves now.
1
Doesn't Fox realize the damage Trump's doing will affect them?
4
Thanks for writing this Mr. Cohen!
And yet people voted for him. ???
Roger - Its called "hypenormalisation".
The term "hypernormalisation" is taken from Alexei Yurchak's 2006 book Everything was Forever, Until it was No More: The Last Soviet Generation, ....he argues that everyone knew the system was failing, but as no one could imagine any alternative to the status quo, politicians and citizens were resigned to maintaining a pretence of a functioning society....this same problem has crept into American society (with help from the russians)...and its started in congress...now its across social media and the news....no one believes anything anymore...
2
Another of Roger Cohen's cogent and eloquent pieces. But it wasn't Judaism the Nazis and their sympathizers opposed, except insofar as they were against all religion. It was Jews, pious or secular.
2
Fortunately T does not have deliberately evil strategic constructs in mind like H such as world domination. He only wants to survive and look good, and bathe in our adoration to soothe his bottomless ego.
1
The most dangerous man in the world. Aided and abetted by Fox 'n' Fiends and Sean Hannity (another raging buffoon). I was checking out companies which advertise on Hannity's show (an online list - I've never watched, so have no idea) and was NOT astonished to see all kinds of pharmaceutical companies, but WAS astonished to see AARP, My Pillow, NutriSystem, Liberty Mutual, Animal Planet and Southern New Hampshire University, among dozens of others. Wow. I intend to contact their CEOs/heads and ask them if they think their businesses will do well when everything is owned by the ruling party of Trump and his oligarchs. AARP???
7
Just curious, if you have never watched the show, how do you know he is a buffoon?
I get that there are "acceptable" news sources, and they may rank Hannity as a buffoon. But should you at least take a look and make up your own mind?
1
Edmund Burke once said: "The Only Thing Necessary for the Triumph of Evil is that Good Men Do Nothing"
Do something. Vote.
7
Slow coup. Slow coup. Slow coup.
We are in the middle of a slow coup.
1
I'm heartened that the NYT and MSM are finally beginning to take the gloves off and call Trump what he is: a "raging buffoon", and wannabe dictator.
America has been taken captive by a foreign sponsored puppet. If we don't rid ourselves of this parasite, our nation will soon be subject to the string pulls from Moscow. We are, plain and simply stated, under attack from our enemy, and they have made a beachhead at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.
6
In all the articles I have read about how the destruction of truth, the media, etc, etc, and the systematic way in which the man called "president" is going about it really begs the question...."is he really that SMART???" For someone who does not read, had no discernible philosophy, his actions are pretty smart. So how......????
1
Reflections no one can regard as wide of the mark, or excessively pointed. If this is the demand it seems to be, one has to second it.
Trump and all of his enablers need to be held accountable for the damage they’ve done to our Republic. Whether it’s Trump and his first three children along with their spouses, Mike Pence, Scott Pruitt, Sean Hannity, executives at Fox, Michael Cohen, etc., they all need to be tried ultimately for treason.
6
"Tethered to a Raging Buffoon called Trump."
So what else is new?
Let's not forget, we live in a country where one can pull out a bill from their wallet with the picture of a monster on it. It's legal currency. Beggars would love to have them. Businesses accept them as payment for goods and services.
Andrew Jackson murdered women and children. When a fellow named Davey Crockett from the Tennessee militia objected, he threatened to kill him though they had been friends.
Andrew Jackson deceived almost all those that supported him. He lead them to believe they were fighting and murdering for "Settler's Rights".
Jackson really meant wealthy landowners, to whom he eventually sold his extensive land holdings in Mississippi and Alabama. The purpose of it all was to get rich on cotton. To do this slave labor was needed and black slavery mushroomed. Jackson became very rich.
In the 1834 elections Crockett was defeated and it was accredited to his opposition of Jackson’s polices.
7
I agree with Roger Cohen, although I didn't care for the following sentence: "Once upon a time the United States won wars, white men ruled, a factory worker in Michigan could afford a couple of quad bikes, and marriage was between a man and a woman."
How condescending can you get? White men are not a monolithic force! Liberals would do well to remember that, unless they want to lose more elections to demagogues like Donald J. Trump.
1
You missed it. This, implicitly or explicitly, is what the "great" in Make America Great Again refers to. It's a simplistic fantasy, delusional nostalgia, snake oil.
Thank you , Mr.Cohen , for this clear-eyed yet passionate column . Words like yours must be spread amongst the populace if we are ever to overcome this horrible scourge , this nightmare of Trump . You capture exactly who he is , and that is the scary thing . His thoughtlessness , his blind greed , his lack of intellect , his vindictiveness and utter cluelessness , in combination with his cowardice with excessive pride , given his enormous position of power make him the most dangerous person in the world . Vibrant democracy , an informed and energized electorate and harsh but absolute truths are needed more than ever if we are going to be able to extricate ourselves from this abominable creature .
While it is certain that the walls ( not his "famous" one, you know , the one that was going to be paid for by Mexico . . . "Believe me !") are surely closing in on him as he furiously thrashes about and thuggish Michael Cohen sweats profusely , although not as profusely as his master .
If world peace can endure this buffoon , history will surely have a good time carving him up into little pieces , casting humiliation on the Trump name and on all those who are complicit with his evil deeds ( paying attention Ivanka , Donnie Jr. , Eric , House and Senate Republicans who have remained silent and enabling this Fumbling Boob with Heel Spurs ? ) In this process , hopefully more and more voters become better informed about the lessons that history has for us . Vote , vote wisely , America.
3
While there are ways of escaping the tribulations and tantrums of Trump by turning off the television and having delicious high teas, Scooter Libby is always to be seen here, there and everywhere.
It would be of interest to know how many Americans can say the same, and whether they remember Libby in these fast paced times we are living. Trump pardoned him today on Friday, April 13, ending a 'very sad' time in his life, and there is unkind news circulating that this might make it easier for our President to fire Mueller.
But back to "Scootie" as I know him. He has been to Asia and served as Deputy Operating Officer of The Fur Clan in my absence on humanitarian assignment, and was last seen chasing a golf ball across the lawn. He is also a fine body guard, and as the saying goes, his bark is worse than his bite.
There is nothing you can do about Trump since half the Country feels the other half is an army of insensitive dingbats and that his behavior is quite laudable and befitting of an American leader. True, he has more or less told the World to take a hike and let us not forget the early days when Bannon told The Press to shut up on his behalf.
But all is not lost, for a dream is spreading throughout the Land of The Free of a forthcoming 'American Spring' where persons of all ages, fit, willing and capable, a multi-cultured Nation, will unite and march peacefully to Washington, D.C to tell Trump that his residency at The White House is over.
3
Are we really " tethered to a buffoon" Mr. Cohen? I don't think so, neither many people in the world who, for many years aspired for a USA president that will bring the US and the world back to Ronald Reagan's days. President Trump is trying but he does so against hostile media never seen before and which started long before he became president. This buffoon, as you characterize him, is trying to do all the right things. It is true, he does it in a manner that aggravates many but you should agree that all issues he is touching should be corrected long ago, especially trade agreements, open borders, US tax system and infrastructure, terror and more. The way he goes about correcting the problems upsets you and many liberals but it seems to be the right way, to work. As you can see Mr. Cohen, North Korea is coming to the table, China is open to talks on trade, Korea, Japan and Europe are ready to open trade agreements, the US economy is in momentum and companies "return home" with their money. President Trump is doing all that while mainstream media is doing its best to attack him. I realy can't see how you can compare him to the dictators mentioned in the article.
1
"I [really] can't see how you can compare him to the dictators mentioned in the article."
Hint: Trump's relentless assault on the truth, his contempt for the law and for democratic institutions, and his utter preoccupation with attacking and destroying anyone who opposes him.
2
From the outside, Germany, I tend to think that your colleague Dr. Krugman has it more right when blaming the GOP for the mess and their dangerous POTUS the world is facing and not the man himself. It’s the GOP‘s thinking of Trump being alternativlos to their agenda which puts the world into peril. The question is, who controls the GOP? Cui Bono? Easy answer, I guess.
3
All Mr. Cohen’s concerns about President Trump are true. Trump is very dangerous – BUT – he is not really any more dangerous than the people who manage him. Yes, Trump the narcissist is unstable and breeds uncertainty. Trump the candidate was all over the place, but his instincts told him that the USA did not need to be confrontational with Russia. Trump the President was attacked from all sides for good reason – because he IS destroying the American State. For BAD reason because he is full of BLUSTER, he is not really a warmonger. Mr. Cohen and much of the WAR MONGER MEDIA (WMM) praised President Trumps first attack on Syria – ignoring the danger of reigniting a conflagration that was being tamped down. Ending the war in Syria would result in many lives saved.
The people who manage President Trump now include some of the most war crazy individuals in the American Establishment.
We have seen over the years how the American Democracy has been manipulated to the point where it can yield only one result – the WAR PARTY victory. If Hillary Clinton were President, Syria would be bombed to bits – just like Libya. We might be in the middle of WWIII – if it will have a middle. There would be many millions of casualties not many thousands or hundreds.
I do wish Commentators like Mr. Cohen would try to look at what is really happening – that they would emerge from the bubble of self-righteousness that insulates them from the real world.
1
It's a perfect storm. The energy for this storm is provided by an asymmetry: the progressive /rational / permissive / democratic view which entails toleration of some level of bigoted authoritarian speech and irresponsible propaganda (think Fox News) and acts on a belief that the raging buffoons will 'go away' or 'learn better' or at least be discredited eventually. Versus the dogmatic / authoritarian / irrational view which expresses complete intolerance of liberal progressive speech and which acts immediately and impulsively in a constant rage of blind fear, resentment and greed. Characteristically, the most violently stupid and nihilistic social movements claim some religious or mystical sanction, whereas the progressive democratic movements generally avoid religious talk. This is an inherent asymmetry and therefore will never go away. The usual sequence of events seems to be that the progressive democratic movement eventually wakes up to the looming threat of tyranny with an unprecedented and extreme reaction.
1
The facts before us are very simple. Trump is a tyrant and his tyranny is based on the craving for adulation by the masses. All the attempts to figure out his "agenda" or anti-modernism, MAGA etc. are digressions. We don't need to dig deep to understand such superficial pathology. What's needed more than ever is a stronger resistance movement.
A man who pardons someone he admits he never met because he "heard he was treated unfairly" is testing the waters to see what else he can get away with. Firing Rosenstein? Pardoning Manafort? Sure, and who knows what else beyond that.
Americans who see what is happening now have to ask themselves if they want to give up and allow a President to become a Dictator. We are approaching just such a threshold right now.
4
Trump is teaching other authoritarian wannabees how to undermine and take over even the strongest democracy on Earth. If he can do it, any charlatan can - just like anyone now knows he can become POTUS regardless how reprehensible or deplorable they are.
Trump has given excuse and justification to all tyrants around the world for generations to come. They will simply point at us and trump "the people's choice."
Trump is both the symptom and the cause. Give anyone in his base the wealth he has and they would behave in a similarly horrendous way - they want to be him - entitled to everything he wants in the world above all else. They'd become like trump, Mercer, Adelson, Kochs and others - unrestrained by government with no obligation to the societies that enriched them astronomically.
What better way to control people than through their government or their religion where one cannot question or criticize. Just as tyrants like trump like it.
3
Donald Trump has always been a terrible man, but few stood firm on this fact when the election insanity began. Excuse after excuse after excuse in the press -- and unwarranted disbelief. He has an abominable record of simple human decency and always did. Why was everyone so afraid to say it?
2
Perhaps President Trump is only a poison pill, swallowed by accident. Perhaps the American immune system will ultimately reject him, and better health will prevail.
Mr. Cohen, I salute you for your brave and true words.
1
Dead on, Mr. Cohen. Beautifully expressed. And chilling.
2
To an outsider Trump is an awful aberration from the norm expected of the US but what is more deeply troubling is that he got where he is in the first place. We outsiders used to believe in the inherent good common sense of the American people and respected overall their judgement but Trump's victory has made us take a hard second look at the assumptions we once had. My gut instinct is that the American people, and most of my relatives are Americans, will correct the horrible mistake of Trump and return the Republic back to its more honourable roots. Here's hoping anyway!
2
President Donald Trump is dangerous. No.REPUBLICANS are dangerous. They are the ones that control Congress. They are the ones will the sole power to declare war. ( President Obama went to Congress and asked for those powers in Syria and they said no ) They are the ones that voted for this President They are the ones that voted for the bankrupting tax cuts for the rich. They are the ones that are STILL supporting him. They ALL own it and will be voted out in November.
5
Mr. Cohen,
Worse than Trump are the cowards infesting our politics, who refuse to explore the options for evicting him from office, for fear of his subsequent reprisals. In that last event, couldn't they take him to court?
2
Still the most terrible thing is that there are lots of Americans who, despite everything, continue to support, justify and praise him and his actions.
4
But it's true, isn't it, that the resistance is alive and well? Trump can't stop being Trump, but every day you and your colleagues are calling him out on everything he tries to get away with. I've never seen anything like it!
He may hang on, but he's not winning. All of his problems are self-inflicted. As the truth continues to come out, even some of his ardent supporters may tire of him squandering their good will.
4
Maybe this test of the system will prove that our system works.trump is a clear and present danger, but the justice system is at work to control him, and the ballot box remains our best means of ensuring that we never again allow such an unhinged, despicable, amoral con man to exert such power. Of course, an educated, ethical, and thoughtful voting public represented by fellow citizens committed to the common good (and not the quisling enablers currently serving their oligarchical paymasters) would be our strongest preventive against future Trumps. We live in dark days, but we can hope and work for better times to come.
Mr Cohen, you perfectly captured not only the current insanity of our plight, but the danger that it poses, by placing it into historical context. As who how we move forward, it is certainly challenging with such right wing noise machine brainwashing and a completely spineless, absent republican party.
