Alan Zendell, February 14, 2024

My wife summed up yesterday’s news perfectly: Trump intends to divide the world in half with himself and Valdimir Putin in complete control of their shares. She may have erred in excluding China’s Xi Jinping, who would prefer that the world be divided in three parts, but she was essentially correct. It’s obvious to anyone who has watched Trump over the last few years that he actually believes in that fantasy, and that if it came to pass, he would trust Putin to honor whatever lines they agreed to. Trump’s naïve worship of autocrats can only result in direct conflict with Russia and China in the long run, and that places our entire planet at risk of annihilation.

At the end of the second world war, America had to choose. We could return to the isolationism of the 1930s, which may have made that conflict inevitable, or as the strongest surviving nation with a commitment to democracy and decency, accept the mantle of leadership. We chose the latter, as a pragmatic attempt to lay the foundations for lasting peace and equally important, to fulfill the moral commitment embodied in our national values. We were the driving force behind the creation of the United Nations and the Marshall Plan that accelerated the recovery, not only of our allies, but of our defeated enemies as well.

We created NATO, not only as defense against the aggressive expansionism of the Soviet Union, but as the best way to ensure the security and prosperity of all nations. My generation grew up believing in those things. They made us feel secure, but they also made us proud to be Americans. The message I heard most often as a child was that kids in Europe were starving, and it was our duty to save them. Our commitments to protect Taiwan from China, South Korea from North Korea, and Israel from its hostile neighbors may not have had the same clarity of purpose as our commitment to NATO, but together they defined the America we knew until Donald Trump came along.

Trump would return us to isolation from the rest of the world, but it would be a different kind of isolation than the xenophobes of the 1930s sought. In a world without nuclear weapons and huge powerful missiles and aircraft capable of destroying civilization, isolation was viewed as defensive, as insulating us from the conflicts of European and Asian imperialism. It was an absurdly foolish notion, but given the mess the world in when the first world war ended and the Great Depression that followed a decade of irresponsible leadership, it’s easy to see why that message appealed to people.

Today that message is entirely different. We can’t run and hide, because no one on Earth is safe from the repercussions of failed leadership. And that is exactly what we got and will continue to get from Donald Trump. Trump doesn’t care about the things we grew up believing in. The world is just a stage for his massive ego. He couldn’t care less about democracy or our Constitution, because neither contributes to his wealth and power, and those are the only two things that motivate him.

Trump is the antithesis of democracy and national security. We see the former in his approach to politics. Divide and conquer. Use every unscrupulous tactic to assure the dominance of a small minority of extremists. Pander to every fringe group, no matter how heinous. Attack the integrity of our justice system when it can’t be bent to his will. Lie, cheat, steal, and defame, because those are the only tactics that can achieve his objectives.

As despicable as that is however, tearing apart our alliances and placing our national security at risk for future generations is nothing less than treason. The notion of failing to defend our allies against aggressors and dictators to gain their personal favor is a crime against America and all of humanity. It’s something that only someone as unhinged and mentally ill as Donald Trump would contemplate.

None of that is surprising. The world knows who Donald Trump is and what he represents, and decent people everywhere are horrified by the possibility that he could return to power. Perhaps more horrifying is that unless his next attempt at coup and insurrection succeeds, the outcome we fear can only occur if he wins the election next November. Given that the archaic way we elect a President is vulnerable to every kind of manipulation and voter suppression, it’s still the case that at least two out of five Americans would have to vote for Trump for him to win.

Did you ever imagine that forty percent of America could be taken in by this charlatan and that many of them would be obsessively devoted to his sick brand of politics? Our worst nightmare could come to pass if we don’t wake up and do what’s necessary to prevent it. We can start by convincing the majority of responsible Republicans in the House that Speaker Mike Johnson’s loyalty to Trump cannot be allowed to scuttle military aid to Ukraine, Israel, and Taiwan.