By Ron Cheong
News Americas, NEW YORK, NY, Mon. November 18, 2024: How could a notorious non-stop liar, self-absorbed narcissist, cheater, fraudster – who has been involved in more than 4,000 court cases, seditionist – resulting in people killed in the Capitol, traitor, convicted felon, fascist, anti-immigrant hypocrite – 2 out of 3 of his wives have been immigrants – to be elected President of the United States, the most powerful country in the world?
Does character matter anymore, or is the United States torn apart by blind tribal loyalties?
Minimum Non-Negotiable Ethical Standards – Underpins everything else
Let’s suspend for the moment the threat to democracy, the economy, abortion, gun control – actually. Let’s suspend for the moment all the debatable issues on which a candidate may or may not stand, and/or promise or not promise, communicate or not communicate.
In my mind, there is one essential non-negotiable quality that overshadows everything else – the character of the candidate. There must be a demonstrated level of ethical behavior. Truth is essential – where would we be without truth in this world?
In the recently concluded election, the evidence for evaluating this factor was far more abundant and available than in almost any decision we have ever had to make.
We are not talking about the various character flaws that each of us has. We are talking about the most scandalous behavior on display in public – the incessant lies, the attempted insurrection in what has been held up as a beacon of hope for the whole world to aspire to – the United States of America. Besides the big ones, there’s the harassment, the insults, the public mocking of a disabled journalist, the misappropriation of funds from his charity, the dubious insurance claims, the tax evasion, the 9 bankruptcies that left others holding the bag. Then there’s the small matter of him calling fallen veterans losers and scumbags and saying he’d like to see former Congresswoman Liz Cheney, a Republican and the daughter of a former vice president, in front of a nine-barrel gun and shot in the face.
Are these things completely acceptable or are they completely invisible to MAGA supporters? Has Trump divided America so deeply into a tribal mentality that MAGA supporters stand completely blindfolded, having surrendered any free will they may have had and replaced it with loyalty to him.
There must be a non-negotiable level of integrity and conduct for anyone seeking the highest job in the land. If he applied for a low-level government job, to be a police officer, even as a sanitation worker or server at McDonald’s, this resume would immediately disqualify him. But apparently that is not the case for him as an applicant for the US Presidency.
All of the above are familiar; anyone has access to it in this information age.
Maybe his MAGA supporters just don’t care? Are they numb to blindness? There was a time when America would have been horrified by this. President Richard Nixon was voted out of office by his own Republican party for much less. But it seems Trump not only attracts the worst around him, he compromises people to behave in ways you would never have imagined. Now for the most part – with a few exceptions – Republican House and Senate members mimic his behavior and obey every decree he issues.
Controversial cabinet picks – Hunters to be hunted
Trump had a sweeping victory in this election, taking the Presidency, the Senate and the House of Representatives. He made gains in the segment that, collectively, could be described as Latino, 18 to 29-year-old, less educated, lower-income, Catholic, who believed the economy was poor. This was helped by a 9 million lower Democratic voter turnout than in 2020.
And he wasted no time naming his cabinet picks. Elections that sent shockwaves across the country and around the world. He appointed Matt Gaetz, who had been investigated by the Department of Justice, Attorney General. Gaetz resigned almost immediately from Congress to thwart the impending release of the Ethics Committee’s report on him regarding human trafficking and sex with underage females. House Speaker Mike Johnson, a devout Christian, is also playing his part. Now he is contesting the release of the report.
Fox weekend commentator Pete Hegseth has been tapped for Secretary of Defense, a critical government agency for which he has absolutely no experience other than being a far-right commentator with total allegiance to Trump.
Anti-vaccine campaigner and misinformation spreader Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has been selected as Secretary of Health to the panic of the medical community; and Elon Musk has reportedly asked Trump to appoint his top SpaceX officials to oversee the departments, which awards billions of dollars in contracts to SpaceX.
Amid widespread shock over the appointments, senators, congressmen and other spokesmen from the Republican tribe are scrambling to defend them — their line: Trump has been given a sweeping mandate to “shake up” the system and clear the swamp, and that’s what he’s doing
To ensure those appointments stand, Trump is seeking to prevent the Senate from vetting his controversial picks for some of the most powerful positions in government. He is asking Senate Republican leaders to agree to allow recess appointments without vetting.
Things have gotten off to a rocky start and will only get worse, with Trump looking for revenge. Steve Bannon has gone so far as to issue a threat apparently aimed at Attorney General Merrick Garland, Special Counsel Jack Smith and New York Attorney General Letitia James that: the hunters will become the hunted.
Republican Tribalism – Democrats’ Independent Thought to Their Detriment
In closing, it must be said that while MAGA looks like a tribe, Democratic voters seem to be anything but. There has been no reliable data-driven analysis of the 9 million vote drop for Democrats from 2020, which would have surely put them back in the lead in this election. But if we assume that the election was completely free and fair and that any disenfranchisement did not have a major effect, then it would appear that these Democratic voters simply did not participate or check the top box in protest against some issues that they felt strongly about.
This display of independent thinking among Democrats bodes well for at least half the country. But there are times when you have to put aside individual issues for the sake of the greater good.
This was especially true of this existential election, with so much at stake. Four years is a long time and a lot of damage can be done. Trump had told his supporters that this is the last election they will have to vote in — whatever that means. Also, his cabinet announcements along with plans to purge top generals in the military, plans to replace professional staff in government agencies with Trump loyalists and the possibility that he may be able to appoint some younger justices to the Court High, should be viewed with great alarm. These have long-term consequences for the country.
Hopefully, when the next election comes around, the Democrats would have learned that at these critical points, every vote counts, and if there really was some sort of restraint on their votes, they’ve done themselves no favors. What they will get now is worse than anything voting for the Democratic nominee for President would have resulted in.
For Republican voters, hopefully as the pendulum swings back a bit and some come to realize that character matters, perhaps that should be the first hurdle a candidate must clear before being considered – nothing brings that point home more. clearly than the current situation.
