Evil does not just happen. It has a cause (and it is not Satan). The cause is human action and occasionally mental illness. I dismiss mental illness here because of its limited impact.
The evil I want to discuss is the creeping evil that starts relatively small, then grows as it is nurtured. Spouse abusers don't start their relationship by one partner beating up the other. If so, the relationship, unless it is a forced marriage, would stop right there. The future abuser begins with charm, laughter, joking, to entice the victim into complacency. If the future abuser slips and commits some violence, there is always a quick apology and promise it won't happen again. Over time the future abuser divides the spouse from family and friends, isolates the partner, and increases the violence/abuse.
I suggest, as others probably have, the Trump administration is like the spouse abuser, but on a larger scale. Mr. Trump started out as a barely functioning real estate guy. He had lots of money from Dad and a big mouth. He associated with high-profile people and made sure he stayed in the public eye, a kind of fun guy.
Some people around him saw that Mr. Trump liked power, obtained with as little effort as possible. He published a book that he didn't write. The book, for some who wanted to make a name for themselves in business, won fans to this deal-making genius. Mr. Trump went through bankruptcy numerous times (some say 4, others say 6), and each time he came out losing very little. Everyone else involved took the hit. The explanation, "It wasn't my fault and I'm only using the tools the Government permits." His reputation didn't suffer with anyone who mattered. The abused were powerless to do anything.
Mr. Trump was given a reality show where he strutted around, yelling "You're fired!" no more was necessary, and won a whole new fan base. He had little to do with the show except come in at the end and look like a CEO. As always, other people did all the work while his name kept getting bigger. Who cares about the "fired" ones. It was all about Mr. Trump.
Mr. Trump had his eye on politics for a long time. He shaped his "beliefs" to what he thought potential supporters believed. He realized his best chance for any kind of success would be among conservatives, although it is not clear that he was particularly conservative. To get onto the political map, during President Obama's administration, Mr. Trump's was the voice in the background trying to undermine policies. He made outrageous claims like that Mr. Obama was not born in the United States, and that Mr. Obama was a Muslim, (he isn't, but who cares if he were). Both were carefully designed to show Mr. Obama was not a legitimate president or even American, not like us. Mr. Trump's prestige grew.
The evil dripped slowly, albeit loudly; it was spreading into the national discourse. The whole thing might have been stopped then if the media had unanimously agreed not to cover ANY birther BS, but instead, they amplified it. That is exactly what Mr. Trump needed to launch his presidential bid.
Mr. Trump had no political experience whatsoever, but claimed he was an amazing businessman, a lie, of course, but his fans didn't care. They were getting used to his lies and even reveled in them. As his campaign progressed, Mr. Trump used the co-opted the media, all of it. it didn't matter what he said or did not say. the media was on board. And, if they wrote or said anything that did not speak of Mr. Trump in the most glowing terms, he called them fake or claimed the "election is rigged."
Mr. Trump surrounded himself with people who knew how to make use of his name recognition and media attention. every word Mr. Trump said was recorded and shared. The media was by then afraid to use the word "lie." even though much of what Mr. Trump said was untrue. Hardly challenged, Mr. Trump's followers swallowed the lies as facts. This too was planned by Mr. Trump's handlers. To them, Mr. Trump presented himself as a strong man who would cut through the crap in Washington and "drain the swamp." When asked to explain, he was vague and dismissive, knowing it was all just talk.
He bullied his way through the Republican primaries and debates. By this point, Mr. Trump was like a runaway freight train. His fans, people who think they like "strong" men set themselves on his path permitting no deviation. When interviewed (which was often), Mr. Trump's followers could only say. "He says what he thinks and he'll do what he promises." They could rarely identify which things they liked about his plan, probably because there was little substance to it.
Mr. Trump tried out his racist, sexist, homophobic, xenophobic statements on his campaign crowds to see which would work. If the crowd cheered, the comments stayed in, if not they were gone until they could be reworked to be more acceptable.
Mr. Trump tapped into America's deep racist streak. Some whites looked at the world and perhaps, for the first time, noticed that white is a minority (as is every other group). Mr. Trump spoke to their fears, telling them he would fix things for them since it was those people who were the source of all their righteous woes.
Evangelical Christians were co-opted too. As crazy as this sounds, it shows how easily evil can creep into communities where people might otherwise stand against it. Evangelicals perhaps thought of Mr. Trump as a work in progress. They excused him of everything they would never have permitted in a member of their community. They dismissed true people of faith as unworthy
So, Mr. Trump was elected with lots of help, small and large drops of evil that buoyed him up. He didn't win the popular vote (by nearly 3 million votes), but that was in some way a boon for him too. He could use that to distract the country from the small evils he would perpetrate. The Russia investigation, a feud with the FBI, nomination of incompetent, inappropriate, often evil people for all positions in the government would hide the actual dismantling of the government and the programs that supported the American people.
Mr. Trump, by the second year of his term, had pulled in the majority of the Republican leadership. They too have capitulated, gradually, but inexorably. Nearly anything Mr. Trump wants, they will agree to with few exceptions, that is until now.
Immigration has been a point of contention for Mr. Trump and his followers for years. He began his campaign by accusing Mexicans who come here of being rapists. He has tried to ban Muslims and for no reason except that he can, he tried to stop the "Dreamer" program )DACA), only temporarily halted by the courts. He stepped up deportations, taking people who have families here to support, who have been here for decades and who have made positive impacts on their communities. He wants a ridiculous wall and kept claiming it would be higher and higher, as if that would stop desperate people.
In April, he started separating children as young as one year old from their parents at the southern border (as a deterrent), with no specific plans to reunite them. Children were sent to "baby jails" (now euphemistically called "Tender Age Shelters). They are cages where children are held without their parents. Mr. Trump hoped no one would notice, and at first few did. To date, nearly 25400 children have been separated and taken away. Mr. Trump makes a lot of claims about the children which sound a lot like the claims about Jewish children made by some Germans in the 1930s, like "they're an infection." Alas, for Mr. Trump and his evil team, people did take notice and actually stood up to stop it. Mr. Trump finally signed an executive order to stop stealing the children from their parents, but neglected to say how those already stolen would be reunited. The order allows establishment of family jails to take the place of the baby jails. Amazing! Beware, though, we will all pay for this in some way. The machine of evil is whirring on and it is guaranteed something currently off the radar will come to bite us or someone else while we are focused on this cruelty. A man like Mr. Trump who has lied and cheated his way into power will not stop just because he has been checked. Watch for it!
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