1
Sorry for the grammar issue - too emotional! Should be "As to how we move forward...".
Trump is the culmination of Republican political strategy over the last 40 years. They decided to frame government as the problem, to promote conspiracy theories and court those who peddle them, they have accepted promoting fear as their core principle, they have welcomed in groups motivated by the hatred of differences, and have determined to work towards causing the failure of every Democrat president. None of this would have been possible without a core constituency willing to believe the unbelievable because it fit their view of the world. They are the core that exist in everywhere who support a strongman who validates their fears and misconceptions. Trump is their loud, erratic, violent, less than democratic voice. When he leaves the scene, they will remain, waiting for their next validator.
1
In preparation for one of the most important midterm elections in the history of the US, it is critical to insure voter registration in every state. The young activists from Parkland and their contemporaries throughout the country are leading by example, encouraging youth to vote at every event they hold.
In addition, a new generation of energetic, smart, progressive and diverse political talent has emerged from the catastrophe of this presidency. This exciting cohort will hopefully inspire many citizens who are enraged on a daily basis to work for a new congress and stronger state governments who will stand up to the erratic and hate filled rhetoric and policies of the so-called president.
Those who show up will determine whether this cruelty, destruction, and stupidity goes unchecked.
1
President Donald Trump is dangerous. No.REPUBLICANS are dangerous.
They are the ones that control Congress.
They are the ones will the sole power to declare war. ( President Obama went to Congress and asked for those powers in Syria and they said no )
They are the ones that voted for this President
They are the ones that voted for the bankrupting tax cuts for the rich.
They are the ones that are STILL supporting him.
They ALL own it and will be voted out in November.
Donald Trump is the first American president who doesn't care about the image of the country.
The essence of MAGA is that we don't have to set an example of courage, generosity, intelligence, fairness, or any kind of excellence.
All of that is for suckers.
To Donald Trump, America First means we don't have to be the best, or even pretend.
We just have to dominate.
That is the only human characteristic the president admires.
1
Mr. Cohen:
All your readers should thank you for saying what needs to be said about this destructive U.S. president.
Certainly I am grateful for your clarity and courage in calling attention to the dangers this president's utter lack of self-control poses daily for his fellow citizens and his country, not to mention for people elsewhere in the world.
Please continue to warn us all not to dismiss his ravings as funny or merely crazy. Our democracy and indeed our physical safety depend on our being able to perceive the extent to which he has already undermined the civic values that have long bound us together, bonds that he may yet sever if we remain silent as he assaults and degrades them.
President Donald Trump is dangerous. No.REPUBLICANS are dangerous. They are the ones that control Congress. They are the ones will the sole power to declare war. ( President Obama went to Congress and asked for those powers in Syria and they said no ) They are the ones that voted for this President They are the ones that voted for the bankrupting tax cuts for the rich. They are the ones that are STILL supporting him. They ALL own it and will be voted out in November.
From my place in the northernmost of Europe, I am already since the election last year, staggered and gasping by surprise, that your great nation should be capable of placing Donald Trump at the helm - and letting him stay there.
Gradually, I seem to see that his blustering tweets, his lies, not forgetting his "work-weekends" on his Florida golf course; are taking hold of your deep seated sense of proper behavior and systematic thought - and bringing these deep seated values to the surface.
Finally, as the White House empties, and the Trump is gaining soloist status, the US of A seems to awaken to a return to sense and polite sensibility.
The question seems to be: How long should it take?
3
If the entire ugly reality that Trump is the president, then this entire story would make for a great Shakespeare play, both dramatic and highly comical. Unfortunately, we must live with man without morality who is in the highest position in our country. It just all seems so unreal.
The choice we have is between rage and reason. Trump is the voice of rage with his rallies reminiscent of Orwell's Two Minutes of Hate. Haters gonna hate. Let's hope in the midterms the reasonable rise up and realize voters gotta vote.
Unfortunately I fear trump will burn the house down in order to retain his position. He has no moral compass. His entire being is geared toward self preservation.
The US is led by a middle schooler tweeting at a grade three level. Those of us who are not American wonder how anyone in that great country can believe that this is in anyway appropriate.
When your country eventually returns to sanity, you are going to discover that you have been left so far behind the rest of the world, you might never catch up.
2
If we want things to stay as they are, things will have to change. Not true? Its an oxymoron. But history demonstrates that if you repeat oxymorons enough, especially with no details or explanations as to their true meaning, people will not just believe them they will fight for them. The political slogans and euphemisms "peaceful reunification with force if necessary", "the media is the enemy of the people", "the Rohingya don't exist...fake news etc. Society eventually sees through them and dynasties crumble. America will recover from him and quickly.
1
We do have an institution with the power to control the buffoon, the United States Congress. Unfortunately it is controlled by cowards who choose to kiss the ring rather than stand up and act on their oath to protect the Constitution. They have sold their souls and whatever shred of honor and dignity remaining in service to a fool and their donors. It would be great to see some profiles in courage but that is most unlikely. The only solution is for Democrats to show up in huge numbers at the mid-term.
1
Again, another wonderful article by Roger Cohen!
I do agree with Roger's reasoning throughout the text, particularly the one below:
" In the best case, it will take a long time to recover from Trump. America’s word is near worthless today. It’s on America’s word that global security has rested since 1945."
If one agrees the US is in a relative state of decline as a superpower, Trump's presidency is doing a fine job to accelerate it.
4
I agree with all that Mr. Cohen has said here except that "it will take a long time to get over Trump." After the Donald becomes the historical anecdote that he was always meant to be, the thirty-six percent of the American public who actively support him will unsurprisingly become merely thirty-six percent of the American public. Mr Trump has been allowed his rants and raves because no one within his own party has had the courage to stand up to him, because they too seem to think that thirty-six percent has somehow become the beginning number of majority. I think the rest of us, not the silent, or the moral, but the real real majority are in tune with the song by Dan Hicks and the Hotlicks: "how can I miss you when you won't go away."
15
The Past can't comprehend an Internet Meme like FF von Clownstick.
7
Mr. Cohen is right: this is no time for bystanders. One of the principal (and principled) things we all can and MUST do is to shift the reins of government, this November, away from the short-sighted, scheming enablers. Government can be our voice and our powerful arm with which to preserve our institutions and our commitment to truth, and to rebuild our dignity and standing in the world. But we have to use our own voices and arms in the process that the Constitution gives us. For better or worse we are in an effectively-two-party system and the Republican Party, under the despicably complicit leadership of Mitch McConnell, has dedicated itself to giving this president ample room to swing his cudgel (as cover while they pursue narrowly-supported, feudal policies in back rooms). This is the same Republican Party that dedicated itself to stymying any national progress in an all-out effort to hamstring a president because he was a Democrat.
It would be wonderful if the Republican Party were composed of thoughtful, consensus-seeking conservatives. I don't yearn for a country that I define! We need the constant, constructive process of deliberation, give and take. But just as a weak America benefits Trump, so does a divided America, where progress is impossible and so bitterness is inevitable. Let's send the Republicans off this November with this homework assignment: please reevaluate your mission, with the future of the whole country in mind.
24
US President under constant fire with the threat of impeachment impairing his judgement. The Cold War reenacted with a vengeance against Russia providing some respite promoted as unfinished business. Syria; a war without end like Ukraine and Afghanistan. North Korea as the next shock to the system? Somewhat doubtful President Trump fully able to handle such a range of complex challenges; partly because of his choice of senior advisers like John Bolton. The world relying on Russia to show some restraint making allowances for the daily whims of Trump. China next in line as they will not be spared as bigger fish on the menu to be served for a purpose; the biggest circus on earth? The next US President will need to mend a lot of fences at this rate and bring peace to the world.
6
Thank you, Roger. I read every sentence of your article at least twice, if not more. I wanted to brand your words into my thoughts so that I never forget to remember what is happening right before our eyes, and how we must be every vigilant to stop it.
24
I stand with Roger Cohen is saying unequivocally that Donald Trump is a terrible man for the presidency, and it is even more terrible that so many amongst us do not oppose him clearly and strongly in defense of democracy and our values.
30
At the same time we MUST NOT abandon the Atlantic Charter and toss out his base with the bath water. Bad leaders get the boot, not their suckers.
My poor SinL is all alone on the other side of the house trying to make sense of Cohen having been in Prague when Steele said he was...I am not gonna rub this in her face. But I think he was meeting with Russians about paying off hackers and hiding the trail...another fail.
1
What hope is there for this country when a "raging buffoon" can be elected President of the United States of America? After nearly 250 years of Independence, if this is where we've arrived then I say our system of government is an abject failure.
24
Our system is not a failure...it was HIJACKED from outside. And the populace has been inured to the reality of their civic duty by systemic forces never envisaged by the founding fathers. To wit, the abandonment/repeal of the established legislation that monitored and mitigated those modern forces. For example: the repeal of the News criteria, the repeal of the statistical study of the effects of gun ownership, loopholes for campaign donations, charitable status for church and other organisations has seen their rise in unaccountable wealth and influence....and so on...
1
Come on, that's exactly what Putin expects of us, so let's disrupt his profile collator and demand our democracy remain viable. He will absolutely hate that.
Everyday is more horrifying than the next with this lying, unethical and bulleying president. Those are kind adjectives for DT.
I heard David Gergen say last week that he is extremely worried for our democracy.
We all should be extremely worried.
Republicans, were the tax cuts worth it for this vile indecent man?!
That question will be answered in NOVEMBER!!!
21
Cohen is said to have been in Prague, and since he lied about it, he likely was meeting to pay off hackers with his Russian counterpart. Case closed.
The answer is Pence. Get ready for that fence!
Thank you for your persistence and the historical perspective that you bring to the discussion. I disagree with you, however, about what trump believes. He believes in nothing except trump. As a sociopath, he cannot relate to anything beyond himself. That is what our worry should be.
12
I really liked that too, since the papers have kept 1925 to 1945 under wraps. No free history for us between the time fascism bloomed in Europe and the war started. Before Sonny Bono extended corporate copyright in 1998, you could afford all of it.
Not since 1998 has the public domain felt a drop of rain. But hold your horses, here comes 1925 in 2019! We finally get the public domain rolling again!
Like the corporations didn't know stopping the flow of free news as how to abuse us in the long con.
'I am grateful to Elisabeth Sifton, the editor and publisher, for passing along her late husband’s letter. The indignant voices of 13-year-olds are needed today on Trump. Stern would go on to write' that fragility of freedom is the simplest and deepest lesson of my life and work.”
Amen
13
I think this is more than him being inept. I think he is making choices that purposefully damage. He's mad and getting even.
17
The donor class stokes the hate and gets their supporters to vilify the "others" when it is the donor class that is fueling all this vile buffoonery.
The kids in Parkland are our conscience. We need more of them.
17
I consider myself to be fairly progressive but I must take issue when the author suggests that gender is fluid. It is not. Most species are binary and only humans are able to rationalize some middle ground.
7
Take a biology course. You're wrong.
2
I disagree that this mistake of a president has ruined America's reputation in the world. It has certainly proven we have feet of clay but we will absolutely get over this - just as soon as our ship of state is righted by the voters. It will be a great day for the rule of law and of our version of democracy because it will prove to the world that no one person in this country is above the law. We all know that this corrupt administration will go down in flames. That's guaranteed.
First we fix the congress, then we fix the presidency.
BUT if we don't throw da bums out in November, all bets are off.
27
It’s not just Trump, folks. Incompetence in positions of leadership have consequences. We saw that with George W Bush with preemptive war under false pretenses and the financial meltdown of 2008.
After Bush and now Trump, maybe it’s time for others to lead the free world. I sincerely hope it’s Europe.
10
Sadly, it wont be Europe. They are hell bent on becoming a copy of the US model, with the extra advantage of being unelected and as ruled by lobbyists as in DC....no, it wont be them.
"President Donald Trump is dangerous". -- Yes, he is more dangerous than Aaron Burr of about 1805 or Franklin Delano Roosevelt in his disregard of the Japanese danger in 1941. But, as long as the man has been elected, even if the election law is flawed, one has to grin and bear it, in hope that he will not do more damage than he has already wrought.
1
Trump’s millions of accomplices that defend, repeat, promote, and vote his war on ' “cultural modernism.” .. a Restoration he equates with restored greatness’ are the long term threat to our culture, for they have so poisoned civil discourse to the point that yes, the "distinction between truth and falsehood disappears, anything is possible” I fear by this evil man.
7
Trump is a symptom, but he is, additionally, a cause.
8
It is time for the people to rise up and drive this madman out. Our politicians are helpless or to eager to latch on to him for their personal gain.If we do not we will be judged by history in the same light that we now look at those Germans who were silent in 1932.
10
I predict that the world will give us a mulligan. They understand that 45 is an aberration, a virus that temporarily sickened our nation, but that we will snap back. You can't keep a good nation down for very long.
13
Donald Trump entered the presidency in the same way that he entered the airline business and the casino industry. Totally unprepared. He thought he had all the answers but barely even knew the questions to ask. Both businesses went bankrupt and he walked away unscathed.
Now we face the worst of all possible worlds with him in the White House. He still chooses to remain ignorant (about the only thing he has mastered is the power of the pardon) rages daily and drives us further into debt. Ryan is leaving along with many of the other dutiful sycophants on Capitol Hill. They are leaving the sinking ship they created. Nice. The rest of us are left to hope Mueller will pull us out of this mess or that Democrats regain control of Congress in November. They may not have the power to impeach him but they can certainly put him in a cage and safeguard, to the greatest degree possible, the "football" that follows him everywhere.
15
You're incredibly well read, Mr. Cohen.
Just a footnote or two to your reference to Fritz Stern. His widow, Elizabeth Sifton, is the daughter of the great theologian Reinhold Niebuhr, who was a long-time faculty member at Union Theological Seminary and very outspoken and very well known in his time, a public intellectual "avant la lettre."
