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Saturday, January 28, 2017

"Power tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts absolutely." -Sir John Dalberg-Acton


Why we should all be very afraid.

Although this will be an essay on the new President Trump administration I wish to make it clear that this is only an exercise in the hypothetical. I have no reason for thinking anything other than that which has been advertised: that being that the stated goal of President Trump is to make America great again.

The president's meteoric rise to power is completely without precedent. He started as a joke and steadily crushed all of his competition, and in the process he took over the republican party and made it his own. So many prominent Republicans said along the way that they did not want him because he ran the most odd campaign that most people did not realise was a deliberate strategy.

He was the billionaire bully who insulted people and called them liars and cheats and dishonest, which resulted in his name on the lips of everybody throughout The United States and around the world. During election day he passed his opponent so fast that she wasn't even sure he was ahead.

Now he is in the first 100 Days of his presidency and he is making good on his promises. He controls a majority in the House of Representatives and in The Senate, and a great number of governors throughout the individual States. That is absolute power, and he is just the type of person to exploit that power to the maximum.

The office of The President is deemed to be the most powerful office in the free world. The necessary checks and balances are normally provided by The House and The Senate, but these now seem to be prepared to follow Mr Trump as though he is The Messiah.

The voters may have inadvertently elected a dictator - in - waiting, only the President himself can decide that. He has said that he gets things done, which sounds a lot like, Yes we can. He certainly got to where he is by doing things his own way. So far he has only had his businesses to work with, but now he has the entire country as his canvass, and by extension most of the world will listen to him. That's very heady stuff.

I'm trying to see ahead ten, twenty, thirty years. I think it is clear that change on the magnitude to be called shock and awe awaits us. We have seen his game plan before where focus is placed on a people to be vilified. In his case that includes the free press in the United States. Once he is able to mute the press he would have a free pass to do whatever to whomever with complete impunity.

As I have said, this is all just hypothetical and the president has not indicated otherwise. But, these things could come to pass because they are within the realms of possibilities. So, yes, we should be careful and take baby steps that only take us one day at a time.

Be afraid, be very, very, afraid!

Copyright (c) 2017
Eugene Carmichael