David Cay Johnston - It’s Even Worse Than You Think: What the Trump Administration Is Doing to America

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For the late, great Wayne Barrett, who blazed the trail on Trump reporting

A single factor defines Donald Trumps presidency, making it unlike the forty-four administrations before. Be they great, middling, or corrupt, the presidents past all shared a trait missing in the Trump presidency.

In 1789, when America began its experiment in the then radical idea of self-government, George Washington set a tone that he hoped would endure among all those who in the future would be temporarily imbued with the powers of the presidency, avoiding any hint of the debauchery and high-handedness of European monarchs whose claim of a God-given right to reign was challenged by the new nation. When Washington desired a piece of land the nascent federal government owned, he did what everyone else who wanted that real estate did. Washington submitted a bid, the winning one, as it turned out.

Thomas Jefferson, who in the Declaration of Independence gave us the lofty ideal that all men are created equal even as he owned slaves to the end of his life, pointed the nation west toward its manifest destiny with the Louisiana Purchase and applied the principles of scientific thought as he strived for the best policies to benefit the nation and its people.

Abraham Lincoln freed the slaves, whom the Confederacy leaders declared that the Christian God commanded them to own, before the shock of his assassination bequeathed us three amendments expanding our Constitutional rights to all.

Theodore Roosevelt, in a time of concentrated wealth the world had never seen amid desperate want, railed against the rich not for having money, but for abusing their fortunate status. He used government to rein in the worst impulses of the malefactors of wealth.

Franklin D. Roosevelt overcame the handicap of a patrician upbringing to recognize the need to recover from the nations worst economic crisis with lasting economic reforms before preparing the people to prosecute a war against the murderous Nazi racists and their allies.

Dwight Eisenhower saw a nation pregnant with economic opportunity and gave it stretch marks in the 55,000 miles of Interstate highways while sending in the 101st Airborne Division to protect the first African American children going to Little Rocks Central High School.

John F. Kennedy implored us to ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country and set us on a trajectory toward the moon.

Lyndon Johnson overcame the racist environment of his youth to marshal votes for the Civil Rights Act, the Voting Rights Act, as well as Medicare so that the disabled and elderly would not suffer needlessly and die early, even as he lost his way in Vietnam.

Richard Nixon signed the Clean Air and Clean Water Acts, created the Environmental Protection Agency, and came out for national health care even as his many crimes enveloped him, until at long last he showed his patriotic respect for our Constitution by resigning.

Ronald Reagan, certain that the New Deal was holding back a richer future, persuaded the nation for better or worse to move in a new direction that, while Reagan could not have anticipated this, set us on the path to the Trump presidency.

Even the worst of the presidents shared one common trait vital to democracy that is missing from the Trump administration.

Chester Arthur came from New York political corruption, but when the assassination of James Garfield elevated Arthur to president, he told his cronies never to darken the White House door. Unwilling to sully the office he unexpectedly occupied, Arthur began professionalizing the federal workforce, reducing patronage by persuading Congress to enact the Pendleton Civil Service Reform Act.

Warren G. Harding is remembered for the Teapot Dome scandal that benefited his crooked friends in business, but he also promoted nascent enterprises that would increase national wealth and opportunity, including aviation, cars and paved roads for them to drive on, and radio broadcasting.

John Adams came closest to Trump (and Nixon) with the four Alien and Sedition Acts that restricted immigration and gave him a path to prosecute political enemiesas Trump says he wants to do. One of those four laws remained on the books long enough to give legal cover to the internment of Japanese Americans in 1942. Still, the Adams administration was free of scandal, managed government finances prudently, and launched the modern Navy.

What distinguishes these American presidents from Trump? Some did great deeds and inspired great ambitions among the people, while others got lost in the small stuff. Some were reformers, others determined guardians of the status quo. Some spoke eloquently, lending grace to civic debate, while others were coarse, even verbal clods. Some, like Barack Obama, were personally scrupulous, their administrations free of scandal, while others, like Bill Clinton, couldnt control their impulses.

What they had in common was that their administrations were about America and its people. Some presidents made America great, while others tried and missed the mark. Some took great political risks to move the country forward, as when Lyndon Johnson could not abide the oppression of fellow citizens a century after the Civil War just because of the color of their skin. Johnson knew his actions would cost Democrats the South for generations, but did what he thought was in the nations best interests even if it would harm his party.

We can look back at these presidents and applaud or be appalled by their conduct. But we must always take care to judge them by the standards of their day, not by conditions today. Viewed properly in the context of their times, the last forty-four presidents all pursued policies that they believed would make for a better America tomorrow.

The Trump presidency is about Trump. Period. Full stop.

He says so himself all the time, but because he mixes it in with lines about how he loves everyone and what a terrific job he will do, millions of Americans believe he is at one with them even though he is not even at one with himself. But listen skeptically and carefully and it becomes clear that Trump boasts that his term in office is all about him, about how great he is, about how large the crowds are, about his negotiating skills, about his authority to start a nuclear war, as he pledged on the campaign trail that he would. Trump is desperate for others to fill the void inside himself. He has a sad need for attention and, preferably, public adoration.

There is so much work to do as president that lack of sleep and quick aging have become hallmarks of the presidency. Trump is not one to stay up past midnight reading policy memos and calling on the vast array of government experts to ask their help in understanding difficult issues of economics, geopolitics, science, trade, or anything else. Instead the White House staff has confirmed that he spends hours each day in front of a television, the remote control flicking from one channel to another so Trump can see the latest news about himself. When he doesnt like what he sees, he sends out nastygram tweets, often in the wee hours before dawn.