Ms. Sifton wrote a book about her father, "The Serenity Prayer" and with her late husband, Fritz Stern, "No Ordinary Men: Dietrich Bonhoeffer and Hans von Dohnanyi, Resisters Against Hitler in Church and State," which I highly recommend.
For our present political danger I would also highly recommend Friedrich Kellner's "My Opposition," translated from German and annotated by his grandson, Robert Scott Kellner.
I would also recommend Joachim Fest's "Not I: Memoirs of a German Childhood." Mr. Fest wrote other notable books as well, including "Inside Hitler's Bunker: The Last Days of the Third Reich," which the film, "The Downfall" (2004) used as a source.
Great column, Mr. Cohen! Thank you for it.
12
A footnote to SMS's footnote. Fritz Stern was a professor of history at Columbia University. He wrote The Politics of Cultural Despair, a brilliant history of the origins of the Nazi mentality in Germany from the latter part of the 19th century on into the 20th. I haven't read that book since college more than 50 years ago, but I vividly recall the impact it made on me and on my choice to become a history professor.
" disorientation spreads..from Moscow to Budapest examples of how democracies can be manipulated" Mr. Cohen may need reminding that phenomena exists with the left also ...he may not have written of "manipulated democracy" in leftist Venezuela either.
1
You need to talk about the policies that re coming out of White House. The rollback of Environmental laws some a century old. Trump is incapable of understanding of the effects of these changes - just as he was incapable of understanding the effect of tax cuts to the rich, the negative effect of tariffs, and the huge spending bill.
8
Anger, rage, hatred, cruelty, these are strong emotions when aroused. And Donald Trump certainly knows how to arouse them. He hits all those buttons without thinking because those are all he has inside him. It requires no effort on his part. Trump is a natural.
We have those inside us too. But most of us also have love, compassion, reason, happiness. If we are to survive this we need to bring these qualities to the fore and ignore the daily psychological abuse delivered to us from the White House by the media.
We are bigger than Trump, and we need to act like it.
10
Another justifiably alarmist opinion piece in the New York Times. Let's hope other authoritative voices join in until Trump goes or is removed. However there is something mischievously comforting- though by no mean reassuring- that Mr Trump lacks the concentration to start a war, let alone sustain one. He is more likely to declare a war one night, then in the morning, after a game of golf, he'll call it off. The trouble some of us have with the post-world war American leadership is that it was marked by a succession of wars, mostly lost and most leaving the invaded countries in a terrible shape.
2
I completely agree. We must never despair. Truth must triumph.
5
Brilliant commentary. I do not believe whatever does not kill you makes you stronger; but I do believe exercising ideals against this entropic resistance certainly does.
Please don't lose hope. Our democracy may get tired of Trump and Trumpsters but we can come back stronger and better with good thinking and good works!
2
Excellent column, Mr. Cohen. Every word commendable.
4
I think Congress should be holding emergency sessions because Trump may be on the verge of snapping from all the pressure. He currently has the power to take action that could kill millions of people and that is not good.
Of course Paul Ryan may raise an eyebrow and Mitch McConnell won't pull his head outside his shell.
1
" it will take a long time to recover from Trump. America’s word is near worthless today" . I believe that the world know how to separate America "We the People" from Trump and its enablers. I think that it is safe to say that when Trump's gone, the US will rebound and will "naturally" reclaim its place as the leader of the free world. I can't wait for this to happen.
4
Before Mr. Trump, I never once had need to fact-check what my president said. Now, this non-presidential office holder causes me to check almost daily. Yes, he attacks the truth, but by doing so, he attacks the very fabric of our Constitution and our country. I pray we survive him.
2
Trump entered the arena at the perfect time for a demagogue. The major banking and financial crisis produced no punishments for the perpetrators and no changes in the system. The super-rich had captured the economy and made it impossible for very ordinary people to succeed at anything but labor-on-demand at Walmart. All wealth now sat at the top, feeding no one and nothing but itself. Our first African American president had been stopped at every step forward, belittled, opposed, denigrated, hated, threatened (especially by Republicans). No progress--NO progress--had been made on any aspect of racism. High schools and colleges had no curricula to explain or address what was going on. The Democratic Party was moribund, in the hands of candidates long past their usefulness and out of touch with the widening gap between the super-rich and everyone else. The Republican Party was already in charge of a swamp unlike anything seen in many decades. ready to submerge the poor and the barely making it in vile nostrums about the great American way. We had done nothing, and had no intent to do anything, about the economic divide, or the fact that globalization was just a system for pushing money to the top, not bringing stunned global citizens together. It was the perfect time for Trump to arise from the swamp, swish his hair, and spew his vile words at us. And he knew it.
6
Buffoons are useful creatures. And relatively intelligent.
1
Syria, after plenty of forewarning from Trump and help from Putin is about to briefly shrug off some more punitive missiles.
The USA, however, will continue to be occupied and terrorized by the Twit-in-Chief.
2
This article is part of the I-hate-Trump cloud machine the left-wing press generally, and The New York Times specifically, uses to spread false and malicious tales about our President. Fortunately, the American public is catching on and is ceasing to trust the cloud-puffers and spin-masters at the Times and the lame stream media. Trump’s numbers are continuing to rise and the much-vaunted blue wave will be seen to be a liberal mirage.
1
Ignorance and confidence are a dangerous combination.
1
Donald J Chaos & Co. are the party of wrong. It is you who need to question your sources. The Alt-right media a very busy promoting the lies that Trump spews everyday. I have listened to some of the right-wing radio talking heads. They just make stuff up and their fervent fans accept it like the it's gospel. Sandy Hook is probably the clearest example spread by the bigger buffoon, Alex Jones. It is one thing to prefer your opinions, it is quite another If your sources are peddling opinions as facts. Simply quoting Trump during his campaign was enough to show he was a liar. And then the right-wing media would claim that he is being unfairly maligned! Wake up!
1
Please be specific. What false and malicious tales did you read in this article? Otherwise you're just engaging in name-calling and wishful thinking.
1
Readers of Doris Lessing's, Shikasta will recognize the spoor of Shammat: "This planet is immune to truth."
2
So on the money!
1
Trump is not a symptom of global anything.
He is a symptom of a solid thirty percent of your countrymen, overwhelmingly white evangelicals and right wing American Roman Catholics who behave like white evangelicals who place their politics above their religion, who sulk and hate their countrymen and tell each other lies about who they are and what America was is and will be.
The majority of Times columnists are enablers.
Read Douthat. Brooks. Embarrassed by Trump they still side with him on substance and turn everything everything everything into their strawmen enemy The Liberal. Every week. Year after year.
1
Douthat, sure, and Stephens. Brooks is considerably more nuanced. Even including him, they hardly add up to a majority of Times columnists, however. And however distasteful dialogue with conservatives may be (those capable of actual dialogue, at least), it is required by the terms of our democracy.
“The ideal subject of totalitarian rule is not the convinced Nazi or the convinced Communist, but people for whom the distinction between fact and fiction (i.e., the reality of experience) and the distinction between true and false (i.e., the standards of thought) no longer exist.”
Hannah Arendt "The Origins of Totalitarianism"
3
A chillingly accurate accounting of the worst POTUS perhaps ever. We must do what we can to mitigate this disaster both in 2018 and in 2020, unless of course the thug is hauled out in handcuffs before!
4
Eloquently expressed. Trump is a symptom of the failure
of our party system. How a demagogue with no qualifications and experience in public office, with a disreputable reputation in business and his personal life could be nominated by a major party is beyond common sense and decency?
He ignored normal requirements like revealing his taxes and finances. He campaigned ridiculing his opponents for our most powerful office with ridiculous epithets.
He made promises with slogans, but with no actual policy details. He was shameless and showed no respect for democratic procedures. He survived the Access Hollywood tape by brazenly lying and still over 90 percent of Republicans voted for this cowardly humbug.
He got 81 percent of the vote of the so called White Religious vote. Where is their religion, their compassion, their Christian values?
To my mind Trump reminds me of Adolf Hitler, a cruel
shameless ignorant demagogue of false conspiracies who is full of anger and rage against democratic institutions like the free press and independent judiciary.
His Make America Great Again and trust me I can magically achieve this echoes Hitler's make Germany Great Again.
According to the New Yorker magazine Trump kept a book on the collected speeches of Hitler on his bed stand for 20 years. Thus, Trump isn't very original but he is similarly an odious sociopath, an adversary to America's best ideals and to fragile democracy itself.
I
7
Of Mr. Cohen's many fine pieces, this is one of the best, even setting aside that it is a cri du coeur from a man who (like myself) loves America.
Buried in it is this critical comment: "This reflects [Trump's] instinct for the jugular: Once the distinction between truth and falsehood disappears, anything is possible."
The importance of this sentence cannot be overstated.
The distinction between truth and falsity, between sense and senselessness, is the necessary precondition for both philosophy and politics. Without it, if you reflect on politics for even a moment, you see that there is nothing whatever to prevent justice or politics becoming 'the interests of the stronger' -- the threat or use of force.
This is the most damning, unspeakably vile aspect of the monster occupying the White House: it is not that he has bad politics (though his flunkies do); it is that he makes politics impossible. His 'thoughts' lead only to nihilism, and his soul leads inexorably to force, and to nothing else.
5
It is beyond my comprehension how can Mr. Cohen equate Hitler with Trump. As much as he is a Trump hater, he has no right to submit this equation. I do believe that there is a limit to the freedom of the pen!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
2
Unfortunately Cohn is spot on. Sometimes you have to call evil by its name. Using pretty and polite metaphors soften the message.
From day one Trump and his apologists have represented the greatest threat to American democracy in my lifetime (and I'm an octogenarian).
Forty percent of the electorate approves of this job performance and this rises to 80-85% among republicans.
Cults of personality are how liberty fades and disappears. Be afraid.
In fact, Trump is known to have kept a volume of the collected speeches of Hitler at his bedside as reported by the New Yorker, so why should anyone be so offended by Mr. Cohen's equation?
Mr. Cohen, here's the title of your next Opinion piece:
"The Coward-in-Chief Speeches are Only to his Base"
Trump and the modern day political right are so deeply immersed in creating chaos and hatred that there is no longer a respectable avenue of escape for them. Imo their attack on democracy and the rule of law in effort to support Trump is as un-American and traitorous as it gets. We are tethered to the devil and he hopes to take us all to Trump hell.
2
Is such language necessary esp. in a headline?Calm down Cohen and choose your words more carefully.Disgusting language NYT.Don't imitate Trump please.
2
The raging buffoon just attacked Syria.
1
With all due respect, Bobby Jindal and Jeb Bush said it early, correct and best:
BJ - Trump is an unstable narcissist
JB - Trump is a chaos candidate and would be a chaos president.
3
"In the best case, it will take a long time to recover from Trump." Not just the world has lost trust in the United States, but US citizens have lost trust in their country and representatives in Congress. Not Pence, but whoever truly replaces Trump will have his or her work cut out for him/her.
I still remember Gerald Ford declaring that our long national nightmare is over. Nixon's resignation is like a sniffle compared to the double pneumonia that is Trump.
4
The stakes couldn't be higher. Even after the disastrous Bush II presidency, the ever increasing antigovernment extremism and indecency of the post-Gingrich GOP, the rise of right-wing media and the collapse of the middle class, most of us didn't expect, a few short years ago, that we would be facing an imminent, existential assault on constitutional democracy in our own country and the West more broadly. In retrospect, however, the signs were all there and were flashing red.
Trump's incompetence and cowardice have bought us some time. We are in the fight of our lives for our own and our children's fundamental rights. We need to do whatever is in our poor power, every day, to make a difference. This is the year. Contact our representatives regularly and tell them to stand up for democracy. Subscribe to every quality press outlet you can afford. Give to nonprofits advocating and litigating for our rights. Volunteer. Practice decency but push back hard on ignorance and malice. And above all, vote. I believe we can still turn this around, but if we are going down, at least it will be fighting.
4
This is all so depressing. It helps to remember that Trump lost the popular vote by over 3 million votes. There are many people who care and are resisting. But not enough of them are in power, especially in Washington. It seems like every four years I hear that "this is the most important election in my lifetime." This November, it truly is.
4
As Faulkner says in Requiem for a Nun, "The past is never dead. It's not even past." There lurks in this society a deeply held belief that "white makes right." Time and demographics have changed the world. Domination of the world is slowly passing from West to East. The white privileged world is passing. Trump and Brexit are redolent of non-Europeans. Now is the time to watch and be wary.
History repeats itself because we tell ourselves that it doesn't. Many people live in denial as countries go to chaos. Ms. Cohen is right, we cannot be bystanders.
3
But Mr. Cohen, at a time when free speech is under assault by the left of all things, doesn’t he personify saying whatever you want? And ironically - whether in earnest or not - he is standing up for religious freedom, these are two most fundamental rights. It’s very clear that Europe never really had either, as your international reporting should attest to.
4
" at a time when free speech is under assault by the left "
Really? The First Amendment only guarantees that speech will not be infringed upon by the Laws of the United States. The "Right", whatever that is, controls all three branches at the moment. How is "the Left" pulling this off?
35
*Whose* religion’s freedom?
No, he epitomizes constant pathological lying and fear-mongering, all while vilifying anyone who criticizes him. Including of course the press.
1
This is beginning to worry me more than anything else. Even a broken clock is right twice a day, so chances are good that Trump will do something right, even without knowing that he's doing so. And it could be something important.
Then his approval rate could go from 40% to 51%. We'll be lucky if our democracy can survive four years of him. But I wouldn't bet on eight years.
35
I teach middle schoolers to confidently share their views with policy makers at the local, state, and national level. They do research, they make a personal connection to their issue, and they expect respect from the adults with whom they meet. Your last paragraph is the key to our future. The sensibilities of our children generally are spot on when they consider whether an approach to a problem is fair and compassionate and whether it makes sense.
