In My Life, America Has Come Back From Worse Things Than Donald Trump

In My Life, America Has Come Back From Worse Things Than Donald Trump

By

Leonard Zwelling

https://www.wsj.com/opinion/america-abandons-ideals-at-its-peril-0aed48e9?mod=opinion_lead_pos6

This seems like the right piece to drop near Election Day, even if less than half of those who can vote will vote in these midterms. The non-voters are lucky to be living in a country where their indifference or laziness is not penalized.

Gerard Baker is an editor-at-large at The Wall Street Journal. He is a native Brit who has gained his American citizenship. His op-ed on October 20 is a stirring defense of his adopted country and all that it has been through in the last hundred or so years, especially the last ten, and all that the United States has meant to the rest of the world. It is a case I have made often in private conversation. It goes like this:

1. The United States is still “the indispensable nation” as Madeleine Albright said. Without the U.S., particularly after WWII, fascism and communism would not have been defeated and freedom in many countries around the world would not be possible.
2. The current occupant of the White House is an embarrassment. I know that good and smart people voted for him, but he beat two women to get to the Oval Office. He lost to an inept man in 2020, despite him saying otherwise. He will not be president after January 20, 2029, less than three years away. He is not the first man to be a terrible president, just the latest. I lived through Nixon and despite the history revisionists currently thinking otherwise, Nixon was evil and definitely committed felonies. And remember, George W. Bush left office only 18 years ago. He was a total mess from Iraq to the financial crisis.
3. My entire existence depended upon my grandparents’ willingness to leave Europe to get to Ellis Island. They may not have been welcomed with open arms, but they were welcomed nonetheless when they had nowhere else to go.
4. The key to the success of the United States since its entrance into WWII has been its willingness to go to war to defend freedom while not pursuing any territory for itself. The memorial at the Normandy cemetery has a quote from General Mark Clark who fought in that war. “Here was our only conquest: all we ask…was enough…soil in which to bury our gallant dead.”
5. Finally, for my entire life, I have believed in this country, the essential mission of the U.S. as stated in the Preamble to the U.S. Constitution, and the fact that only here could a middle- class, second generation American Jewish kid from Long Island, who couldn’t get into Yale, have gone South to school, received unequaled training in medicine, and had a career in academia. I owe my very existence to my parents, their parents, Duke University, and this country. Barker’s essay reflects his take on similar issues.

I have absolutely no doubt that the United States will return to its rightful place of being the indispensable nation as soon as Mr. Trump exits the scene. Donald Trump will go down in history as an American aberrancy who came to office by appealing to the worst aspects of the American psyche from misogyny, to racism, to nativism, to xenophobia, to fear. His voters need to spend a minute considering why they voted for him or was it just to vote against Hillary and Kamala, both reasons enough. Americans have now seen what giving in to our demons can do.

Masked, gun-toting troops are in the streets rounding up legal Americans and shooting some in the process.

A power-crazed leader only interested in promoting himself and lining his pockets has gotten us into an unwinnable war, exactly what he promised not to do, and cost the whole world billions.

He revved up his followers to try to upend a legal election and assault the seat of government violently. Now he and his minions deny it ever happened, but we have the video tape.

He has so intimidated the legislative and judicial branches of our constitutional government that he is almost a one-man government. I suspect tomorrow that will end.

Most of the conversations I have with others consist of them bemoaning the state of the country and the world. Of course, my Jewish friends are as upset about what is happening in Israel as what is happening here. Israel has a much longer past history and much shorter recent, democratic history than the U.S. Some Israeli regimes of hundreds of years ago fared poorly after one hundred years or so in power. Let’s hope the Israeli people can figure out how to do better this time.

Compared to many other countries, the United States is a rather young nation at 250, but it is the longest existing democracy on Earth at the present time. We will figure this out.

The man or woman who can articulate a new direction for the country based on its core principles as elucidated in the Constitution, and who recognizes that we are most definitely NOT a white, Christian, male only nation, but one that is sufficiently capacious to include everyone who shares our core beliefs and pledges fidelity to the Constitution, can win the presidency in 2028.

Sorry Don, there may be two sexes, but there are far more than two genders and all genders can contribute to the defense of this country.

Sorry Don, our system for legal immigration needs an overhaul. We need all the talent from around the world that seeks to come and help our cause.

Sorry Don, we do not need leaders who impoverish those they pledged to help while using their power to swell their own coffers.

Donald, you often say “America is back.” It’s not yet. It will be when you are out of office.