Barely three weeks ago Trump adviser Kellyanne Conway was rightly ridiculed after she complained that the media "want to go with what’s come out of his mouth rather than what’s in his heart.” She was, of course, asking a great deal of the press and public. Obviously, voters ought to judge any and every candidate for elected office by the words that come out of the candidate's mouth, doubly so for a candidate with no political history to evaluate.
The words of candidate Trump were as inflammatory as they were vague. President-Elect Trump's words were often self-contradictory, as he flip-flopped his way through his own shock that he'd actually won. Conway didn't want us to judge those words, but Trump is no longer a mere candidate or electee. Trump is now President of the United States of America, and his words are fast becoming deeds. The reality his words are weaving is a horror to behold. The heart that Conway wanted us to image is now laid bare. It isn't pretty.
The beast he is conjuring is now taking shape. The wall along the Mexican border was not just idle campaign rhetoric but is now a presidential order, a vast boondoggle to be paid for by American taxpayers. Some unspecified reprisals will be made against the economic well-being of Mexico just so Trump can claim to have made Mexico foot the bill. Trump is now trying to run aspects of the U.S. economy by command, a totalitarian experiment in economics with outcomes none can predict. Science has been subordinated to political propaganda by the sweep of the presidential pen, requiring studies and publications to be approved by members of Trump's cabinet. The National Endowment for the Arts, the National Endowment for the Humanities, and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting will be defunded because Trump in particular and Republicans in general disapprove of that high-brow, cultural stuff. Parts of the Department of Justice that focus on protecting women and minorities, including the Office on Violence Against Women (OVW) are on the chopping block. The list goes on and daily expands.
Day by day Trump's beast will take on more form. Gleeful minions will chant "Trump! Trump! Trump!" even as the beast turns and gores them. No matter. The minions are quite willing to immolate themselves as long as those "others" are destroyed too, as long as scary brown people and Muslims are kept out of "our" country, as long as globalism and internationalism and the development of other economies are all curtailed, as long as women go back to the kitchen and queers go back in the closet and those nasty intellectuals get their comeuppance, as long as we can all say "Merry Christmas" again instead of "Happy Holidays." Welcome to the Trumpocene!
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