50
Without the support of Fox News and the rest of the right wing propaganda bubble, which exerts cult-like control over the minds of 40% of US voters to force feed their minds 24/7 with lies, distraction and provocation, Trump's attacks on our democracy would have gone nowhere. Any serious attempt to stop Trump and future Trumps will have to deal with the right wing propaganda machine in a manner somewhat similar to denazification of postwar Germany.
185
Without a 20 month long investigation into his opponent, he goes nowhere.
Name another candidate who survived such a lengthy attack from investigators and won ?
And if you think she's guilty, why hasn't Sessions indicted her ?
31
Denazification of my grandparents generation was only possible because Germany had been utterly destroyed by the US and the Soviets and was laying physically and psychologically in rubbles (like all of Europe - with the important difference Germany was the aggressor). If some kind of peace had been achieved in let's say 42/43, denazification and the return of Germany to the civilized world, including a true reckoning with the Nazi period, would not have happened.
And even with all that, a small percentage escaped denazification and kept the fascist ideology alive.
2
"History repeats itself, first as tragedy, then as tweet." Is there a more apt sentence describing what is happening to our country? The distance between democracy (albeit, it flawed) and totalitarianism seems to be very short. I doubt that recovery, even if possible, will be anything like that.
49
Alice Wren
We are not close to totalitarianism. Please stop trying to destroy the president.
We'll stop trying to destroy the president when he stops trying to destroy our democracy, at a minimum, when he leaves office, and it can't happen a moment too soon.
Excruciatingly excellent column from Cohen.
My nightmare for todays world is are we walking through times like 1914 to 1939.
Complacency and fading memories fo 20th century is so stark, it is literally horrifying.
A new century with billions of people who has no interest what happened?
128
Trump won the election based on hate. Resentment and bigotry were the driving forces of Bannon's turn up the hate campaign on social media. President Obama left a scare on these people's psyches. An intelligent black man winning the presidency and reelection drove white folks of the Trump type crazy. And there are many. Then Hillary Clinton was force fed through the Democratic primaries. She ran a lousy campaign wounded by her ridicules pre campaign shenanigans with her state dept. email nonsense then lying about. The Obama Justice Dept. and the FBI stupidly didn't indict her. Her fly over campaign overconfidence would lead to an election for the books. A worse debacle than Thomas E. Dewey's defeat to Truman in 1948. The Democrats had Joe Biden who would have engaged in a determined struggle in the battle ground states. But Bill Clinton trumped all.
44
Let's not forget misogyny and Russian interference. While Hillary may have been a flawed candidate, she was far more qualified than any of the men running in the GOP primary, and Bernie, who lost because his campaign appealed to same bigoted, sexist voters on the left.
1
I agree with you for the most part but the main reason for trump's win was all those white heads that exploded because of the black guy in the Whitehouse. He wasn't as liberal as I was hoping for but I still liked him and voted for him both times. I would have voted for Bernie but I knew he didn't have a snowball's chance--the old "socialist" bugaboo so I had to vote for Hillary. I believe the Dems were too focused on getting a woman elected. They might have won if they had nominated Biden. Just an FYI, I'm white and working class and I will NEVER vote republican. They are only for the rich.
4
I don’t agree with you.
Hillary would make a very good president.
1
"Sometimes one gunshot ushers in the obliteration of empire and sumptuous palaces are left to attend to memories.
In the best case, it will take a long time to recover from Trump."
Are you recommending an assassin's bullet to effect change?
8
No, it's a reference to the assassination of the Archduke Franz Ferdinand which started WWI and ultimately ended the Austro-Hungarian empire.
78
they should make that clearer, or it will get taken out of context and become the only line in this excellent piece that gets noticed
This is a reference to the start of World War One.
The assassination of Archduke Ferdinand of Austria triggered the war. The outcome of the War saw the collapse of the German, Russian, Austro-Hungarian and Ottoman Empires.
I think his point
1
If he is not stopped Trump will impose his version of truth and his commitment to a nostalgic past on Americans today.There is no place in Trump’s America for cultural and racial diversity.Dissent will be shut down.A free press,an independent judiciary along with a fiercely independent Congress are crucial to keep America great.
124
35 is the personification of the devil.
14
45
2
35 was JFK...
2
I think you mean 45
2
“The main things mitigating the danger are his incompetence and cowardice”.
I would add the word corruption to complete the sentence. Incompetence, cowardice and corruption sums up a boatload of obstruction of justice, abuse of powers and what the framers called “ High Crimes and Misdemeanors.”
116
Also add stupidity and laziness.
He is corrupt, but corruption is not a mitigating factor; it’s an exacerbating factor.
1
J.T. Florida
None of that is true. President Trump has done many good things for this country.
The answer to that 13 year old is our very own Parkland students. They will register to vote and turn out to do so.
Their actions are what gives me hope that the madness that is Trump and the Republicans in Congress will be greatly diminished come November 2018.
And Trump will be diminished by Mueller's investigation.
212
We had ALL better hope so!
2
Jean
The President is not "mad." The left is going mad because they want their power back desperately.
I believe thet fearless Parkland kids can turn things around away from the deadly fall.
2
Don’t forget: We’re also tethered to the utterly unprincipled Republican Party; they are the one’s enabling this disaster of a President.
451
Dave V.,
It is true that on meeting new people and without asking, they tell me they are now Democrat. Some of these look relieved and free from the trampling of The Republican Party.
24
We’re equally tethered to the utterly unprincipled Democratic Party, whose cynical reliance on identity politics wrought the backlash that brought Trump to power.
2
We're also tethered to millions of mindless Trump supporters, who are immune to reason and insist on voting against their own interests.
12
A Rhesus Monkey in full fear!
24
Since we’re tied to a raging buffoon
Someone should draw it in a cartoon
It always helps to laugh
And to savor each gaffe
Of this overrated fake tycoon
75
That's good and humour does help, a little anyway!
The raging buffoon is a self-made cartoon, with credit to Jim Lo Scalzo.
Mr. Cohen, Mr. Cohen, you've got it wrong. It is the GOP that is dangerous. And has been for years. Trump is only the symptom.
233
James, James...you've got it wrong. It is the USA society and people that are sick, and it has been for decades. All that's happening is a symptom.
2
Trump is the product gestated by the GOP, nourished by their long held disdain for the working and middle classes.
3
Dontbelieveit, Dontbelieveit -James, James - you are both wrong. It is humanity itself that is the problem. We are an accident of creation that has morphed into an out of control pathogen that is destroying the planet like a deranged cancer. We will die when we destroy the host organism. It is our destiny. Embrace it. Trump is but the avatar of our suicidal mission. I mean let's not get too picayune.
We have seen a similar scenario before. I fully expect this president will step down or be forced out. Yet at what cost to the Republic, to his party? How do we then tolerate his enabler, Pense?
68
We have seen the enemy and it is.....
23
It is us, or at least the us responsible for electing this catastrophe. No matter how much one disliked HRC it has always been clear she was a better alternative. In fact any one of those eliminated in the Republican primary would have been a better alternative.
Everything was just fine, early on, for the Titanic. Hopefully there's an ice-berg straight ahead for the not so Jolly Roger.
18
You're on the ship, too, so careful what you hope for.
1
Trump presents a different "style" to be sure, but the rancid, destructive GOP policies have been in place since 1981.
138
Let's not forget that the GOP has been lecturing its voter base for decades of the supposed evils of education in a highly partisan effort to keep innocent young people away from dangerous liberal ideas and democratic policies.
What resulted are millions of Republican voters now expecting the GOP to come up with high-paying jobs for generations of high-school dropouts.
109
I know someone well who reminds me a lot of this man.
Here's the secret: Trump is actually weak. It's the fear, obedience and submission of others that feeds him.
Prick the balloon and he will wilt.
174
Cate
I have news for you. The president is not "weak." How silly of you. Before becoming president, he was a billionaire CEO head of a real estate empire.
Sarah,
An “empire” he built with borderline and sometimes outright unscrupulous methods. The great businessman hasn’t been much of a deal or dealmaker for the U.S.
3
Which he inherited from daddy. Nobody buys this ridiculous "Trump is a self-made success" nonsense, just quit it.
Bravo for writing this, Roger. Very important to give words to this need to act. Thank you.
54
johnny comelately
"need to act" in what way?
I am convinced that the global battle we see playing out between what is called "populism" and "liberalism" is actually a conflict between nationalism and internationalism. What we are witnessing is the death throes of the nation-state...
29
Anything Fritz Stern wrote, at any age, is worthy of note. He was a masterful teacher and writer and could see the world very clearly.
33
He is the symptom, not the cause, of our many maladies here. Income inequality and the concommitant rise of an oligarchy are.
62
I, too, have a valid and unimaginable internalized horror of the glaring broken laws, complete disrespect for our constitution, and the cavalier attitude of "I am above the law" which resides in this despicable man that some so calmly refer to as "our president". I have comfort in the hope that Robert Mueller will stop this criminal before he engages in a full blown, wholesale destruction of our country.
66
Maybe you should run for office.
9
Trump is not a symptom, he is the cause. He has been laboring tirelessly on behalf of racism and chaos for decades.TV and Fox News helped create him, but Trump himself bears responsibility for his actions. And there is no limit to the harm a bad leader can cause.
58
jonathan
no the president is not a racist and is not fond of chaos.
I believe you're being quite unfair to baboons.
48
You say it all -- very politely and very compellingly. It is time to stand up for the rule of law before it is too late.
54
It's more than an apt comparison, given that Trump's previous wife recounts how Trump for a long period of time would read from a book of Hitler's speeches at bedtime. You have nailed the essence of his tendencies and his impoverished character, trying to fill a hole in his own Soul by making the country reflect what his mirror says back to him. The good news is that many many people are actively resisting, standing up for what is right, preparing to run for office, using the courts. If we each DO something to reinforce the good that is America, she can survive this.
44
curious and concerned
what is the title of hitler's book? And please let me know why many other people have read books by hitler.
Hey, hey Donald J.
How many lies did you tell today?
62
howard
The question is how many lies has the left told about the president today.
True, but getting tiresome.
It was two shots at Sarajevo. Extraordinarily bad luck that two pistol shots killed two people. Most shooters miss entirely against moving targets at that range.
4
The open car was stopped because of missing a turn and narrow street. Not a moving target.
8
Much better than most the police shootings I've read about lately. They couldn't hit water falling from a boat.
3
I would say we are tethered to a lion cheetah.
18
What is terrifying to me, truly and honestly terrifying, is the people who voted for him. What collective insanity motivated them? People I thought I knew voted for him. What in god's name happened??
232
DMS'
I totally agree with your terror, however, I feel that it goes further than the fact that these people voted for him. What frightens me more is the fact that even after all his lies, infidelities, and manic behavior, that very few of them have changed their mind on this maniac! As Thomas Friedman(?) once said " it is highly unlikely for a voter to change his/her mind and the "wronger' they are the less likely they are to do so!
94
Is it really that hard to figure out? People got tired of being ignored.
Not saying for a nano second that Trump will make things better. But he listened. He saw and heard an opening and he capitalized on it. His opponent simply promised more of the same.
Like I said, people got fed up with being ignored.
7
You call your place hopeless? I call it clueless.
Those people were only ignored, because they did not want fairness for those unlike the selves. All those other people, those who had been ignored for 200 years, just wanted a touch more fairness, a chance to also make a living, Blue collar dimwits and drop outs demanding jobs, but seething that Asians and other immigrants put in the hard work to better themselves.
To vote for a carnival barker like this man just demonstrates that it was right to ignore this rabble.
4
May your powerful words resonate with more readers than myself. Thank you. When quoting Fritz Stern, you empower that generation of refugees who are mostly gone. Henry Grunwald, his good friend, would be happy today to read your column.
32
Sometimes I disagree with Roger Cohen, but this is the hard, deep truth about where we really are.
45
Donald
no. he has exaggerated and lied, and dragged in Hitler.
When's the last time America's word was worth something?
We're only upset at the incompetence because it's so obvious this time - but when it's presented by smooth talkers, we fall for it over and over again.
When it comes to what our word is worth around the world, instead of asking Times columnists, let's ask the victims of the dictatorships that every single post-WWII president has cuddled with.
Put yourselves in the shoes of an average Romanian in the late 70's, listening to Ceausescu waxing chummy with Jimmy Carter about a supposed commitment to human rights, or in the shoes of a citizen of Iraq or Afghanistan hearing our hollow promises to stick by them, or the Chileans under Pinochet, or...you get the idea.
We hand-wave away our leaders' obvious failures because they represent the tribe we voted for, and it would be too much of a hit to the ego to admit when power makes them fools.
We like liars. We vote for liars. We give liars awards and lucrative speaking gigs.
Good liars, anyway. With Trump we all turn into Alan Rickman in Galaxy Quest:
"That's your problem, Donald - you were never serious about the craft."
166
Let us look at it as an opportunity then, to have our word mean something, someday. By the focus on its lack of meaning today, perhaps we will find and follow through on the need to correct that wrong and have the word of the US become something believable again.
29
In several of your cites, you are correct. However, you can't make it a blanket statement. "Chummy" in the correct way is often more effective than trying to "Bully"...even if distasteful.
17
Brilliant.
Friends in California call Trump "the Antichrist" but I tell them no... Trump is the precursor. The real one will be smart and now I can see how easy it will be for him when he shows up.
14
I wonder why the Republican leadership is supporting a man who wants to destroy the government that has allowed them and their donors to become some of the wealthiest people in the world. I wonder why nearly 40% of American voters genuinely believe that an unprincipled lying huckster, a con-man with a long history of betrayal, is their savior. Obviously many of Trump's "advisors" are supporting him in order to obtain unfettered access to the public trough, but what about associates such as Bannon & Miller? I am totally puzzled as to what those people hope to accomplish. I have been told they are anarchists who want to destroy the Federal Government just for the sake of destruction. Indeed, they do not seem to me to have a clear plan for a replacement government nor have I heard them express their version of some Utopian dream they want to turn into reality. As with the GOP & Trump himself, our democracy has allowed Bannon & his ilk to become amazingly wealthy. So why do they want to burn everything down?
