“Trump significará el fin de la democracia en los EEUU”. Columna de opinión en Newsweek Argentina. 16/7/2024 (w/English translation)
English Translation:
Trump will mean the end of democracy in the United States
By Lana Montalban
This Monday, July 15, amid applause and shouts of jubilation, the Republican Party officially chose Donald J. Trump as the party’s candidate for president.
Although for decades -as a journalist- I maintained a neutral position regarding my political tendencies, my participation on social media helped relax my stance, and given that I am not employed by any corporation that requires it, I have made known my aversion and contempt for Donald Trump.
That said, I am relieved (*) that Thomas Matthew Crooks, that 20-year-old young man with good aim and a lethal weapon, did not manage to assassinate the former president. It could have turned into a civil war. Many of his fanatical followers possess weapons, have violent tendencies, belong to groups considered dangerous armed militias, with open support for Nazis and white supremacists, and are great believers in conspiracy theories of all kinds. (*) TODAY, I believe it was a staged atempt against Trump’s life. The real victims were sacrificial lambs)
Those shots that unfortunately killed a firefighter, a family man who died protecting his own, and seriously injured other people, could have been the spark that ignited a stick of dynamite that was ready to explode into the air.
Since the beginning of his political career, the leader of MAGA has done nothing but add fuel to the fire, creating divisions of class, race, nationality, sexual and religious orientation. He has been known for decades as someone who owned rental properties in his native New York and had the hidden rule of not renting to African Americans. He was even taken to court for it.
His mechanism of fraud with his suppliers is well known. Once his buildings, hotels or golf courses are finished, instead of paying the agreed amount he owes those companies that worked for him, he would come up with excuses accusing them of “not doing the job well,” while his enormous and powerful team of lawyers immediately threatened them with a lawsuit. Not having the resources to face it, almost all of the small companies accepted the terms of the criminal who reached the White House having lost the popular vote, and ended up sometimes collecting only 50% of what was originally agreed.
When he spoke about Mexican immigration, he said “they don’t send us their best; they are rapists and criminals.” And let’s not even begin with his hundreds of derogatory comments about women in general and some in particular. Nor should we forget when he called majority-black countries “shit holes” .
He was a Democrat before conveniently switching to the other side, he defended abortion, and he was more libertarian than anyone. Now he says he is the most conservative of all. We Argentinians know many politicians who, like him, have changed tendencies and parties several times, not out of principles, but because it is what suits them.
He speaks about God to his evangelical fans, but when asked, he has never been able to cite even a single verse from the Bible. It is not strange coming from a man who has publicly and proudly said that he has never read a book (except those he paid to have written with his name as author). He has not read any book, not even the Bible that says “to love.”
Apparently, to the religious people who follow him it does not bother them that he has broken all the commandments: he stole; he was unfaithful to all his wives multiple times; he was accused of raping more than 20 women including a minor; his only God is money; his ignorance and his handling of Covid caused more than a million deaths; he has given an infinite number of false testimonies; and he cannot stop lying. He takes all the money he can from his followers with different excuses, such as his legal defense, for his campaign, etc., but those millions go directly into his personal pocket, pay for his plane and his exorbitant expenses.
During his government the whole world mocked the United States. His best friends were the dictators Kim Jong Un, Putin, Erdogan, Orban. All the leaders of the civilized world scratched their heads, incredulous, at his presence: from Merkel to the embarrassment he made during his visit to Queen Elizabeth. We were the laughingstock of the planet.
Trump wants to eliminate women’s rights, those of LGBTQ people, remove all kinds of social assistance. He has done everything possible to make access to voting more difficult for those citizens who do not vote for him. He lowered taxes for millionaires and corporations. Those who adore him like an emperor say that “he did not start any war.” When Putin invaded Ukraine it was not a decision of the United States. Nor was the bloody attack by Hamas on Israel that led to the current war.
Even so, millions of Americans are eager to elect him president in November. For those of us who live in this great country and did not fall victim to the “Trump spell” that does not allow one to see reality, what we are seeing is a nightmare of biblical proportions.
As a good malignant narcissist, he has no filter nor feelings that are not revenge, contempt and mockery. He has not hidden his intentions in case he is elected. He said out loud and without blushing that he “wanted to be a dictator from day one.” That “the Department of Justice would be an instrument to take revenge on those who harmed him.” That if he reaches the presidency “he would send his political opponents to prison.” The list of brutalities that he announced and that together with his political accomplices he will put into operation from moment zero is too long to enumerate.
Like a king, he demands complete and total loyalty. He is the first president in the history of the country to be convicted of criminal charges.
What many people who do not know him deeply believe is that he has good intentions, that he cares about others. It is not so. He only thinks of himself. That is how he has been his entire life: a rich and capricious, insecure child, who could never satisfy his parents.
His own sister, the federal judge Maryanne Trump Barry, said of him:
- “He has no principles and cannot be trusted. He changes his stories constantly, he has no kind of preparation.”
- “The lies!, tremendous.”
- “He does not read.”
- “He is cruel.”
- “He is an ill-mannered spoiled brat.”
- “He cannot be trusted.”
- “All he cares about is himself. During our father’s funeral he was the only one who did not speak about dad but about himself.”
He does not believe in democracy, that is why he admires dictators so much. Unfortunately, this attack will renew in the sect that follows him with adoration, the mistaken feeling that this criminal is God’s envoy and that he was saved by divine intervention.
The great American experiment will come to an end if Donald J. Trump becomes president again. It is not an exaggeration. It is the sad reality.
On the other side, that of the Democrats (and please understand that the name “Republican” does not mean that they believe in “The Republic”), we have a man who has achieved a series of very impressive improvements (**), who has dedicated his entire life to serving, who is a good man and has demonstrated it on repeated occasions, but who is too old for a job like the presidency of the most powerful country on the planet. Poorly advised by his family and his closest circle, he does not admit changes.
In a country with more than 341 million inhabitants there must be someone capable of a replacement for the elderly Biden. In reality, if we are going to be honest, both candidates are too old and both have shown on repeated occasions signs of cognitive problems. Trump confused Kamala Harris with Nancy Pelosi, mixes up the names of countries, leaders, invents words and has said many incoherences an uncountable number of times.
But having established that neither of the two candidates is ideal, we are talking about one who will eliminate democracy versus one who will die defending it.
That is why I joke that, if those are the only two options in the presidential election, if we have reached this surreal moment in the modern history of the great country of the north, I will vote for Biden even if he were in a state of coma. Because those who surround Biden, for the most part, have values and will defend the rule of law and democracy. In the case of Trump, I can affirm that it will be the opposite. It will be the end of this country as we know it.
(**) Among many others: reduction of inflation, science and technology law, improvements for war veterans, first gun safety legislation in decades, death of the leader of Al Qaeda, historic job growth, expansion of the NATO alliance, Rescue Plan for jobs, achieved the unity of US allies to offer support to Ukraine, the largest investment in infrastructure in generations, protection of reproductive rights, relaxation of laws against marijuana, policies in favor of the environment, exponentially increased the number of people with health insurance, etc.
