I keep seeing posts from MAGA saying Trump has made the country safer. That is ludicrous.
Gun violence. Republicans continue to do nothing positive; in fact, they are pushing to weaken gun laws. And FYI, red states have higher gun death rates than blue states. Still feel safe sending your kids to school?
Terrorist threats. Trump just fired 400 Department of Homeland Security employees.The USAID, now defunded, worked to build stable democracies and reduce terrorism.
Disease. RFK Jr, who does not believe in vaccines or modern medicine, is now in charge of the nation’s health. He is already putting in place an HHS team that will unravel immunization programs and lead to outbreaks of preventable diseases -- measles and worse. Louisiana just suspended its vaccine advertising and outreach program. The USAID worked to contain viruses from spreading. And Medicare, Medicaid, and Obamacare cuts – massive ones – are coming.
Climate disasters. Trump and his ilk would rather spend trillions after climate-fueled disasters (super-charged hurricanes affecting all southern states or dry-condition wildfires that wiped out Lahaina, caused catastrophic in Los Angeles and continue to burn the West) than join a worldwide effort to combat the greatest threat to our planet. To them, it is all a “hoax” or “woke.” Tell that to victims – which is, really, all of us – or to those who cannot get, or afford, home insurance.
Corruption. We will all pay a price for a lawless executive branch, absent of congressional checks. The super wealthy and Trump cronies get government contracts at will, court cases dropped, and license to do just about anything they please. Oligarchy means the rich will get richer and the poor and middle class will get poorer. Trump’s “Golden Age” is really another “Gilded Age.”
An unsafe world. Weakening NATO and aligning with Vladimir Putin over our European allies will be devastating. Emboldening tyrants never works.
It's Not Just the Name of a Mountain
It’s not just a mountain. Denali, named by native Alaskans, means “high one” and is the tallest peak on our continent. Donald Trump has now officially changed the name back to Mt. McKinley.
As one Alaskan said in an AP story, “I don’t know a single person that likes the idea, and we’re pretty vocal about it. Denali respects the Indigenous people that have been here and around Denali for tens of thousands of years.” Indeed, even Alaska’s two Republican senators oppose the Trump action.
But Trump’s order is not just a one off. It’s part of a white power agenda. Why respect Native Americans, when you can cheapen them with a White colonialist honorific? As has been pointed out recently, President McKinley never set foot in Alaska.
Nine U.S. military bases named for Confederate generals had those names struck by Congress in 2022. Now Pete Hegseth says the Confederate names should be restored. Why be satisfied with Fort Liberty, when we can revert to Fort Bragg? Braxton Bragg, after all, committed insurrection against the United States to keep Black people enslaved. Bragg, incidentally, lost almost every battle he fought. Not the kind of “warrior culture” Hegseth so admires.
Of course, the point for MAGA is to keep Whites in control. Just as all the Confederate statues erected in the early 20th century were to keep Blacks in their place.
Same with abolishing DEI or ending PEPFAR. Who cares if millions of Africans die of HIV? Certainly not this brand of Christians now in power. Deporting as many brown people as possible is in vogue. As Trump told a gathering of millionaires last year, “Why can’t we allow people to come in from nice countries, Denmark, Switzerland? Do we have any people coming in from Denmark? How about Switzerland? How about Norway?” Nice countries are White countries.
Danes are likely on Trump’s enemies list now because they won’t let him grab Greenland the way McKinley grabbed Guam, Puerto Rico, and the Philippines with his fake Spanish American War. “Remember the Maine!”
McKinley’s pro-business, tariff and imperialist policies certainly burst America onto the world stage, but the legacy costs were enormous.
And here’s another McKinley horror that is rarely mentioned. Loyal listeners of my radio show will remember our discussions about the Wilmington Insurrection of 1898. Wilmington, NC, then the most populous city in the state, had a burgeoning Black middle class. When a biracial, fusion city government was elected in 1898, a mob of White supremacists set fire to Black businesses and the city’s newspaper office, murdered Black citizens at will (up to 300 by some counts) and drove thousands of others out of town. It was a violent coup d’etat. Citizens appealed to President McKinley to help stop the massacre and, later, to help what was left of the Black community rebuild. There was no response.
William McKinley is Trump’s new favorite president. And it’s easy to see why.