22
It's not enough to be rich. Others have to be poor. Remember what Bernie Madoff said when people asked why rich people keep grabbing for more money: "It's a way of keeping score."
7
This column reads like a synopsis of Mr. Comey's new book: "Comey blasts untruthful, 'ego-driven' Trump".
Yes, Mr. Comey has his faults. But Mr. Trump has so many vulnerabilities at this point that its almost a TKO. He has lost any semblance of credibility, his only defense consisting of "fake news", "many people have said ...", no press conferences (only campaign rallies), tweets based on Fox News biased reporting, abrupt eruptions about his persecution when discussing war, etc. etc. Mr. Trump is unfit to be POTUS and a danger to our country.
33
steve kennedy
the president has done many good things for this country. you just want your democratic power back.
Another very fine analysis of the present situation, Mr. Cohen. I would disagree, however, with your statement that Donald Trump is a symptom, not a cause of the unrest of the moment. Reread your first three paragraphs - proof enough that this man has indeed caused the chaos which he craves.
12
no. The cause is you and the rest of the left who just want their power back.
So exhausting . We are all living in a bad soap opera.
31
jean
Quit fighting the president if that is what is making you tired.
many of the commentators here agree with Mr. Cohen, myself included. But with 40% of our population still in agreement after 16 months of this incredible reality show, that Mr. Trump is the best person to lead this country, i fear we are close to a tipping point beyond which there is no coming back.
55
ivehadit
mr. Trump is doing a very good job.
you just want your power back.
Mr. Cohen, yes, the president is dangerous. Unfortunately, Congressional Republicans and Fox News don't think so. They think that America is doing just fine and is on a non-stop track to be great again. They ignore the damage he has done to the country and America's standing in the world.
No longer a leader or a beacon of hope to the global community, the country is being led by an impostor with no moral compass. Even Paul Ryan has had enough to un-tether himself from a buffoon he thought he could mentor before he was sworn in.
34
silver
you are doing the damage to this country by constantly trying to destroy the president, who is doing a very good job.
In America, many of us are poorly educated and spoiled with no knowledge of what it would be like to live in a dictatorship. Some would choose dictatorship provided the dictator was a white Christian male, of course. A Lithuanian told me what happened to him when the Soviets took over. One day as he sat in his first-grade class, a group of Soviet soldiers marched into the school, took out the Lithuanian teachers and put Russian teachers in their classrooms. We have to be ready to protect our democracy.
36
Isn’t our Sec of Education trying to starve public schools in favor of private? Soldiers may not be needed...
Well written and tragically true. Trump has done more to harm the USA, and in particular the middle class, than any foreign invader could hope to do. China and Russia are filling the vacuums created by the USA being unable to fulfill a leadership role. Trump is the biggest LOSER on our planet and unfortunately will bring the rest of us down with him. GOP, it is time to jettison this pathetic excuse of a person.
42
History does not repeat precisely. Yet human beings and societies tend toward cycles in which values and norms shift-- often quickly-- in times of economic uncertainty or external threat. When it happens, there are always opportunists quick to manipulate people's fears and anxieties to gain personal advantage, power, wealth or all three. What's so hard to grasp in advance, is how easy it is to game people and even a nation to give up 'small' freedoms and 'minor' legal and institutional protections. But what starts small almost always accelerates, bartered away for vague promises that the self-proclaimed leader alone has the know how to 'fix' things. Few of us like to think we make decisions that are significantly influenced by our emotions; or that we are gullible. We do and we are. Just ask marketing experts and advertisers, who know this open secret quite well. That's why most of us have fallen for a sales pitch more than once where we later learned the thing was over-priced or didn't perform as promised. With Mr. Trump, I think the majority of Americans recognize that's where we are today. The question is whether the men and women representing us in the House and Senate do; and if so, will they act in a courageous, nonpartisan way to protect our democratic institutions AND to tackle the problems we face? Or will they continue serving up partisan claptrap?
16
While I disagree that Trump is merely a symptom of our age, Mr Cohen makes an important point. For those of us who grew up wondering how in the world the German people ever could have allowed Hitlerism to take hold—almost literally by the throat—of their country, we now have our answer. For years those Germans who lived the unthinkable nightmare have told the world they should have done more, somehow, some way, to speak up, to do whatever it takes to stop the madness. Madeleine Albright recently came to this conclusion (after escaping the Nazi horrors in her youth) and so, in her eighties has written a book warning of the ease of rising fascism. When an entire political party representing roughly half the country is willing to sell it’s soul to enable the madness that is Donald Trump, they don’t have a problem—WE do.
68
Let’s be honest here. Hitler did not have to force himself on the German people. He went around saying (more or less) “Make Germany Great Again”, and told people that a minority group (Jews) was to blame for all their problems. As a result lots of Germans enthusiastically voted for him.
I’m tired of all the winning.
19
Indeed! And also all the whining and raging.
8
No sympathy for the GOP that enabled this monstrosity known as Donald Trump. They had 17 plus candidates to rally around They chose the loudest and ugliest voice in the room. The party elders of the GOP knew exactly who and what Trump is. A demagogue who brought out the worst instincts and values of his supporters. They knew he was good for ratings and voters wouldn't look too hard at someone who shared the same skin tone, perceived as wealthy, and had a beautiful mail order bride for a wife. Even with everything coming to light from shady business dealings to an alleged child with an housekeeper...his supporters are still on board. His voters have been walled from the truth and facts by Right wing media. The only thing that makes it through the Right wing media filter is thus; Trump is the Messiah, Hillary is crooked, and everyone else is out to get Trump. Finally Trump could set up detention centers, concentration camps, and firing squads for anyone who doesn't support his authoritarian plan. His supporters only response would be a standing ovation.
32
Thanks for remembering the 17 primary candidates-far too many, and Trump never gained more than a modest advantage contenders while the republicans overloaded their slate of candidates. Trump does not have the s
People keep saying that we will be OK, that America's institutions can withstand Trump. I hope so, but as time goes on I become less and less certain. Like all manics Trump never gets tired and normal people do. He is wearing us down. The monster must go.
47
You are correct, SJS. And yes, among other things he does seem manic.
But he was dumb enough to have a personal lawyer, Cohen, from one of the very lowest rated law schools. That mistake is going to cost him now that the personal computers have been confiscated. It is the most hopeful new development.
19
I am not at all sure that Trump hates “cultural modernism” or that "he is about a Restoration he equates with restored greatness." He seems to me devoted only to his own tawdry conceptions of "winning."
17
And his own ego.
8
True. He doesn't have thoughts that are that sophisticated. He cares about "winning" and "ratings." The end.
7
I have read many of your columns Mr. Cohen. This is your best.
Truly, Trump is already treasonous as he is violating his oath "...To preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution..."
He attacks our government and institutions on a daily basis.
I hope we will have the strength and wisdom to recover from this madman.
31
Beautifully written, write on target.
19
How utterly sad and pathetic for our nation -- GOP Members care more about their jobs and seats than they do the actual people they govern and this wonderful nation, whose laws they are sworn to uphold. They are consument cowards, as Paul Ryan's "tail between his legs" exit shows.
That politicians have often been morally-challenged is not up for debate. Of course many of them are and have been. But the Trump presidency has created a unique situation where we need men and women of good conscience to step up and stop this.
Unsurprisingly, none in the GOP have. I have no words for the shame they are an integral part of....
42
Trump's tenure as President is a clear and present danger, but his election is the result of the angry polarization of political allegiances. It is not an isolated event and it do not happen in an instant.
The Japan and Germany were defeated, and both are dramatically better places today. The Japanese acknowledge that the changes imposed by the U.S. are beneficial and could only have resulted by outside pressure. The Japanese coined a word for this "gaiatsu". We can only hope that the man you refer to as a Raging Buffon will be the "gaiatsu" forcing change on the U.S. political system
22
Exactly! This is so much bigger than politics. Trump disqualified himself the moment he started pushing the birther lie, and no-one should have given him so much as the time of day after that. It was obvious he intended to win dirty, by lying and scapegoating minorities and stirring up cultural resentments, just like every two-bit despot before him. It works politically, but at a terrible price. I still can't believe how many Americans fell for it; have we completely lost sight of history?
And to our Republican office-holders, who know better and rolled over anyway: for shame. History will not be kind to you.
63
Roger, now you will surely make your way to the MAGA enemies list. Count me in.
15
Trump is the symptom, not the cause diffuses culpability too easily especially when the symptom, like a fever, becomes fatal.
7
When I think of Trump and what he is doing to our democracy, I also am reminded of the thousands of American servicemen and women who have fought and died over the years to protect the very ideas this president is trying to destroy. Please don't let their countless sacrifices vanish in vain, vote for every Democrat you can find on the ballot in 2018. This President is dangerous. Than you Mr. Cohen for such brilliant editorials.
49
OK, if I wasn't deeply concerned before, I am now scared. Where are all the nuclear arms stored in the U.S.? Are they evenly distributed between the red and the blue states? Those who support trump are mindless and irrational. I fear another civil war in the US during which nuclear weapons will be used - and we will all suffer from the fallout.
5
Mariam in Toronto: I think fear is a rational emotion but I'm pretty sure your fear of a red state/blue state nuclear war is a bit over the top!
14
Over the top is right there with trump, no?
I feel as if the last sentence of this piece slayed me. I hope we can all sit for a spell and take a moment to ponder deeply the weight of the quote, "The fragility of freedom is the simplest and deepest lesson of my life and work." These are not merely dark times, they are scary.
47
Apparently we are also tethered to the 40% of people who vote in national elections and who have little understanding of history, little trust in science, little respect for honesty, little confidence in government's ability to help and protect people, and little knowledge of what racial, religious and ethnic discrimination can do to a liberal democracy like ours.
The 40% who remain devoted to the "raging buffoon" is keeping once respectable Republicans hidden in the corner with eyes, ears and mouths covered, content to get tax breaks for their supporters and judges from their ranks.
The only way to break the tether is to give the Democrats a resounding victory in November, so when they gain control of the House and Senate they can stop some of the bleeding that is sapping our national conscience and international reputation.
108
To Marvin Raps: Statistics can be confusing.
330 million: population of U.S.
200 million: eligible voters in 2016 election
119 million: actual voters in 2016 election
63 million: Trump voters
Doesn't that indicate only 19% of the population voted for Trump?
It doesn't seem reasonable that "40%..remain devoted to "the raging buffoon".
11
It is truly concerning that 40% of this country is so ill-informed and gullible. When I run into a Trump supporter, I get gone fast. There is no reasoning with Trumpians. The only salvation is at the ballot box in November.
22
Trump shoots from the hip. Unfortunately, you cannot un-shoot from your hip. He is a menace who careens from one position to another, yet he demands trust of us while he speeds recklessly here and there. I'll give him one thing: he has nerve and bravado. That has always stood him in good stead. Hell, it won him the presidency. Of course, there were bankruptcies along the way, people who were bullied and sidelined and defrauded. He has left destruction in his wake and has ridden a remarkable lucky streak. That streak may be coming to an end. We can only hope while we keep shouting and organizing and holding his feet to the fire.
30
Mr. Cohen: thank for your column of 4/13,
Tethered to a Raging Buffoon Called Trump." I have to admit that I had to stop, reread several paragraphs and think about your column and the writers you quoted. The fact that Trump is a Buffoon was observable from his behavior during the Primaries. I watched in horror as a wild man traversed the stage during the debates and viewed Trump, acting in the manner of the Roman Emperor Nero, throwing Muslims, rather than Christians, to the Lions. Sec. of State Clinton would have been the appetizer. Yet, the masses, at least it seemed to me, were applauding and yelling the Lions are still hungry! What happened to our society? Did people forget that immigrant DNA runs through our veins? Do people really believe that immigrants, rather than technology and a lack of solid, well thought out trade policies, caused our job losses? Did we forget that the USA is an idea? An idea that is supposed to allow those who have different faiths. beliefs and viewpoints live together, side by side, in order to strengthen our country and offer immigrants a beacon of hope in an unfriendly world? The answer that comes to my mind is that we are adrift. Since the Cold War ended we haven't had the type of political leadership that's required to bring our disparate groups together with a common purpose(s). Both parties are in dire need of good responsible leadership. Though, the Democrats may be at a standstill, the GOP has been in reverse for quite awhile.
22
If it were not for Trump's enablers, we would have long ago stopped fretting over him and there would be a slew of books discussing his impeachment and subsequent imprisonment.
In a system with checks and balances, someone like Trump is not supposed to happen. But Congress (read: Republicans) has abrogated its responsibility because (1) they fear Trump's supporters and (2) they care more about robbing the poor to feed the rich more than about what's right and wrong. Consequently, rather than taking Trump down, it has joined Trump in declaring war on those who would seek to investigate attacks on our nation, i.e. the FBI and certain member of the Justice Department, and thus portraying the nation's defenders as the enemy.
Then you have certain "news organizations" that are more committed to Trumpian propaganda and misinformation than reporting actual news. They, too, have declared war on government agencies investigating malfeasance in connection with the last election.
So our problems are systemic and will endure beyond Trump's exit from the stage.
27
"The resurgent nationalists and nativists insist there are alternatives — alternatives to openness, to mass migration, to free trade, to secularism, to Europe’s ever closer union, to the legalization of same-sex marriage, to gender as a spectrum, to diversity, to human rights. They seek the homogeneous, a quest that exacted a terrible 20th century price." Wow..... Beautifully put.
The 13 year olds seem to be about 18 this time and at 18 they can write letters and give speeches and march.....AND VOTE!
We must constantly remind our citizens that t rump ran on the idea that "only I can fix"........(fill in the blank)..... which coincidentally only he could see.
