Dear World: I'm Sorry

Dear World: I’m Sorry

I did not vote for Donald Trump for President of the United States. A majority of the voters in the 2016 American presidential election did not vote for Donald Trump for President of the United States. Nonetheless, he became President of the United States. He became president because of the arcane workings of our Electoral College, in which small, conservative states have disproportionate power. His election was, sadly, legal under our system, as badly as that system needs to be brought up to contemporary standards of fairness. Only something a bit less than forty percent of Americans approve of the job Trump is doing as president. That as many Americans approve of him as do is itself a sorry commentary on the state of the American soul and is itself worthy of serious contemplation. Perhaps I will undertake that contemplation at another time. Today I just want to say to the world: I’m sorry. The election of Donald Trump as President of the United States was not my doing, but it was my country’s doing. We made a man president who not only has not one single qualification for being president but who is emotionally unstable and who as president is doing immense damage to our nation and to you, the people of the rest of the world. Trump pulled the US out of the Paris climate accords. He pulled the US out of the Iranian nuclear deal. He pulled us out of the Trans Pacific Partnership. His administration is doing everything it can to speed up the destruction of the earth through our human greed and indifference toward future generations. He has made the warmonger John Bolton his National Security Advisor, and I fear that a war with Iran for the benefit of Israel may be the result. He and his people disparage immigrants, never mind that this country was built by immigrants. He calls white supremacists decent people. He mocks people with disabilities. He is a racist, a misogynist, and a homophobe. He represents all of the worst angels and instincts of the dominant American culture. His throwback ideology of “America First” tells the rest of the world we don’t give a damn about your wellbeing, your job is only to make things better for us. Donald Trump is a disgrace to my country. He is an American fascist, as I wrote in an earlier post on this blog. He is personally immoral and politically destructive. He is easily the worst president in American history, and we are probably stuck with him until January, 2021, at least.

So dear world, I’m sorry. I wish I could tell you that Trump is not as bad as you think he is, but if anything he is worse than any of us think he is. You cannot expect anything constructive out of us as long as he is president. If there is to be any peace in the world, you’ll have to bring it about. As long as Trump is president we won’t. If there is to be care for the earth, you’ll have to exercise it. As long as Trump is president we won’t. If there is to be care for the poor of the world, you’ll have to provide it. As long as Trump is president we won’t. Perhaps in the past some of you looked to us for leadership in the world. Perhaps you saw us as a power that at least sometimes worked for peace and for the wellbeing of the world’s people. You can look to us for that leadership no more. As long as Trump is president we won’t provide it. You can look at us as a power that sometimes works for peace and for the wellbeing of the world’s people no more. As long as Trump is president we won’t provide leadership and we won’t work for the wellbeing of the world’s people. And for that I apologize.

Oh how I wish it were not so. I long for the days when my country was at least respectable in the world. For the days when many people of the world saw us as a beacon of liberty and opportunity. We never were the land of liberty and opportunity in the way many of you saw us, but we were that to at least some extent. We are that no longer. We are led by a fascist president and his toadies in Congress. Nearly half of our people constitute an ignorant, bigoted rooting section for Trump’s American fascism. The only hope I can retain comes from the knowledge that in November, 2018, we may be able to clip Trump’s wings a bit by giving the Democrats a majority in at least one of the two houses of Congress and that in 2020 we can end the nightmare by voting Trump out of office. Yet I must say to you that if we Americans fail to do those two things please turn your backs on us. We won’t deserve to regain your respect or your support. Those of us Americans who react to Trump with despair and disgust will have to look to you for the maintenance of decent human values in the world. We may have to look to you for a place to live that doesn’t destroy our souls the way Trumpism destroys souls.

So please accept my apology for what my country has done and is doing. I didn’t elect Trump. Most of us didn’t elect Trump and don’t support him. But there he is in all his ugliness. For that I am so very sorry. Please forgive us.