A Tough Summer in Washington
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Politics and Activism

A Tough Summer in Washington

The last few months have not been the best for any politician in Washington DC, but what will it lead to?

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A Tough Summer in Washington
Martin Falbisoner

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.

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This article has not been reviewed by Odyssey HQ and solely reflects the ideas and opinions of the creator.
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