The carnage and decline that t rump and McConnell and Ryan spoke of, and that was repeated by the Press, was caused by the Reagan "government is the enemy" meme. Obama would come on to counter that misinformation saying, "We are turning the corner. Our economy is improving." And the Press would say, "You decide".....
It is good that reporters are beginning to remember that in a fascist state they are usually out of work. And in prison. Or dead.
Let's get to work, People. Vote. Vote. Vote!
31
Mr. Cohen isplagued that his so-called buffoon, a bombastic self-promoting reality show host, who defeated his chosen on, Hilary Clinton. He also took both houses of congress with him. Cohen would like to blame the Russians or Comey but one reading of Donna Brazil’s book or Shattered and you realize Trump didn’t need anyone else, he had Hillary. What else has Mr. Cohen's buffoon done. One is he has broken rules defined by another NYT contributor recently. Of course, he didn't live up to one op-ed contributor’s proclamation that the economy would never recover under Trump. The economy grew by 4%, unemployment dropped to 4.1%. Unemployment of African Americans dropped to the lowest in 45 years and to the lowest rate ever for Hispanics. The Dow rose 5000 points. According to Forbes, Job growth in 2017 updated: 2.188 million, The NYT had to admit that under Trump the Islamic State caliphate was defeated. That had to hurt. He has arranged to sit down with Kim Jong Un who says he is prepared to discuss denuclearization. That breaks the rules. The U.S, and our allies are negotiating the Iran nuclear program beyond the ten years Obama agreed to. China says they will lower tariffs and open opportunities for investments among other things. Mr. Cohen may quote all sorts of people from the past. When it comes to Trump we would better served to remember a variant of a common playground saying. Sticks and stones may hurt Trump’s, bones but name calling will never harm him
3
You must be reading Trump's tweets. You may want to check the truth of them.
15
The NYT, Forbes, Donna Brazile's book, Hacked, and another book, Shattered. Plus published labor and economy statistics. Also those slanted Dow jones numbers in 2017. Of courses the slant is upward.
Aside from ignoring the grave damage this man has done to our country and world--gutting our foreign service, gutting environmental laws which protect not just the planet but the safety of our citizenry, giving financial dominance to China by pulling out of the world economic order, saving a few thousand coal jobs at the expense of hundreds of thousands of jobs in alt energy, etc....aside from all that, you show your absolute ignorance (or willful ignoring) by crediting this administration with economic indicators that either have NOTHING to do with what any president does in office or are lagging indicators of the previous administration. The economy isn't a car, genius, turning when every new administration comes into office; it is a super tanker against which the government is a tug boat slowly nudging it in another direction. The imbecile in chief has done little to nothing to affect employment or the stock market (as if that improved the lot of most Americans) in a long-term meaningful way, as would be the case if someone else were president, but has done plenty of harm in all the places he can and that you with your myopic view of your wallet can't understand.
16
"Trump is really only good at borrowing money." Warren Buffet recognized this 20 years ago. Trump is a poor businessman who overpays for property, loses money, stiffs his suppliers, and sticks someone else with the bill.
As president, his "greatest" accomplishment has been passing a huge corporate tax cut with extra benefits for the wealthy. By lifelong habit, he ignores the $1.8 trillion in extra borrowing required to pay for this tax cut. Not to worry..Trump is really good at borrowing money.
His execution of authority regularly squanders advantage. His ridiculous reversal on the TTP exemplifies his inability to manage the economy. His feckless foreign policy has wasted the great legacy of good will created by years of American leadership and magnanimity. His racist and anti-immigrant posturing raises barriers to understanding and cooperation that dwarf the idiotic wall.
His most ardent supporters now stand to be the greatest losers in any incipient trade war. His failure to promote real diplomacy will almost certainly cost American lives, and his fiscal inconsistancy threaten the stability of the American economy.
Finally, when he is gone, we, the American people will be stuck with the staggering bill for his epic failure. Standard operating procedure for Mr. Trump. We should have known.
109
Sadly, most of us did know. Just not enough of us to overcome the atrocity called the Electoral College which gave us this atrocity of a president.
3
A 13 year old boy in 1939 knew about concentration camps. Where were we then? Where are we now?
12
We studied Nazi Germany for 40 years, gave lectures. The similarity between Trump's speeches and Hitler's are frightening to us. They hate the same people, the gays, foreigners, women, the handicapped, the "other." I wish more Republicans would open their eyes to this. This is a great country and should remain great. But it's integrity is deteriorating under Trump and his sycophants. Wake up before it is too late.
165
The founders great experiment, the American Republic, has been driven into the ditch by nationalism, by the ugliest, dirtiest partisanship, by the greed -plain & simple- of unfettered predatory capitalism, by The Ayn Rand myopia embraced by The Republican Party, and by a significant portion of the populace that’s effectively been anesthetized and rendered brain dead by FAUX NEWS. When the dust finally clears & balance & integrity is restored to the American’s political foundation, It may be time to consider a parliamentary form of government backed by the best of what our Constitution & Bill of Rights prescribes. A modern parliamentary form of government (like Canada’s) would certainly level the playing field by assuring her citizens interests as a whole are fairly represented, and it would also be an effective curb against tyranny & the kind of situation we find us country in today.
20
We are NOT tethered to this moron, any more than a therapist is “tethered” to a drug abuser or a police negotiator “tethered” to a hostage taker with religious delusions. We need to be mindful of the quality of mind we are dealing with, and look for opportunities to intervene constructively. The problem is not Trump himself, but the vast swamp of Trump enablers, who have become so de-Americanized that they either don’t vote, or vote Republican in the mistaken belief that they’re protesting against a government that doesn’t listen to them. This, unfortunately, seems to include a fair number of our families, friends, neighbors and work colleagues, to whom we are indeed tethered, and who need to be reawakened to American possibility.
56
Excellent article. Trump is a symptom, what do we do with those, who support him and others like him? The inequality and other underlying causes need to be addressed ASAP or we are in for unpleasant or tragic near future...
18
Perhaps the time has come for anti-Trump demonstrations similar to the anti-war demonstrations of the sixties.
40
"He's just like us."
"They're just like him."
C'mon Mueller.
9
His louche sleaziness was always apparent. His mendacity knows no bounds. We are emotionally exhausted while sitting on the edges of our seats juiced with stress hormones, trying to keep faith in our institutions, while waiting for Armageddon.
37
You speak of Trump's objective. You give him too much credit. Trump's objective - is whatever he wants, at this moment. And it could change in the next moment. And it doesn't matter if what he wanted last moment is opposed to what he wants right now.
65
The dumbing down of America worked. HE is the result. Enjoy the party, GOP. It's your last prom. Or maybe your fourth or fifth Wedding.
November, the BEST Month. A big, beautiful, VOTING Month.
255
Yes, he's a buffoon but that's not the characteristic that makes him so dangerous. He's also a bully and it's this part of his personality that worries me the most. He reacts to every insult every disagreement every difference of opinion with some mix of violence, revenge or retribution. He's not just a teribble leader he's a terrible person.
448
Yes. Cannot think of ONE good thing he has ever, ever done. None!
51
When my children ask me about Trump, I say that he embodies all the worst traits of human beings, and none of the good ones. I tell them this is a very rare feat, and not to emulate it.
30
What I fear is that he is creating the platform for someone who lacks his cowardice and incompetence to do even worse. Not to undermine the huge damage he is causing to the US and the world in any way.
395
That would be Mike Pence, next in line. Just as much of a coward (afraid of himself around women, for example) and utterly incompetent but not bombastic. Only difference.
30
We must be vigilant.
18
That's also my fear - that the American voter will not learn from Trump and someone who is much more clever/smart in his ambitions to thwart American democracy will arise.
7
This Presidency can't possibly end well, brace for impact!
31
The US Constitution can guarantee electing a Chief Executive who is incompetent, without a consistent vision to improve the country, based on the ballot of the Electoral College, never mind the popular vote.
We cannot guarantee the sanity of the electorate, but it would be an improvement to give the power back to the individual voter, one vote = one person. The Electoral College should be terminated.
175
Stop living in a fantasy world. Sure, senators and house members in 35 or so states are going to vote themselves right out of a job.
The energy would be better spent developing and nominating a candidate who would not blow an election to someone as contemptible as Trump.
3
Your essays are so beautiful, Mr. Cohen. In these fraught times, art is a solace and nourishment. There is still good in this world, and I will not give up working to replace the do-nothing congress and the incompetent and corrupt president. How did we get here indeed. How far away we are. I hope to live long enough to see us on the road out of this very scary precipice we've walked up to.
28
Roger, according to the Times today, you could get a little jail time in Holland for dissing a head of state. If we had anything like this on the books here, over half the country could be vacationing at taxpayer expense if we had the space.
Your column is a bit of a melange, but as you know, public memory is short; Hitler, Mussolini, even the Holocaust are becoming unknown to the emergent voting generation here. Fascism is looking like a good idea with few downsides. Continued massive outrage over Trump’s assaults on law and decency is fast becoming a muddy background noise; loud, but lacking focus and definition. We are clinging to hope that some politicians, some ex-military types and Mueller can prevent the obvious takeover of what used to be a just, democratic country. Slim hope. Others hope that traditionally lazy citizens will suddenly find it important to vote, and that the vote itself won’t be subverted, hacked, manipulated or even declared non-binding.
The solid money, and I mean that literally, is on the continuance of the greedy free-for-all, and no amount of our outrage is going to prevent it.
Just click your heels together, close your eyes, and repeat: “It can happen here. It can.”
14
Trump is a buffoon, but he is not Hitler. I see no evidence of an attack on an independent judiciary (the Justice Department is not part of the judiciary; it is an executive department). We are fortunate to live in the greatest nation that has ever existed, and the world is fortunate to have benefited from American influence. It will take more than four years of a Trump administration to undue that. The Presidency does not define America; it is only one aspect of it. The same American influences that helped defeat National Socialism and Communism and helped build the modern world order that has lifted billions of people out of poverty will prevail. It is critical that we not overreact to Trump. If he has truly committed some serious crime or misconduct, impeach and remove him. But if you remove him based on a half-baked conspiracy theory hatched by an ascendant Democratic party, you will do more to undermine American institutions than Trump has ever done.
1
Judicial independence is a strong pillar of our democracy. the appointment of federal judges who may serve a term only limited by resignation or death is a serious matter. I believe, at this time,there are over 100 vacancies across the country awaiting appointment by President and confirmation by Senate. Attention must be paid.
48
I wish I shared your optimism. He has continually attacked an independent judiciary since assuming office, and even before. He believes in none of our institutions and is dismantling and undermining them at a fierce rate. Although I would have agreed with you prior to this that the presidency does not define the country, this presidency is. We will not survive his corruption, chaos and inconsistent and ignorant leadership unscathed. 9
340
Oh, the hubris, the hubris, the hubris !
"We are fortunate to live in the greatest nation that has ever existed,and the world is fortunate to have benefited from American influence."
Countless millions would disagree with you,Charles.
16
How did we reach this base level of Trump in the White House? Just the other day I read statistics: 325 million is the U.S. population, 200 million registered voters, 119 million actually turned out to vote in the 2016 fiasco, and one candidate had 2.9 million more votes than the other, and YET.....the loser won!
Why do we tolerate such an unfair, un-American system of this archaic Electoral College business?
Of course, if Hillary was in the White House now the GOP would be raging, carrying on investigations, threatening impeachment, and spreading Fake News. Can you only imagine how enraged McConnell & Co. would be if Hillary the President followed the same game plan as this imposter in the White House: vacationing at resorts most weekends, appointing misfits to the cabinet, tweeting lies and name calling?
Vote!!
279
Hillary decided to run up votes in Democratic strongholds instead of pursing votes in key areas which included the 'Democratic firewall'. I'm sorry if Democrats don't understand how our election process works, it hasn't changed much in decades. In addition the mainstream press was belittling Trump for campaigning in the areas that Hillary have, and they also missed one of the biggest political stories in decades. Before the election people were actually believing mainstream media article that Republicans would end up out of office for a generation.
If Democrats want to know why Trump is in office they need only to look in a mirror, as the loss of the White House was merely the tip on a decade of losses.
10
One of the most significant differences is that if Hillary Clinton was our president we would still be a democracy as well as have the support and admiration of our allies in the free world. We have lost who we are and the Republicans have made a deal with the devil Mitch McConnell and his spawn Trump.
11
Why doesn’t the New York Times and other Legitimate news media carry a running tally of the millions and millions of Taxpayer dollars that Trump and his hencemen are stealing from us with their vacations and other shenanigans?
13
I thank you Mr Cohen for the historical connections that you remind us of. Those who fail to learn from history are condemned to repeat it.
15
Trump's presidential reality show is wearing us all down. I think I need to watch the 24/7 webcam of the Panda baby and the sleeping bear. One thing that Trump probably has done...he has secured jobs in the media. His daily and hourly antics have kept the media hopping to keep up with his chaos. There once was a king who turned everything he touched to gold. Trump imagines himself an emperor, and everything he touches falls apart. November and 2020 can't come soon enough! But we do need to take a national moral bath -- remember that 63 million Americans voted for this idiot, and many still support him and think he is doing a wonderful job even as he is destroying their lives and livelihoods.
25
Thing is Roger, old boy, you helped put trump in office with your sneering at President obama, and your false equivalence between Clinton and trump. When it was time to defend the ramparts, you went missing. Same thing happened in Weimar, your choice of examples.
22
I have been reading Roger for years. When did he ever equate Trump and Clinton? As for Obama (my personal favorite President of my 61 years on earth) Roger objected to his refusal to get involved in the Syrian war and that is all. We do not need Dittoheads. The different between us and the no-hopers who voted for and continue to support Ronald Dump is that we think about and question our own positions and those of our chosen representatives.
11
Typical American modus operandi, we will talk , talk, talk about what a pig trump is, but then we will buy something new, watch something new or eat something new and gee, what do you know, trump has fired Mueller. Americans do not get what happens when a fascist takes over. You won't like it.
