The Observer view on Donald Trumps unfitness for office - Observer editorial

[Fozzledick]

The incompetence and infighting at the White House dismay America’s allies and encourage its enemies

The sense of things falling apart in Washington is palpable – and a matter of growing, serious international concern. Donald Trump’s latest asinine act of gesture politics, the forced resignation of his chief of staff, Reince Priebus, has shone a spotlight on the extraordinary chaos inside the White House. Even normally sober, experienced Washington observers now refer to the West Wing as a viper’s nest of seething rivalry, bitter feuds, gross incompetence and an unparalleled leadership vacuum.

Like some kind of Shakespearean villain-clown, Trump plays not to the gallery but to the pit. He is a Falstaff without the humour or the self-awareness, a cowardly, bullying Richard III without a clue. Late-night US satirists find in this an unending source of high comedy. If they did not laugh, they would cry. The world is witnessing the dramatic unfolding of a tragedy whose main victims are a seemingly helpless American audience, America’s system of balanced governance and its global reputation as a leading democratic light.

As his partisan, demeaning and self-admiring speech to the Boy Scouts of America illustrated, Trump endlessly reruns last year’s presidential election campaign, rails against the “fake news” media and appeals to the lowest common denominator in public debate. Not a word about duty, service, shared purpose or high ideals was to be found in his gutter-level discourse before a youthful gathering of 30,000 in West Virginia. Instead, he served up a sad cocktail of paranoia and narcissism. It was all about him and what he has supposedly achieved against the odds.

Which, for the record, is almost precisely nothing. After more than six months in office, and despite full Republican control of Congress, Trump cannot point to a single substantial legislative achievement. The bid to repeal the Affordable Care Act, better known as Obamacare, which finally went down in flames in the Senate last week, was the most spectacular and telling of Trump’s failures. His executive orders, such as the racist ban on Muslim travellers and last week’s bigoted attack on transgender people in the military, have mostly run foul of the courts or been pre-emptively ignored by those charged with implementing them.

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/jul/30/observer-view-of-donald-trump-unifit-for-office

[fierywoman]

1. Well written English is such a beautiful thing.

[PSPS]

2. No kidding! They "learn them kids good" in England.

[BigmanPigman]

3. That seems like an accurate assessment of our situation.

In other words......stop this crazy thing, I'm going to be sick!

[zentrum]

4. Trump is just

...revealing who the Republicans really are. They are bankrupt when it comes to policy that actually helps the American people. Trump is merely the Republican party unmasked. Sexist, racist, indifferent to suffering, uncaring about the planet, greedy, anti-science, fearful of education.

Whether they do it with well-oiled speech writers and a coterie of evil people like Bush did with Cheney and Rove or whether they are narcissistic buffoons like Trump---we and the world will never be safe under Republican majorities.

[Dark n Stormy Knight]

6. "Trump is merely the Republican party unmasked."

Yes, and it says a lot that they're not even smart enough to try to get him out so they can continue to wear the mask. I think the fact that Drumpf still has a solid core of support from his cult, even after the WealthCare fiasco, emboldens then to think they can show their true colors and continue to be elected.

It couldn't be more important that we prove them wrong. GOTV!

[zentrum]

8. Wealthcare. LOL.

Yes—good point: They are failing to wear the mask.

See you in the trenches!

[smirkymonkey]

5. K&R

[cwydro]

7. K and r. nt