I am not a future-teller, so by the time you read this, we could be in the middle of the political event of the century. However, at current moment, Washington D.C is looking more like Westros during the reign of King Joffrey. With a flurry of scandal and news and leaks since June, the Trump administration is really starting to come apart, even if from the inside out. Beginning with the constantly failing healthcare bills, going straight through until the breaking news that Robert Mueller has formed a grand jury and is following the money trails from Trump himself. I've tried to avoid political news for a while, just because it's just everywhere and hard to discuss in a civil manner these days – especially in comment sections on Facebook.
Distrust of the president in Congress
has been slowly rising, from many Senators and Representatives voting
for Trump just because they're in the same party, to voting across
party lines, to now where Republicans in Congress are splitting away
from him. Some left during a tweetstorm, others left as he started
insulting and threatening cabinet members because they didn't bow to
him. Even Paul Ryan has expressed support for Robert Muller, the
special council in charge of the Trump-Russia investigation, contrary
to what Trump is saying. One could argue the first to leave was
Richard Burr, who upon being named head of the Senate Intelligence
Committee, began to look at more bipartisan views than other
Republicans and Democrats, both of whom are constantly attacking each
other. Since then, little by little, senators are turning, as
evidenced by voting against the McConnell healthcare bill. And if
things go even further south, it will take Republicans to help bring
us back up, without letting their party get in the way of what is
morally right
Much like a dictatorship, Trump has
constantly put down and even rejected the press, so he started his
own web-television program to tell people the real news – direct
from the White House. Of course, “real news” to them includes the
Seth Rich case that was proven false when the Rich family came out
and said the “investigator” was never hired and they had no idea
who he was – in reality, the story was made up by Fox News, and
according to recent rumors circulating the press, possibly with aide
from Donald Trump himself. Seriously, there is no way to justify
this. Dictators control the press and make up stories so that they
can further control the people. A president-approved news source that
seeks to undermine the free press? Yeah, no. Fox News is bad enough
when Sean Hannity continues to run the Seth Rice story despite being
told it was a false narrative. But this is something else entirely.
Not much has been said about this, mostly because nobody is taking it
seriously – and we should. All it takes is one tweet or one order
from the president to his official news and he could tell supporters
to take up arms against the ones trying to stop them. I doubt he
would, but as per Trump's Razor (the stupidest scenario is the likely
one), it is entirely possible.
The new immigration reform is nothing
but the administration justifying racism. Demanding that immigrants
must be able to speak English contradicts the simple fact that
America has no official language – go to New York City, and you'll
see signs in Arabic, Italian, Chinese, Yiddish, Hindu, and any other
language you can think of. In addition, it will require them to have
money and ability to essentially conform. Again, America has been
known as a melting pot because of the variety of culture and ethnic
groups. This policy is being put in place for legal immigration, and
considering not everybody has the ability to go to school and learn
English, it will only bring in the rich and well-off people who by
every means should immigrate if they choose to, but prevent those who
need to have a better life. Naturalization classes include English
classes, among other things that the right claims they don't – most
natural-born citizens cannot complete the citizenship test, anyway.
Lastly, we come to the nonstop
attempts to stop the ongoing Russian collusion investigation. Donald
Trump, Jr. released an email chain between himself, Paul Manafort,
Jared Kushner, and Russian lawyers/government officials concerning
“compromising information” on Hillary Clinton. Despite this
being explicitly stated in the emails, Trump Jr. went on Fox News
(because where else would he go) to say that it was actually about
adoption of Russian children – and now, we've found that the
President helped to create this alternate narrative. Later on, Trump
became open with his disdain for Attorney General Jeff Sessions, as
Sessions recused himself from being involved in the investigation –
which Trump wanted shut down, hence firing James Comey and
threatening other intelligence heads. During this time, he said that
Mueller “better not look at the finances,” because at that time,
Mueller and his team were, in fact, looking through the tax returns
and financial statements from both the Trump Organization and the
Trump family.
Despite this, and while I am
definitely not a fan of Trump, I'd say there is a slight chance
America might just be on the right track under him. Not due to any
policy, or any statement, or tweet, or anything like that. But you
consider that America is one of the youngest countries in the world,
yet with the oldest Constitution. And that's not a bad thing – but
if you really think about it, the United States hasn't really seen
what abuses of power really can be. Watergate was one thing, but this
is just helping us see how we can come back from a turbulent
presidency. Respecting the office is not the same as respecting the
person, and yeah, we all should hope Trump doesn't crash the entire
nation because then we have nothing to build back up. In a weird,
reverse psychology-esque way, making America great again will happen
because Congress, the Supreme Court, the people, and politicians in
general, will see what can happen when they let the wrong people into
the highest office in the land. Kind of a backdoor,
not-how-he-intended way, but hey, “great” is subjective. The
results of the Russia investigation will cement the American
political system for decades if not centuries. Donald Trump will be
known as the one who showed what can happen if power is left
unchecked, and we'll just have to see the lasting effects. Including
the HBO miniseries – I'm calling it now.