28
We know the shortcomings of this president. What we don't know is the power of reinforcing lies. Apparently it is powerful. It is reflected in the continued support of believers of those lies to Mr. Trump.
The biggest threat to our democratic voting is ignorance. The uninformed is the best description of Trump supporters, not despicables.
How do they get truth when their only source of news comes from Faux News? It is particularly dangerous because of their strength at the same time that main stream print media is getting weaker and social media and bumper sticker phrases are a stronger force.
Republicans know that ignorance is bliss in their strategy. That's why they have continually discredited public education and claimed college and Universities to have liberal bias.
Resist ! and inform!
23
Thank you, Mr. Cohen. Your analysis is spot on and I intend on sharing this column with my 13 year old and 10 year old. My children can see through this farcical presidency. We speak openly and honestly with them. They are in the minority at school...surrounded by red hats and blind followers...I want to remind them how important it is to have a voice in these tempestuous times.
18
It is no exaggeration to say that Trump poses a threat to his party, democracy, the country, the rule of law, the environment, the world, and even civilization as we know it.
It’s also no exaggerating to say that he continues to enjoy the full support of the overwhelming majority of his party.
Go figure.
74
All true except for the idea that Trump is a threat to his party.
The Republican Party is all but extinct, having been replaced by the Republican Party-before-country, a group of political opportunists who are in thrall to their ultra-wealthy donor class. The GOP is no longer stands for the Grand Old Party, it now refers to the Government Of Putin.
11
Trump is in office because compared to 2012 in the six states that Trump flipped votes by Democrats were down by almost a million votes. If similarities to the rise of Hitler are wanted the complacency of a large number of people from the struggling working class to the upper class are to blame. In Germany they watched as groups clashed in the streets, and the National Socialists were about the only ones who were successfully dealing with the Communists, something which led the ruling class to support him while believing that they could control him. Hitler didn’t rise to power only because of party members.
The danger of course in trying to draw such parallels is that it also requires claiming that the Republican party is essentially no different the Nazi party. If Democrats really believe that then the country is rushing towards a similar outcome due to a hatred which can only be resolved with a violent reckoning not seen since the Civil War.
9
If it is incompetence and cowardliness that mitigate the danger of the buffoon, then we had best keep up the pressure. Don't let him get comfortable; his fears might subside. We owe a debt to Mueller, and to Stormy and her lawyer, and to columnists like Roger Cohen, and to many others in the free press, and to people willing to come forward, and willing to march on the streets, who won't allow the coward to become unleashed.
32
Here we go again. Ol' 'finger to the wind' Trump.
When the forces become strong enough, Trump just turns 180 degrees as he's walking down a hall somewhere and declares that his reckless, ill-thought out decision to abruptly leave the TPP was actually just that - wrong for the U.S. and wrong for the world's safety and stability.
Very similar to the 180 Trump is now pulling on retreating from his tweet Wednesday regarding Syria.
Why do we have such a stupid person sitting in the oval office? Who in their right mind finds that this reckless bonehead is doing any positive service in leading our nation's foreign policy, our military forces?
This is the guy Republicans adore? He is an unthinking monolith who creates havoc wherever he goes, a bull in a china shop whose flaky, unsteady behavior and decisionmaking is an absolute menace to the world and our nation.
Wake up, Republicans.
34
Thank you Mr. Cohen. Sadly trump supporters are lost in their self-centric relativism. There is no truth and cultural morays are for idiots like us. I have no doubt, that if this nation survives him, this era will go down in history as one of the darkest periods ever.
13
Apart from all of his antics he (through Pruitt) is destroying the land underlying the full faith and credit of the US dollar AND YES regardless of your political stripe you should care about that.
11
It is only Friday the thirteenth day of the cruelest month, Roger Cohen. And yup, we are all tethered to the "raging buffoon" you call Trump. It is going to take a long time and a miracle to untether America from this lying, ignorant, demented spoiler of democracy. We are all living in the frightening fake world of Trumpism today and praying for a change back to democracy in our real world. The awful mantra of our failing president is "Make America Great Again!". Like "Blut und Boden" was 85 years ago in Germany. America has been brought down by one man and his millions of ignorant loyalists and ultra-rich supporters who echo his hate and fear. We - who are helpless but educated - are heeding the truth that history is repeating itself with new players on this American hinge of history. How do you suggest we "untether" America from our "raging buffoon", Roger Cohen?
10
Absolutely fantastic column.
For a study in contrasts, read today’s column by your colleague David Brooks, where he is able to ignore Donald Trump completely and focus instead on an “intellectual renaissance on the right,” led by that well-know Renaissance scholar, Jonah Goldberg.
8
So when is the Republican Party going to remove the failed experiment ?
“
8
Here is a good parlor game. Describe the President in a minimum of words. How about offering a slogan.
Mine are “he lacks character and focus.”
And, “narcicists thrive in chaos.”
How about your suggestions. Remember there are no winners—only we losers.
7
Among the most imminent of Trump's threats is his War on Mueller and the FBI. Firing Mueller could spark a constitutional crisis. Many scholars claim that the process requires Trump to get the (acting) AG to fire Mueller. Conservatives, like Yoo and Prakash in today's NYT OpEd, say POTUS can fire anyone in the Exec Branch on a whim. No he can't. The first impeachment trial in the Senate was Andrew Johnson's - for the "crime" of firing his out-of control Sec War without advice and consent. (SCOTUS later found the law passed to prevent that firing unconstitutional.)
So why can't this loose POTUS fire anyone in the Exec Branch? That would put our Chief Law Enforcement Officer outside a wide body of protective employment and labor laws. Fed employees are protected in many ways. In the Johnson decision SCOTUS made an exception for cabinet members, who are appointed directly by POTUS, to preserve his power to name and control his principal administrators like the AG. The old ruling does NOT give this POTUS to fire any Exec Branch worker for being black, female, LGBTQ, or having a big, bushy moustache.
As Cohen points out, we are tethered to a man who is untethered, floating in the winds of news, alt-news, and Fox News. If he is made unstable by being investigated, imagine his instability during a Senate trial. Be careful what you wish for.
9
I want to believe in an America with more resilience than you credit her with, Mr. Cohen. Beneath the buffoon are truly remarkable people who will rise in support of each other and even strangers if given a nudge. It is the America of "The Kansas City Spirit", a Rockwell painting showing a man rolling up his sleeves to deal with the flood there in 1951. Its is the earnest if misguided attempt to send breast milk to the newborn victims of the Haitian earthquake. It is the March of Dimes literally sending dimes to fund the search for a vaccine to prevent polio in the 1950's. It is President Carter's efforts to eradicate guinea worm disease. It is the Gates Foundation's efforts around the world to curb AIDS, tuberculosis and increase immunization. It is Habitat for Humanity giving struggling families a hand up with a home. It is the Salvation Army's red kettles in November and December.
There is no known limit to the size or weight of objects a glacier can move although the movement can be slow, uh, even glacial. America is blessed not only with natural resources and lands but with people who can be truly great without a buffoon to lead them, just like a glacier.
6
Emperor has no clothes.
6
'Schadenfreude' is a terrible thing. Especially when it involves the leadership of one's own country. But there are few instances when it is totally warranted... and right now is one of them.
In the case of Donald Trump, one didn't have to be clairvoyant to know what a presidency under him would look like, one only had to be semi-literate.
The hints were all there spashed across the pages of the tabloid press; his mentorship at the feet of the McCarthy-era attack-dog Roy Cohn, the extramarital liasons, his numerous lawsuits and bankruptcies, and his well documented aversion to people of colour.
It was no secret what he would do to this country, if given half a chance. We're living that now.
For those convinced that any good will come out of all the faux nativism and bigotry this president wraps himself in, there's little hope.
But for everyone else is who is watching the downward trajectory of this country with awe and disgust, as we become increasingly isolated from the rest of the world and more entangled in Donald Trump's own phantasmagorical universe, there's only one alternative.
Cut the strings.
12
"All the dumb noise Trump makes should not mask the fact that he is a symptom, not a cause." As I've been saying Donald Trump is the malignant cancer of our diseased body politic. The only question is can we survive the cure?
7
There is a majority of Americans who despise Trump and many in the GOP by about 3 to 1. If they would get off their complacent butts and vote in overwhelming numbers for Democrats, the power of the GOP would cease to threaten our country. If our Democracy can be saved, it will depend on voter turnout. 'outrage can turn to a shrug' has got to end. Voter participation will save us.
14
Trump is truly the cancer on the presidency. He has shattered it to pieces. Who ever takes his place will have to work very hard to bring the country together and rebuild the integrity of the office. He is a disgrace.
12
Interesting analysis. You're dead on right about Trump. He is the perfect combination of arrogance and ignorance and, I believe also, cowardice.
One thing I would like to touch on is that many of Trump's voters, are not bigots. They chose him because quite frankly, they and people like them are the road kill on the path to globalization and a more diverse society. Was it really worth it to negotiate trade deals which in the end made it economically advantageous to ship American jobs overseas? Was it really worth it to allow vast numbers of illegal aliens in order to undermine unskilled American workers of all races wages as Republicans hoped and eventually to the "Demography is Destiny" dreams of Democrats?
My somewhat long shot hope is that Trump will be a warning to us and that in the future American politicians, Democrats in particular, will look at policy through a lens which takes into account the broader economic needs of all Anericans regardless of where they live or whether o not they have a college degree.
5
Trump has never been a truly successful businessman or entrepreneur. He’s only been successful at giving the outward appearances of being one. His ‘presidency’ will be another unsuccessful venture.
663
This is an example of the nonsense that I cannot stand from either side. Trump lies about being worth 10 billion. Forbes and Bloomberg have both estimated his net worth to be around 3.5 billion. This was before he started looting the Treasury and shorting stocks.
The other side claims he has never been successful. Ridiculous. 3.5 billion is successful by any standard---even if you inherited 3.0 billion.
The guy flies around in a jet that costs more than people on this board will earn in a lifetime. Same could be said about his estate.
Successful? Obviously. Stop the nonsense.
1
He may be successful at accumulating money, granted. But how did he get to that point? If his current empire rests on a foundation of unscrupulousness, then any claim to success has to be tempered.
Like many with inherited real estate wealth, business is a foreign concept. Collecting rents hardly requires the type of skill it takes to conceive, start and grow a consumer oriented business for example, like Amazon.
33
Trump and his supporters have both said it they're like they're the same they're made from the same clay fashion from the same cloth. so the corruption the idiocy of the intellectual void are all mother's milk to them. the real problem is not Trump the real problem is that we have 1/4 of the American electorate who are morally devoid and intellectually vacuous and who are willing to do anything and everything to try and recreate an America of the 1970s.
the solution to this is we must somehow get those who never vote to vote and to vote in their actual interests. if we cannot do this we're doomed to rule by the non reasoning morally degenerate.
2
I don't think that we are headed for a state similar to pre-WW 2 Italy or Germany. Nor is the world, at least in it's consideration of DT. It seems the world is starting to just ignore him, rightly so. I wish we could! DT is getting more isolated by other competent world leaders. His reckless, sporadic judgment...if he has any rational judgment capacities at all...is becoming more obvious. Of course, his most deluded and ardent supporters will never relent. That group is getting smaller by the day. DT won't end up a major, authoritarian figure in history, as he thinks he is. He will end up like Howard Hughes, living in an isolated room with the paranoid demons of his mind as companions.
6
As a non-American who has for years applauded and celebrated the achievements of the USA, I am deeply saddened by the antics of President Trump.
From the outside, he looks vane, venal and incompetent. But, that is only my opinion.
However, it does surprise me that the people of USA don't seem to have woken up to the fact that a result of the weakness that Mr. Trump is demonstrating with his lack of ethics, policy, truth and action, the other 'major' powers are slowly but surely expanding their spheres of influence in the knowledge that there will not be a coherent response from the USA.
Russia now have a firm foothold in the Middle East in Syria, China are slowly but surely "buying'" Africa while both smiling wryly at the opportunities that American confusion has offered them.
I suggest that it is time that America woke itself from the slumber induced by the mesmering effect of the "Buffoon" in the White House.
952
@Derek
Just for the record. The majority of Americans did not vote for Donald Trump.
He was able to win the election with the help of the outdated Electoral College and foreign help, which I assume you have heard of.
Do not assume for a moment that all Americans are asleep and unaware of what is happening with this "Buffoon" in the White House --because most of us are 'woke'.
153
China is buying Africa just like W.E.B.Du Bois predicted almost 70 years ago. that man was prescient about the world's future. our president knows a little less each day.
62
Derek, we the majority are with you on Trump.
You do know, though, that Ireland has been a US corporate tax haven for years, which has given power to the new breed of corporate right-wing politicians and their overlord? You could help us by refusing to shine the shoes of American CEOs.
40
"We are tethered to a buffoon. He rages and veers, spreading ugliness, like an oil slick smothering everything in its viscous mantle."
Thank you, Roger Cohen. We must continue to keep the spotlight on all the evilness that is Trump. If we can hold on that long, let's send the strongest message we can by taking back the House and Senate in November.
12
Mr. Cohen,
Thank you for this excellent -and very frightening- column. However, I fear that it mostly preaches to the choir. Those who voted for Trump and who still support him constitute a shocking 30-40% of voters. Although we may well be rid of Trump by January, 2021, the damage to our society has been severe. It has exposed in us a nontrivial constituency that is bigotted, ignorant, racist and eager to live in an authoritarian state run by a deranged, unfocused, incurious, narcissistic, bigotted, ignorant, buffoon. Trump has let a very evil genii out of the bottle. The parallels to Germany in the 1930s are stark and clearly evident. As one who has been around a while, I can say I've never seen our nation in this state. It pains me deeply to think of my children and grandchildren living in such a pernicious and perilous environment.
