Straight Talk with Ed Gray
The American government has slipped into elected anarchy.
The tweets from the 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue occupant remind me of a high school senior going through senioritis. Perhaps, what is wrong with President Donald Trump is the fact he is suffering from senioritis, in this case, old age impaired judgment. How else can you explain his actions? The inconsistency, the anger, the impulsiveness, and the inattention to detail.
President Trump has gone through so many cabinet officials it is as if he taking servant leadership Ex-Lax. There is a normal turnover rate every presidential administration experiences, normally it occurs during the second term. However, Trump hires and fires as if the White House is a prop for The Apprentice. If our government was the television reality show, only Presidential spokesperson, Sarah Huckabee, and Vice President Mike Huckabee will be staying at Trump Tower.
General Jim Mattis, the now former Secretary of Defense recently resigned, he did not want to play army man with the Commander-in-Chief. The self-described great military leader, Commander-in-Chief Trump said “’I think I would’ve been a good general,” graciously accepted Secretary Mattis’ resignation letter.
Then he read it.
Within days of reading, (or after probably watching the reaction to it on Fox News) and discovering the damning critique of his presidency from Secretary Mattis he decided to fire Mattis. Pushing Mattis out the door 60 days earlier than announced.
Then in a strange version of the movie Friday (the movie starring Ice Cube and Chris Tucker), he fired the Secretary of Defense with the reminder, “As you know, President Obama fired him, and essentially so did I.”
Meanwhile, the Republican Congressional leadership briefly found the nerve to criticize Trump for his handling of Mattis and surprise announcement of an immediate pullout of Syria. Naturally, they scurried back to their offices, in fear of The Donald’s angry reaction.
This is not a democracy, this is anarchy. This feels like a bad movie which just keeps getting worse. The problem is Americans feel forced to watch this bad YouTube version of an American presidency while eating stale popcorn.
The Republican leadership’s reluctance to criticize Trump is getting old. The hour has passed for Republicans, who have pledged to defend our Constitution, can continue to simply sit back and allow the many mishaps of the Hapless Apprentice President continue to degrade our country.
It is time to wake up America, our democracy is in trouble. We have a President running the government as if it is simply a reality television show. President Trump has government officials entering and leaving the White House, repeatedly replaced by others waiting in the wings for their cameo appearance into madness, which is our government.
This is not a democracy, this is anarchy.
I am Ed Gray and this is Straight Talk.
Ed Gray is a presidential scholar at Southern Methodist University. He is the host of The Commish Radio Show airing Saturdays 3-5 p.m. on FBRN.net, can be reached at eegray62@att.net. NDG was awarded NNPA’s 2018 Robert S. Abbott Best Editorial for Gray’s “Confederate Statues: The White Man’s Burden” column.
