“Embarrassingly Naive”: I Expected America To Stand Up For Democracy

By John Harwood Photos: YouTube Screenshots\Wikimedia Commons I expected America to stand up and assert itself on Election Day. And it did, loudly and clearly. It just wasn’t the America I held in my mind’s eye. Voters handed the White House back to a leader devoid of virtue – a deranged, lawless con man who triumphed with a venomous campaign of lies, bigotry, and cruelty. Instead of hiding his darkest qualities, Donald Trump emphasized them.& A majority of the electorate responded, “Yes, please.” And they empowered him with a Congress that, barring a surprise flip of the House once ballot counting concludes, will have neither inclination nor incentive to restrain him anytime soon. That means a free hand for Trump to begin rounding up millions of immigrants, placing them in camps, and then deporting them. A free hand to impose sweeping tariffs that would jump-start inflation once again. If implemented, both would have ruinous effects on the economy of the United States and the world. It means a free hand to seize control of the federal bureaucracy and turn it into his personal instrument for self-enrichment and revenge upon his enemies in the realms of politics, journalism, and business. A...