For whom have they come?

Submitted by Kepha (United States), Sep 18, 2020 at 21:24

As an American who has lived through nearly four years of the Trump presidency and the offspring of a very liberal, even socialist, family, I do not see Trump's administration having come for anyone. As for his supposed "anti-immigrant" stance, the Obama administration, universally admired and lauded, deported far more people than any administration in my lifetime after Eisenhower. Isn't Trump's own wife an immigrant? He has made enemies of our legacy media, yet how many of their jornos and pundits have been arrested? He is blamed for COVID deaths; yet NY's governor, after having received hospital ships and other federal aid, insisted on sending COVID cases to nursing homes, wreaking havoc on the vulnerable old--and the three states of New York, New Jersey, and Massachusetts have accounted for 40% of our country's admittedly high death toll. Have Democratic, or even radical, politicians and academics been disappeared?

Trump may be a "fascist", but, judging by those who first coined the term, he's a pretty sorry excuse for one--with the one exception of presiding over an economic recovery cut short by COVID-19 (which was born in China [本人是半个华人】）； and may show both the carelessness of many of the Chinese government agencies which will one day replace the Americans as the world's hegemon, or, perhaps, even a cynical willingness to play with the lives of both foreigners and its own citizens.

And I'll quibble with Dr. Pipes (whom I generally respect) about Trump and Kim Jongeun. NY bizman Trump supported the constructive engagement of his friend Bill Clinton. President Trump expressed a willingness to deal, and then walked away (while keeping his "bigger button") when he didn't get a satisfactory one. This is the behavior of "fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice, shame on me". His keeping the door open to a deal if the other side wants one is both good business and good diplomacy. As for antagonizing China, a large part of it is that Xi Jinping knows that his country is the last, best hope for 20th century totalitarianism (just look at its internal behavior--and its jackboot nationalism assiduously studied from the worst in 19th-20th century Germany); not Trump.

Yes, I don't like Trump's personality, and his personal morality repels me. But I'm voting for the policies.

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