10
If Trump actually lasts the full four years, it will take decades for our country to recover to a stage we were at when Obama got elected and saved us from another tax cutting agenda. I am still standing with my prediction that he will quit and take his toys home after he loses congress in the fall elections. The devastation this man has done to our country while so-called patriots in his party allow it to happen is totally disgusting. When will they have enough? My own state is in the beginning stages of what Kansas republicans did to their state a few years back... we cannot pay our bills so lets have some more big tax cuts (you know, they create jobs) for the rich. I hope I live long enough to see the recovery that will take decades after the worst president in our history leaves office.
15
I disagree with just one point in Mr. Cohen's keen analysis.
Trump is not waging a war on truth. For him, the truth is simply irrelevant - his objective is to maintain his self-image as a man of power, and he will say whatever he thinks will help maintain this illusion.
Trump is extraordinarily insecure, so any threat to this image - criticism or outright opposition -- is met with the strongest response. Facts simply don't matter.
He is a creature of impulse and narcissism, whose only goal is self-glorification.
17
Mr.Cohen writes: "Trump's main war ... is on Truth."
And this is why Trump, a life long donor to Democratic politicians, found such a comfortable home in the modern Republican Party. What pundits call a "left v right" divide is really a "truth v untruth" divide these days. On economic issues, on criminal justice issues, on environmental issues, etc. one side clings to disproven shibboleths while the other side yearns for reasonable solutions to our common challenges.
13
Everything you said about Donald Trump is true. His tenure has damaged the country's standing in the world, his temperament could start a war (intentionally, or unintentionally) and his instinctive attacks on truth breed recklessness. But beyond these immediate, very serious issues is an underlying truth that is more terrifying: over 40% of Americans approve of his presidency. Over 60 million Americans voted for him. The Republican who finished second in the primary was Ted Cruz. There can be no meaningful recovery from the reign of a "raging buffoon" if close to half of the populace want more of the same.
Facebook is in the hot seat right now for allowing users' data to be hijacked by those intent on manipulating people's behavior. How much longer is it going to take for us to understand the uncomfortable truth; today's fractured media landscape is having the same effect on a vastly larger scale. Fox News and many other far right television, radio and internet sources have warped the fabric of truth. Citizens who lack the capacity to discern between responsible journalism and blatant propaganda are being used as proxies forces intent on rigging the democratic system from within. They are succeeding, and we are just watching it happen.
801
Don't forget the gun owners' perversion of the 2nd Amendment.
17
We are not tethered to buffoon, we live in his ugly shadow.People are enraged and engaged.When Mr.Trump first tried to deny entry to immigrants, in just hours thousands of immigration attorneys showed up at airports and the Courts had an injunction in hours.Since then millions of women have marched and mobilized and thousands of teenagers have made their voices heard.Over three hundred women have registered to run in elections in November.The buffoon is an embarrassment but he does not define us.The ballad of my youth was "we shall overcome".I still believe that we shall overcome soon.
14
The historical reference back to The Great War, WWI, is important. I have been reading European authors this year as well as Paris based American Edith Wharton:" Fighting France: From Dunkerque to Belfort."
We toss off our collective history too casually. Wharton travelled the mud and ruts of the battlefront. Remember...
6
The man we have elected is in way over his head. He is not competent to perform the job he has, and he does not seem to be an admirable person. We will be fortunate if we make it out of his term without getting in a nuclear war.
Having said that, I am a bit concerned about what our society will look like like after he is gone. We are setting down precedents that will be hard to walk back.
How will the press adjust to a boring "normal" president, after the 24-7 ambrosia of conflict and outrage?
Most of all, I am worried about how we can ever make peace among ourselves. We hoped Obama could bring the people together, but he did not. During his term, Republicans dug in and waged brutal opposition to everything he did. Now, during Trump's term, the left has gone hysterical with constant outrage. Our public language has been stripped of any vestige of comity. It feels like our country has become ungovernable.
13
To MadelineConant-- I agree with much of your comment but must strongly disagree with
"the left has gone hysterical with constant outrage."
In my opinion, the left has been restrained and is far from constant outrage. The left has been much more reasonable in any opposition to trump than the near belligerant Republican opposition to Obama.
6
I am currently traveling out of the country and being asked daily to explain Trump. It is almost embarrassing to be an American.
Thank you for your most articulate column. It elevates the dialogue to a mature level, something that has been sorely lacking since Trump assumed office.
40
This is an excellent critique of our present and our future and the sooner we start our march ahead, which will also, in essence, be a march back to decency, the sooner we will be able to have meaningful influence in the world.
Mr. Cohen, thank you for saying it so clearly.
91
As usual a most eloquent column. I really wish you did not have to write it.
but that you ended it with the letter from the young future historian, makes me hopeful that America's younger generations are going to rise up and reclaim democratic institutions being trashed by the madman in the White House
244
When I read that, I thought of the Parkland kids.
2
The fact that he remains highly popular in some circles is not only frightening but alarming, this administration praised themselves to hire the “best and brightest” have one of the most inconspicuous cabinets made basically from people who swored to dismantle the very same institutions that they are directing, policy seems to obey to Trump’s instincts more than facts or studies which are none existent, they approved the largest tax cut in history without showing an single study, another example is the TTP now less than a year after exiting the Transpacific trade agreement the Trump administration wants to go back and renegotiate, the growth that the economy is seeing is more despite of Trump than because of him, the lack of morality, ethic indicates that we are being ruled by gangsters, the American mantra “nobody is above the law” is being tested to the limit. The destruction of the best example of a modern democracy is in the works for the delight of 40-45% of the population, tragic indeed.
77
It is getting utterly upsetting when reading Mr. Cohen basically reflects my own feelings. The only thing I would like to add to his remarks is that the 300 or so in the electoral college that voted for this known horror show are fully responsible.
311
Say rather that the electoral college no longer serves its original purpose.
49
An “independent judiciary” is not necessarily dominated by liberals, and Trump obeys judicial rulings; apparently, given the content and tone of this op-ed we still have a “free press”; and, despite highly personal charges of “coward”, “liar” and Hitlerian, there are no discreet knocks by police on doors at daybreak by overly serious men with handcuffs. This is still America. But I offer reminiscences of the Gilded Age’s yellow journalism of Heart and Pulitzer. However, consider that if Trump has ticked off so MANY of the pundit liberati, he must be doing SOMETHING right.
The comparison to Hitler has grown very old and yet always is deeply offensive; but Roger misses the central point that Hitler failed for a lot of reasons, including his tree-hugging vegetarianism and sexual dysfunctional, from which Trump clearly is free.
At its most open, the West championed but never practiced “openness”; mass-migration will not be tolerated so long as cultural relativists do not gain the upper-hand – and far from doing that they lose influence every day; “free trade” must be fair trade to ALL parties or it becomes a meaningless phrase; “secularism” I defend every day, but not at the expense of telling the religious that they may not form communities of the faithful; and where in Humpty Dumpty’s most fevered flights of drunken delirium is Europe forming an “ever closer union”?
Roger outdid himself today with invective. I hope I did as well with the absurdist humor of diminishment.
5
"However, consider that if Trump has ticked off so MANY of the pundit liberati, he must be doing SOMETHING right."
Why?
This has also "grown very old and is deeply offensive". It is also unworthy of your general intelligence.
Glad you're feeling so secure and dismissive--many of us are not.
23
You didn’t.
16
I was going to respond to this comment and then realized it was by Luettgren who has a bromance with Trump. Just want to say, Richard, you are way off base.
21
Trump’s popularity among an uncomfortably large minority of our citizens is disturbing, and I would argue, the result of not just fear and resentment but intellectual laziness.
Hatred and fearfulness are easy; they require no thought, reflection or effort, being the basest of human reactions. On the other hand, tolerance and understanding require an ability to step outside of one’s comfort zone, to empathize and mostly to learn about what is alien and new. Nuance requires critical thinking skills, an ability to see both sides of an argument and sometimes acknowledge that someone other than one’s self’s might have a valid opinion or outlook.
I have explained this to my own middle school age kids this way: having a closed mind is like leaving a room messy. It requires no effort at all. Having an open mind is like having a clean room, which demands working at it every day.
When I see Americans cower at terrorism, I can’t believe we are the same country that stepped up to defeat the Axis powers. When they deny science and exploration, I wonder if we are the same people who went to the moon.
We, the US, once stepped up to challenges. Trump’s election proved we’ve become the antithesis: it is a symbol that too many, despite loving his bluster, are afraid of challenge.
572
I agree with you. DeVoss is the most dangerous of the minions. How can we as a society recover our capacity for critical thinking?
6
Although I like your metaphor on one level, I don't on another. A closed mind is often neat and orderly. Everything in its place. Everything makes sense. Nothing new intrudes. An open mind lets more in. Things don't always get put away immediately. It's a constant, failing effort to keep things neat. It's letting things stay in your mind without judgment. Both yours and my interpretation apply poorly to Trump from what I can tell. His mind is messy because he is an ignoramus and revels in it. If he tried to make it neat and orderly, he would be even more dangerous because he might be competent. Yet he ignores and hates the world that intrudes into his room instead of accepting and loving it.
7
Good analogy. Trump never made his own bed, put down the toilet seat, hung up a wet bath towel, or did his homework.
4
An excellent article. Thank you Roger Cohen.
Now we have to keep working on how to correct the situation.
47
Wonderful piece. Only one criticism, Trump is not “about resisting economic, cultural, technological, gender and demographic change.” The words “about” and “resisting” imply a thought out position and coherent action. He is seemingly incapable of either. He’s “about” him, his needs, wants, insecurities; he’s in constant fight or flight mode driven by his basest instincts.
453
Mr. Cohen continues to be spot on in describing the lunacy we live. I fear for the future in ways I never thought imaginable.
164
So true. Trump demonstrates himself as less deserving of respect each and every day. His limbo rock to American authoritarianism continues apace.
And yet Trump is merely a symptom of a larger malady - a plague spread by a conservative media that desires to poisons their portion of our body politic the way that the Koch Brothers desire to poison our air.
FOX portrays Robert Mueller as the head of a Mafia crime family, when it is Trump who is the Teflon Don - the incompetent and wholly immoral knave who has never been held accountable for his multitude of failures.
Richard Nixon, for all his faults, established the EPA. Who will step forward to protect our collective environment - both physical and psychic - on the center-right?
David Frum and Steve Schmidt have stepped up to challenge FOX and Trumpism, but they are mere strategists. Where are the elected officials within the GOP not planning to retire?
Why do they remain such cowards?
Can they not see where this trend leads - to fascism, violence, and disunion?
Are these officials so addicted to power that they are afraid of losing a primary? We used to think that there were worse things in life than losing a primary - like losing your soul?
Our political toxicity is spread by a malignant conservative media - a media which conservatives imagine serves them, but truly serves no one but itself.
We have identified the enemy. Who will rise to slay it?
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Matthew:
The GOP politicians are not cowards. They probably think of themselves as brave. They are not in this to govern, or to make the country a better place. They are in it for power and money. Or rather, as their pundits and think tanks assure them, their power and money IS what makes the country a better place.
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Am very glad you too, see and call out the role Fox has played in bringing us to this moment. It seems to have started with Gingrich's removing civility and truth from political debate and has worsened exponentially.
Fox is a pestilence that's infected so many fellow citizens, they've lost all ability to discern truth from lie and are impervious to reason. What they broadcast via TV and radio is sickening. It's so over the top and over the line it's sickening. Why it's not considered treasonous, or at the least libelous, warranting legal action, I don't know.
What they started with the Tea Party ("take America back"), and their members openly carrying weapons at rallies, has only escalated. Those same people are trump's devotees. They're more stirred up and angry now, are armed to the teeth and see anyone not of their "tribe" as an enemy to be annihilated.
I fear for what's to come and for what happens when trump's dirty laundry comes out, with the ensuing legal ramifications for him. Fox is plainly fomenting hatred. When does that become inciting violence?
Where are the conservative voices needed to put a lid on it before it boils over? I guess like Ryan and all the others who want more "family time", they're cashing their Koch checks, and like the cowards they are, getting the heck out of Dodge while they can.
Who will rise? We will - you, me and the majority of this nation who understands what's at stake. It's now or never.
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"Are these officials so addicted to power that they are afraid of losing a primary? We used to think that there were worse things in life than losing a primary - like losing your soul?"
The thought of fascism doesn't trouble GOP politicians in the least because their sole purpose is to accumulate as much money as possible for themselves and their donors. After the environment, economy, and country are completely destroyed, they'll just shrug and ask, "How could we have known?" They are traitors pure and simple and don't care what happens to the country or 99% of the citizens in it.
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Another reason for Hitler's rise was the fracturing of the opposition as well as the fact that the "ruling class" thought he could be controlled. The Democratic Party has no clear leader in sight to defeat Donald Trump in 2020. As for a "ruling class" that must be the "deplorables" who elected him in the first place.
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I agree, where is the Democrat answer to Trump? Inexplicably, prominent Democrats were calling for action in Syria just this week. Trump, doing nothing, looks like the adult in the room!
Then there is the economy, with job killing NAFTA, the banks calling the shots, and the deregulation and consolidation of media. All done by Democrat, Bill Clinton. Only Trump talked about getting jobs back with some resonance.
Both parties are the same. The Democrats are neo-liberals, filthy rich, residing in a bubble of unending prosperity. Ms Pelosi, is worth north of a hundred million dollars.
Half the country does not have a thousand dollars saved for an emergency. Voters go into the booth and wonder, who is looking out for me?
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I can see your point of view, and in my bleak moments I can share it. But fundamentally, you're wrong, both parties are not the same. Their platforms are vastly different and that makes an enormous difference to many people. First of all, one party thinks government should be drowned in Grover's bathtub and the other believes in government generally. Ideas matter.
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We voters are the clear leaders to defeat Donald Trump in 2020. And we always have been and always will be. Have you not been paying attention? Alabama, Virginia, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania. And when the 2020 campaigning begins, the voting public will elect a Democratic nominee.
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