With all the horrible things Trump has tried to do, his proposed 1.7 billion slush fund is the final insult: stealing from our taxpayer funds to reward his corrupt friends. As Judith Levine writes in the Guardian, it’s perhaps his “most flagrant act of corruption yet — perhaps in US presidential history.”
“It’s enough,” she writes, “to make an American move off the grid … until it all blows over, or up.”
Levine is reminiscing about a fantasy like the one I wrote about last week: moving back to the land, as my generation did in the 1960s. But, she warns, we can’t do that now because “This is precisely what Trump wants.”
That put me back in my place.
I was further chastened by Pope Leo XIV’s recent encyclical. For me, his missive wasn’t just about artificial intelligence: it was a clarion call to confront the whole range of moral hazards that infect modern life — and, in particular, Donald Trump’s outrageous conduct.
Pope Leo urges us to stop being passive observers: “Most people are watching and waiting, observing from afar and merely hoping for the best.” But some questions “can no longer be avoided: Where are we going? Toward what goal do we wish to orient ourselves? What direction should we choose as a people and as a human community?”
The Pope wants us to stop being conned by what Bob Dylan called “worthless foam from the mouth.” Rather than sleepwalking through the endless succession of mirrors reflecting social media hysteria and political invective, it’s time to remember our core values — and then dedicate our lives to living up to them.
Unfortunately, our heartfelt values are ignored by mass media, which only chase hot-button issues like apprehending illegal aliens, executing narcoterrorists, and combating wokism. These issues only seem newsworthy because politicians exaggerate their dangers to divert voters’ attention from bread-and-butter issues that really matter.
Although seldom discussed, the fact is that Americans have rock-solid core values. According to the latest Gallup poll, “More than eight in 10 Americans agree that respect, family, trustworthiness and freedom are important values to them, and at least three-quarters say the same about kindness, health, integrity, happiness and knowledge.” Other reputable polls reflect similar findings.
Our values, imbued as they are with ethical and moral dimensions, stand in stark contrast to Trump’s cruel and callous treatment of immigrants, his rudeness toward all who disagree with him, his monumental corruption, and his blindness to the needs of average folks.
Trump and his ilk spurn the ethical values of a rule-based democracy, dismissing them as frilly “girlie” things. What matters to him is total dominance, which he enforces through intimidation and raw power. Rather than honoring the priceless treasure chest of what we hold in common, he rules by dividing our country, pitting us against each other.
Trump’s approach is not only arrogant and cruel but wrong-headed. It wasn’t our superior strength and cunning that caused us to evolve from small, monkey-like creatures living on the savannas of Africa into the apex species on Earth. Instead, as Yuval Noah Harari, the well-known Israeli historian, points out:
“Our human superpower is the ability to cooperate in very large numbers. And for that, you need a lot of individuals to agree on laws, norms, values and plans of action. So how do you connect a lot of individuals into a network? You do it with information, of course, and most importantly, with mythologies, narratives and stories. We are a storytelling animal.”
And when it comes to stories, Americans are the beneficiaries of one of the greatest stories of all time, which we can celebrate together this July 4 on the 250th anniversary of our adoption of the Declaration of Independence. This is indeed a special occasion.
Our very own Ken Burns, widely regarded as the preeminent documentarian of American history, calls the American Revolution the most important event in human history after the birth of Christ because it challenged the absolute power of kings. For the first time, we live in a country built on ideas rather than ancestry.
Instead of the rights of kings, our nation was built on principles: We are the first nation to declare in our Declaration of Independence that “all men are created equal.” Burns calls that one of the most important sentences in the English language.
Because of the chaos swirling around us today, I think we focus too much on how imperfect our nation is rather than on our untapped possibilities. Burns reminds us of what we too often forget: that with the founding of our nation, we created “a new thing called a citizen.” Let’s not relinquish that precious role because of the fearmongering of our politicians, the gridlock of our bureaucracy or the avarice of our silicon barons.
Let’s celebrate our 250th anniversary by remembering who we are!
Jean Stimmell, retired stone mason and psychotherapist, lives in Northwood and blogs at jstim.substack.com.