My observation that Trump is well into a major cognitive
decline is not pejorative. Whether or not I like him is immaterial. My claim of
his infirmity does not make it so in the same was as your denial of it doesn't,
makes it non-existent. We can dispute each other's assertions; however, time
will settle the debate one way or the other.
I do not like his personality, his politics, his behavior,
his lack of veracity, his decisions, his representation of me and this country
around the world because they are completely opposite of my ethic. For many
other Americans, they love him not in spite of those attributes but because
they are so closely aligned with their own.
Many people more learned than I have observed the same or
similar indications of cognitive dysfunction in the President. While he has
traits to admire and approve, there comes a time in everyone's life when
concerned family and friends need to take away the car keys and hide the
matches lest he precipitates a major tragedy. A person may love the father or
mother who is declining with Alzheimer's or other variation of dementia, but
that doesn’t mean they must allow the parent to go about in public
unsupervised.
Similarly, whether the affected person was a good person or
bad ceases to be relevant once the dementia is fully manifest. There is little
purpose of prosecuting or persecuting the impaired individual who fails to
understand the gravity of their crimes and misdemeanors. The only valid purpose
that remains is to contain the damage
already done. Once the compromised parent has crashed into the pedestrians the
only thing left to do is make sure he cannot do it again. Senator Lindsey
Graham spoke eloquently back during the Bill Clinton impeachment proceedings
when he asserted that impeachment is not punishment for crimes committed but a necessary
step in preserving and restoring the dignity and respect of the Office the
public official has tainted with his actions.
Here is where we arc back to the President. Yes, people love
him. Yes, people would and will vote for him again given the chance. Yes, there
will be ancillary improvements in the economy. Yes, there will be a price to
pay for all the negative aspects of what he says and does. Yes, there will be a
period of "reconstruction" necessary after his Administration is over
just as though there had been a shooting war. Yes, there is a lot of pain
coming down the pike.
For every apparent positive gain attributed to this
President, there are one or more negative aspects. Mineral extraction commerce
comes at the permanent destruction of the environment. Removal of safety
regulations on businesses may raise their bottom line but at the cost of clean
water and air. Tax rate cuts are really only Revenue Reduction Acts that will
make it impossible to fund the society we hold dear. Cutting social programs
can only further impoverish people who are already poor without providing and remedies.
At the current revenue rates and budget levels, military spending alone is not
supported by the remaining tax rates.
His claim of "uniting the country" is a bit delusional.
While he has formed a loyal base in the same way as Coke and Pepsi has, the
vast number of people drink neither. And many don't drink the other lesser
brands of sweet fizzy-water either. The brand-loyal people who favor one
product over the other typically cannot describe accurately why it is they do
so. All of the choices are sweet, have some level of caramel colorant and most
of all fizz when opened. This President claims massive support while only
generating rally turnouts totaling less than 0.15% of the eligible voters,
which is 0.075% of the US Population. He believes the spot turnouts demonstrate
love for himself and his job performance.
His 46 million Twitter "followers" are a combinations
of People who support him, people who just want to read what he says without commitment
of any type of support, Retweet Bots and outright fictitious handles. The
number looks good to anyone who needs his ego stroked. "My numbers are
greater than Barack Obama's." In the election which placed him in the White
House, he received about 25% of the eligible voter's votes. Those numbers
represent slightly less than half the actual votes and about 2.8 million less
than his Democrat opponent. But the Electoral College system prevails. With
these facts being self-evident, he continues to cry "Fake News" at
everything he cannot accept.
He has been on the defensive for his entire Administration
trying to convince people he is victimized by Everyone else around him. The
Media can't be trusted, his own Intelligence Agencies can't be trusted, the FBI
is against him. His mistrust is so great that he prefers the advice and solace
of foreign dictators with whom he identifies and envies.
It is widely spoken that his favorable treatment of
President Putin against all reason is evidence of his subservient position
relative to the man. Although he can't see it through his cognitive fog, his
body language and smiling countenance in the presence of powerful men who
stroke his ego to get what they want, the thousands of hours of video easily
demonstrates the essential nature of his condition.
Every move this President makes, every policy statement and
directive he promulgates with a claim that it is good for the Economy has with
it a greater benefit to Russia and the oligarchs who stand to reap billons from
the void America creates by being lead by the current President.
Whether a person loves him, hates him or merely doesn't like
what he has done to this country, that attitude informs whether they believe he
bold lies, merely misrepresents facts, speaks the absolute truth or
confabulates a narrative to make sense in his own mind of the gaps of memory
and understanding which are part of his reality. The person experiencing
dementia rarely realized it. The person who has memory gaps confabulates plugs
to fill the holes. His struggle to pronounce words is not specifically a speech
impediment as would be with stuttering and stammering. They are more closely associated
with cognitive lapses that come and go on an irregular interval.
His speech is peppered with filler words, phrases and
repetitions that attempt to keep the monologue going in the absence of knowing
what to say. It amounts to bad ad libbing. Larry David comedy is rife with long
stretches of ad lib as are many scenes of the serial Soap Operas. When done
well, ad libbing can be creative, but the longer it is employed the worse the
dialog becomes. "Plot holes" and inconsistencies arise which intent
listeners pick up on very quickly. In a Presidential speech it is a sure fire
indicator the speaker is ill prepared to handle the topic or the venue itself.
Someone with lifelong undiagnosed impairments or at least a
collection of personal flaws should not be able to become elected and remain in
office when those attributes negatively impacts job performance and the lives
of millions if not billions of people. Applying a functional test of
suitability, it doesn't matter whether the deficiencies are nature or nurture.
It is the results that are looked at and matter.
When a person speaks statement which are incorrect, whether
his is intentionally lying or is merely majorly uniformed, it is the lack of
correction which matters. Whether the person is eccentric in his personal
presentation or mad as a hatter, matters little when that person has control of
so many people's lives.
Here we presently have to perform the evaluation and decide
whether the man should be allowed to continue on his trajectory or be
stopped. This must not be a political
decision nor one made from love or fear. Today the whole world is watching and
what we do now will have generational reverberations. Choose wisely.
