This week Trump claimed that Ukraine started the war. It was an outrageous statement – like blaming Poland for World War II – and extremely worrisome for Ukraine, and all of Europe.
But it was not surprising. Trump is a man who adores the big and powerful – whether they be countries or people – and he despises the small and vulnerable. This has been clear from his domestic policies – his heartlessness toward immigrants – and now it’s manifest in his foreign policy.
People don’t come here for politics (for the most part people don’t come here, period), but in observing our president’s actions I have moved from shock to revulsion. Not all USAID programs were worthwhile, but providing medicines in poorer countries is not only a humanitarian act, it’s one that builds good feeling for the United States around the world.
This week, Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. – a man with no scientific training, and some dangerously outlandish views – was confirmed as Secretary of Health and Human Services. In a similar disregard for qualifications, Trump put himself in charge of the Kennedy Center. Then he spoke with Putin – a dictator and war criminal who is personally responsible for the deaths of thousands – about the war in Ukraine, suggesting in his comments that ‘there are good people on both sides.’
A nation’s health, its culture, the stability of the world are all at risk because of a man who is in way over his head.
Yesterday we had lunch with friends who were down from Massachusetts. Like Hania, they left Poland in the early ’80s, and, like Hania, they are distraught at what is happening in their adopted home. They constitute a forgotten segment of the immigrant population: people who are not threatened with expulsion – they came legally and now have citizenship – but who find themselves living in a country very different from the one they moved to, a country they would probably not choose to immigrate to today.
Peggy Noonan’s pre-election column in the Wall Street Journal last weekend was defiantly optimistic. She despaired of the choice – finding fault with both candidates – but took solace from the fact that the nation’s institutions were strong and would survive whatever happened on Tuesday. As would our democracy, which she claimed was in extremely good health.
I wish I shared her optimism. For an effective democracy you need a well-educated citizenry, and our schools have been in decline for decades. A lot of the campaign speeches were about the supposed dangers of a porous border while nobody talked about the obvious damage to a society when it pays its teachers so poorly that few people want to – or can afford to – enter the profession.
Add to a failed education system a declining sense of community – which inevitably results in a rise in self-interest – and you have two essential ingredients for national decline.
I watched the debate last night while simultaneously reading comments on X. Invariably, liberals praised the moderators – David Muir and Linsey Davis – for doing an excellent job, while conservatives complained that they were clearly biased toward Trump and favoring Harris.
I saw the conservatives’ point. But I also wondered if bias toward Trump is really a bias or simply a healthy human response.
Yesterday I went to the frame shop to pick up a picture. A “NEVER SURRENDER” poster of Donald Trump lay on the counter, left by the previous customer.
“People are bringing Trump things in all the time,” the woman behind the counter said. “They ask if I can frame them, and I say, ‘Yes, but it will cost you double.’
“I’m just kidding,” she said.